Tip on safe areas and flatsharing in London

Hi all!

I just went though a lot of previews post before deciding to put something here. Though, I really need some input.

I'm moving to London the last week of January, jobless and with some saving. I have been looking through Gumtree but I think I am getting a bit info-overload about good and bad areas in London.

I have budget of 350 per month + bills
I am looking for a flat/house share and really not bother commuting (I have calculated in my budget a monthly travelcard covering zones 1 to 4).

I will be job hunting and in the meanwhile aiming to get a part time job in a pub, retailer shop, etc.

I would really appreciate if you could suggest me a safe area, that will allow me to work as a bartender and move around easily to any potential interviews in London. I really need to stick to the above budget or I will probably be empty pocket in a couple of months.

Oh, I'm in my late 20s and will like a quietish area, maybe some nice young professional neighbourhood?

Thanks!!

Hiya,

I don't know if I can recommend a specific neighbourhood, but just some general thoughts...

350 + bills seems pretty low for most of London (if you want a nice, quiet, safe neighbourhood). You would probably have to search mostly in zones 3 and 4. I know you say you don't mind the commute, but depending where you end up working it could be quite a slog. You might want to get a shorter lease while you're job hunting -- if you end up having to navigate between, say, far north and south london, that's hours a day.

A monthly tube pass is what, 140 pounds? It's worth thinking about trying to live closer in, paying more in rent but then just getting a bus pass, which is like 50 pounds. Especially because if you end up working pub shifts at night, you may not be able to take the tube home anyway.

You don't get tips in pubs here so you would be making basically minimum wage. You might want to wait tables instead, you don't get as much in tips as you would in the US but you would get something (and some free meals hopefully).

Sorry I don't have anything more specific! (The only cheap areas I know are probably not what you're looking for 

I'll be in a similar situation, pooky_girl, though my budget is about £800/mo including bills. I'm aiming to live in Zone 2, but does anyone have suggestions of places to shoot for/avoid within that (like PG, I would like someplace safe, quiet, ideally near to a park so I can walk my dog).

Any suggestions? Thanks!

(And good luck finding someplace, PG, I'm sorry I can't offer any suggestions myself.)

I used to live in East Finchley and loved it.  It's north London, Zone 3.  It has a real community feel to it and as the highroad is pretty small and no big chains, it doesn't seem to attract youths hanging around. To Pooky Girl - You might struggle to find a flat share for £350, but you might get lucky as there are some bits that are ex-coucil and just that little bit further from the tube station, so cheaper.  My only experience is the Northern line (high barnet branch) - I would avoid Archway and Tufnell park like the plague.  Otherwise, the areas around the stops on that line tend to have good points that outweigh the bad.  

Ouch, £350/month is going to be very very difficult to find anywhere in London.  I'd seriously re-think your budget and see if you can afford more rent.

Ouch, £350/month is going to be very very difficult to find anywhere in London.  I'd seriously re-think your budget and see if you can afford more rent.

Yeah, I only just managed to live in Bristol this year on £325/month (plus £100 bills) in a flat share - and that was extremely cheap for the area of the city I was living in. Bristol is a much smaller and cheaper city to live in than London (population 400,000 vs. 7.5 million in London). I was earning about £950/month after tax (earning about £1/hr above minimum wage and working 37.5 hrs a week) and that was just enough to live on in Bristol with rent, bills, council tax, food, car insurance and petrol. I don't think I would have been able to live in London on that salary - it would have been too expensive for me. If I did decide to live in London, I would probably be looking at budgeting around £600/month for rent.

I'm aiming to live in Zone 2, but does anyone have suggestions of places to shoot for/avoid within that (like PG, I would like someplace safe, quiet, ideally near to a park so I can walk my dog).

In North London you could look around Islington or Stoke Newington (Stokey in particular has loads of beautiful and historic green spaces), in south London you could try Clapham or Clapham Junction. For all of these, some areas will be busy and not as nice, but some areas are super quiet and have lovely old houses.

London is not so much a central core fading into suburbs, as it is a giant collection of little town clusters with their own centres and residential areas. So pretty much any area, there will be busy/dodgy parts and also really nice parts. (For example Archway -- I agree the centre is not very nice, but there are some really nice bits as you go east toward Crouch End.)

It's also worth thinking about Greenwich, which might be just into zone 3, but it's very convenient by train or DLR into central london (and extremely convenient if you end up working in Canary Wharf). Greenwich is beautiful, right on the river with lots of historic buildings and a great park. (Just be wary of anything advertised as West Greenwich -- that's usually really New Cross, which is pretty sucky.)

You probably want to avoid East London, it's very fun and lively but barely any green space.

Budget-wise, are you looking to get your own place? Because I'm not sure 800/month for everything would be enough for Zone 2. Minus bills that's really like 650/month for rent (council tax is a killer) which is 150/week. That's enough for a flatshare but I'm not sure it will even get you a studio in Zone 2 if you're set on a quiet, safe neighbourhood.

I also think you need to rethink the budget slightly. 

You wouldn't be able to get a flatshare in Cambridge for 350.00/mnth.  At least not one that wasn't completely disgusting. 

I paid around £350 to live in quite rural Egham, which is outside the London zones and my house (house share with 3 others) was NOT close to the train station.  So to think you'd get anything inside the London zones for that amount is unrealistic.  I'd say the only way you'd get anything would be for a ROOMshare (very popular among the antipodean crowd) in a Zone 3+ location.

Hmm, I think you might still be able to swing something in zone 3 or 4 for 350-400, but it would not be in a really nice area (and would be a really tiny room). You can still get cheaper rooms in Streatham, for example, but it's zone 3, not on the tube, and the high street is full of any shop you would need but sometimes a bit dodgy (the side streets can be really nice though). You can also still get some good deals in Whitechapel or Mile End or Bow but again, the OP would have to put up with a certain amount of city life. Hackney is still really cheap (I have a friend who pays 320 a month in a flatshare) but it sounds like it would probably be too dodgy.

If you really have to stick close to that budget, perhaps you could put up with a slightly less nice area at first while you're job hunting. Once you have a regular salary you'll know better what you can really afford as well as having a better sense of the city's areas.

<3 Streatham.  Just don't get knocked over by traffic on the High Road. 

Hmm, I think you might still be able to swing something in zone 3 or 4 for 350-400, but it would not be in a really nice area (and would be a really tiny room). You can still get cheaper rooms in Streatham, for example, but it's zone 3, not on the tube, and the high street is full of any shop you would need but sometimes a bit dodgy (the side streets can be really nice though). You can also still get some good deals in Whitechapel or Mile End or Bow but again, the OP would have to put up with a certain amount of city life. Hackney is still really cheap (I have a friend who pays 320 a month in a flatshare) but it sounds like it would probably be too dodgy.

If you really have to stick close to that budget, perhaps you could put up with a slightly less nice area at first while you're job hunting. Once you have a regular salary you'll know better what you can really afford as well as having a better sense of the city's areas.

Just to add some input, what everyone is saying that is it is not impossible to find a nice/decent place for 350 pm, but it can be difficult. I pay 300 pm and I live in zone two. I do live just a short walk to three stations, two high streets, and near a university. It can get dodgy here sometimes, but 95% of the time the streets are busy. I am a young woman so I have to be smart when I walk around in my area, anywhere really, but I am never scared. I live near Deptford high street, so I would suggest Greenwich. They have museums, a university, a lovely center and market, especially on Saturday. Right along the Thames, so you get a gorgeous view of Canary Wharf, the buildings, not the water

Budget-wise, are you looking to get your own place? Because I'm not sure 800/month for everything would be enough for Zone 2. Minus bills that's really like 650/month for rent (council tax is a killer) which is 150/week. That's enough for a flatshare but I'm not sure it will even get you a studio in Zone 2 if you're set on a quiet, safe neighbourhood.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm planning on a flatshare, unless I stumble across some amazing deal.

Thank you all for the suggestions!  

I want the place for an initial three months. I am hopeful to find a job in that time frame and move near work (and be able to share a flat with an ex-flatmate that is living in London).

I know it's a very low budget for London, but since I can't relay on the idea of finding a job soon, I need to be precocious and be prepared for the worse. That means looking after my savings like there is no tomorrow.

I can only spend 350 per month in rent + bills, but nothing beyond that or I will have to find a proper job in less then 2 months. Which I think is a bit unrealistic on how things are at the moment (job market). The travelcard is about 141 per month, so yes, I do agree is expensive to commute. I used to live in Leeds... I really wish I could go back, but career-wise, is better to start jobhunting in London.

I have found that couples, or single moms advertise cheap rooms in gumtree. I really don't mind both, so might give it a try (they are mostly in zones 3 & 4). Roomsharing, is a no-no, the last time I had to share a room I was 5 years old!!! (been living by own for 11 years).

Oh well, guess I will have to forget about nice areas for now and star focussing on not so doggy ones  

Man... I am getting the big blues!

Tell you what, if you find a place come and ask us and we can offer our opinions or experiences of that area. I'm in London, so just pm me.