Moving to London, looking for tips about location(3 boys, many "natural parenting" choices)

[vish]

Hello everybody (first post)

(I am a dude, I hope it is ok I am writing on a mothering forum, in my defense let me say that I know a good deal about births, theoretically and practically(my wife (btw, i notice DH is a reference to husband, should i be writing DW?) is a doula, and our third was born at home with only myself as the (non)assistant ) , (yes i am into computers as you could tell from the correctly nested parenthesis))

My wife and I , (and three boys 3,6,8) are moving to London (from Israel) following a job.

some stuff about us

We are looking for a place that would fit our lifestyle and budget.

We've got three boys so we need some space, (a 3 bed , preferably with a garden, and parks nearby)

We home/un school so we'd like someplace with a community of other home/un schoolers , just so once every while we could meet other families, and join some activity once every while.

on the same subject , a place where there is enough after school activity to sign up to for kids(martial arts/music/sports etc.)

We eat A LOT of fruit and vegetables so some place with markets (organic ?? )

(some weeks we consume ~50 KG of produce, did I say Vita-Mix ?)

I will be commuting daily to central London (Piccadilly Circus), so either within tube range or a good rail connection.

and budget,... well we were thinking of allocating ~1400 -1600 pounds (depending on how expensive the transportation will be to central London).

any advice ?

thanks

[Britishmum]

It's hard to say as London is such a huge place, and of course there are all the suburbs. But I lived in Camden for years and LOVED it. It comes with a downside - you have to be accustomed to the rough side of London life, but Camden is alternative, vibrant, and incredibly cool. The market is a hive of activity all weekend, and you can't get more alternative than the people at the market (or you couldn't 15 years ago, I've not been in a long time!) It's a very easy commute by tube into central London.

I have no idea about homeschooling there, I lived there pre-kid. Homeschooling is not such a popular choice in the UK, so you'd have to find some homeschoolers there to talk to about where to live. If you are within the central zone of London though, travel is very easy after the rush hour is over, so you could get to homeschool events/museums etc very easily.

There is a huge difference between different areas of London and the suburbs, so you might see Camden and want to run a mile, and see it as smelly, dirty, noisy etc. I loved the coolness of real engaged alternative people, and didn't view it that way. It really is a personal choice. ;)

HTH