Which part of London should I move to with my children I need somewhere relatively safe?

Question

so far I have been offered a home swap to whetstone near finchley, islington, hammersmith and haringey and since Im scottish I dont have a clue which area to choose! If anyone can guide me to good bad areas and whats in them that would be great I need somewhere Im going to feel safe with my children and somewhere we can go out in and not be stuck in a house or flat with fear to go out we all like lively places too so any help will be much appreciated!!!

Answer 1

I Doubt there Is Such A Place as Safe,in this Day and age. However,Do Your Homework,on the Net: Research Different Areas You Are Offered.

Visit If You can, Have A Good Look and take Notes.

Find Out About The Local Schools,you can learn a lot about an Area,by The Schools.

I Myself Lived In Edmonton,London which to some is considered a low Area of London,but I Have Never Been As Happy as When I Was There!

Answer 2

Im afraid London isnt the ideal place to relocate to.  Most big cities have an element of danger , does it have to be London couldnt you go to Surrey ,Kent , Essex or Sussex they are much nicer places to bring children up and you have country side or seaside.

Answer 3

the first thing you've got to do is check the local schools ... I'm not an expert these days (my kids are grown up now) but my thoughts are

whetstone - fairly posh, local schools ought to be OK, quite a long way out from central London (depending on where you're working it could be a long journey), should be fairly middle class area, probably reasonably safe

islington - much closer to central London, very lively area (especially around The Angel which buzzes on weekend evenings), quite mixed with housing estates next door to very posh, much denser population, some green areas but not a lot, there's some good primary schools but secondary schools can be a problem, a fair number of parents try to opt for out-borough secondary, safety is an issue and the kids would need to be streetwise (e.g. the stabbing of that Kinsella lad a few days ago was in Islington)

hammersmith - sorry, I don't know that area

haringey - depends on whether it's the west or east of the borough, the railway line that runs down the middle of the borough cuts it in half, the west side tends to be fairly middle class and the east much more working class, social housing tends to be in the east and the west doesn't have that much, the better secondary schools in the borough are in the west and in the morning the buses are full of school kids coming over from the other end of the borough, my kids grew up in west haringey (not without problems but not mega dangerous) and I wouldn't have let them over to Tottenham unescorted until they were a lot older (by which time they were sensible enough not to want to go anyway), the west of the borough has loads of green open spaces, everything from ancient woodland to local parks

if you let me know whereabouts in Haringey or Islington I could give you better info