Hi,I will start as a quantitative analyst at a bank in Canary Wharf in the near future. Does somebody have suggestions about nice places to live with a wife and small children? In particular: is Greenwich safe? Are the surrounding areas safe? I would really appreciate responses from people with kids.Best regards,

Greenwich is safe. Could you commute into London from outside? Bexley Heath, say.

These sites should help you ... http://www.greenwich.gov.ukhttp://www.c ... ics.org.uk No place on hearth is as safe as here ... Singapore

Greenwich is quite safe yes, you might also want to look at Blackheath.

QuoteOriginally posted by: AdamSmithDoes somebody have suggestions about nice places to live with a wife and small children? Sure! Wanna buy my house? I'll give you a good price, but just don't read the stuff on house price crash in the UK.

Will be joining a firm in Canary Wharf soon. My partner needs to commute to Birmingham for a couple of days a week so I am thinking of living somewhere in between Bham and London (Canary Wharf) so we both can commute a bit but still live together. Any suggestions?

Adam - we recently moved away from CW, but we found the local NCT groups to a be a mine of information (CW - Tower Hamlets NCT / Greenwich - Lewisham & Greenwich NCT)

Yes Greenwich is very safe indeed, we have police on every street corner, main street traffic lights are replaced by polite police.The commute to Canary Warf is not too bad if private jet, about 7 hours, perfect for weekend commute, and in weekdays I assume you will will work.

QuoteOriginally posted by: CollectorYes Greenwich is very safe indeed, we have police on every street corner, main street traffic lights are replaced by polite police.The commute to Canary Warf is not too bad if private jet, about 7 hours, perfect for weekend commute, and in weekdays I assume you will will work.Not sure but I think that's a different Greenwich.

I worked in CW a few years ago; we moved out when we had kids (we lived on the isle of dogs itself).Blackheath is probably you're best bet. The commute isn't as good as Greenwich, but its a much nicer area overall. If greenwich you need to be pretty careful, 75% of it is quite rough. If you're on a budget going slightly east to places like plumstead are okay. Again a couple of streets makes a lot of difference. Rent before buying (particularly with todays market). North of the river around Canary wharf is eithier areas like Wapping and isle of dogs with sterile flats good for young single people or very rough areas.However one major issue is schooling. In SE London the state schools are appalling so you have no choice but to go private. Private schooling is pretty expensive and oversubscribed. If you move out you can find fairly good state schools, particularly if you go a bit rural. Where we live in Essex there are grammar schools that are better than the private schools.You can get from nice parts of rural essex to CW in an hour door to door. Kent is further; most banker's favourite places like Surrey are even further.If you're minted you might consider nice parts of north london that are on the jubilee line, but these are much more expensive compared to Blackheath for about the same journey time.

State schools are very good in blackheath, which is why a 5 bedroom house went for 3.5 million pounds there last year...Greenwich is different.I commute daily from there on my scooter, and it is 15 mins in the morning, £2 a day to park, and 10 mins back at night.As to the question about living somewhere between birmingham and Canary Wharf, well, it just is not going to happen if you both work in full-time jobs. Look on www.transportdirect.info. On a good day, you will be doing the trip from one to the other in three hours. That is an hour and a half each, morning and night, assuming you live on the platform of a station midway where the express train stops.Does the guy who posted about the US greenwich realise it was named after ours? I think with the US audience, they shoudl stick "new" in front of a few more names to ease confusion.

QuoteDoes the guy who posted about the US greenwich realise it was named after ours? I think with the US audience, they shoudl stick "new" in front of a few more names to ease confusion.Or perhaps stick an "old" somewhere else -- I suppose the Collector was just joking.

“Or perhaps stick an "old" somewhere else -- I suppose the Collector was just joking.”No old-Greenwich is already taken, we have old-Greenwich in US next to Greenwich US.Greenwich england used to be called East Greenwich, they should go back to that to not cause confusion, or if they prefer Royal Greenwich that sounds better.

There are of course private schools which are less scary than the state ones near CW.One of my godchildren was in danger of attending one of them, vetoed by her father who said "I don't want my daughter growing up talking like a nigger".Both parents were of course black, but most schools near CW not only fail to get kids to talk any recognisable version of English, but even cause those like my GD to regress to a lower level than which they started at.They are also physically dangerous, with gun, drug and knife issues comparable to inner city US schools.There was a mild stink when the Labour Party education minister refused to let her child attend a school within sight of CW where there were too many moslems, she being of course a member of Opus Dei.