Venner Road area - Bromley vs Lewisham

[Suzee]

Our search is on for a family house in Sydenham or close by and we have our eye on some in the Venner/Byne/Wiverton/Tredown Road area. Have noticed that some of these roads fall into Bromley Borough so my question is (particularly if you live in any of these Sydenham roads that are actually in Bromley) are there any advantages or disadvantages to being in Bromley rather than Lewisham borough?
From first glance council tax seems similar. And I believe you can apply for schools in either borough (though am concerned about the lack of primaries around here, as has been discussed on this forum) but can you be forced to accept a Bromley (i.e. Penge school)?
Also if you live in this area, do you like it? Are there many families living here? Have noticed many of the houses converted into flats.
Do you use Alexandra Rec?
Do you still consider yourself to live in Sydenham?

Many thanks!

[Rachael]

When it comes to schools, you can apply to any school in any borough. You can't be 'forced' to take one in one borough or another. However, it is the responsibility of the borough you live in to provide your child with a place at school, so if you don't get any of the schools of your choice, you will be offered something, almost certainly in that borough. If you don't take that place and have no place at any other state school, I suppose you would be 'forced' to take that place - or go private, or home school.

[diskocheddar]

Hello

We are a young family living in Byne Road. There are loads of other families living here too.

Our kids go to St. Johns in Penge which is a great school. It is a faith school, linked to St John's Church in Penge. There are other good ones round such as Alexandra. Although we're in Lewisham, the kids were offered a place in St Johns which is in Bromley.

There are pros & cons to living in either Lewisham or Bromley so it really doesn't matter which one you live in. I think Bromley council tax is slightly cheaper though.

We use Alexandra Park all the time. They keep adding new apparatus so it's well looked after.

There are quite a few parks to choose from in the area if you get bored - like Crystal Palace. Sometimes we go to Brockwell Park which is 10 minutes on the train to Herne Hill.

Hope this helps

[Rachael]

If you don't mind a short drive (five to to minutes max), the parks in and around Beckenham are also great for young children. Playgrounds, lakes, paddling pools, nature trails, woods...

[poppy]

Hi Suzee

What I love about living close to Alexandra Rec is it is often buzzing with activity. Dog walkers, football matches, people cycling through with children or walking through on their way to and from work and school or just sitting on a bench watching the world go by...

I have also seen people doing yoga there and personal training.

I feel very lucky to live so close to something which seems to give the local community so much simple pleasure.

[Dotkin]

Hi you may also like to know that Alex Rec along with Cator Park has an active Friend's group (the Friends of Cator Park and Alexandra Rec) - we organise various events in Alex Rec - for example in june there is a bat walk in Cator Park, in July we're hoping to stage a music in the park event - with tea and cakes! At Christmas we always have a carol singing in the park which the Crystal Palace brass band b section usually play at. We have also organised a lot of plant and bulb planting in both parks and have campaigned for extra benches, trees and more. For the children it's a fantastic little park with some nice play equipment and even a paddling pool! It's a great asset to the area!

If you are interested in becoming a Friend and support a local park please email us friend.cator-and-alexandra@live.co.uk. We have a newsletter coming out soon but there are also notice boards in the parks that let you know what's coming up.

By the way if anyone knows any musicians that may like to do a short set for our music event please pm me!