I lived in Shepherd's Bush all my life, before we moved to HOP 8 or so years ago. We found it when the Evening Standard were doing an areas for 1st time buyers to look at.

When we moved here it decision was primarily based on 1) price (we could get a house for the price of a 2 bed flat in ealing which we could not find anyway) - 2) Nice and green - we also have the fortune of backing onto a private residents park - 3) Safety - it feels much safer than S. Bush and the atmosphere just seems nicer.

Since we moved here, we've got married and started a family. The primary schools are all excellent and lots of other young families in the area. I'm not sure if the number of families have increased, or if I am now up when I use to be hungover in bed and now see them.

The Overground has made my journey to work (Shoreditch) extremely fast, and pleasant compared to some of the tube journeys we did from West London previously. It's also good to get into town generally and not too disastrous if you have to get a cab back.

I would like a closer cinema, and for my family who all still live in West London to be closer, but I don't think either of those will happen. There are indeed not a lot of shops in HOP, but I prefer it that way and it's not far to Lewisham or Bromley if you have a car. If you don't drive however I could see this being a bit more problematic possibly.

If money was unlimited we would no doubt consider moving back to West London for family reasons, but the only time I think we will realistically consider it is when we have to send the children to secondary school (not to say we will, but might do dependant on how they are at that time in 8 or so years).

If we'd not bought here when we did though I'm not sure we would move now - we love the area don't get me wrong but it has become pretty expensive - when we were looking you could get 3 bed houses under £250k - most now seem to start way above that. I know of quite a few people who need to get a bigger place who need to move out of HOP to do it due to the price of things now.