We were on the way home to NW11 after spending the weekend in HA8 with our son, daughter-in-law and two adorable grandsons, when the thought first came to us: why don’t we just move to Edgware?

My parents settled in Golders Green in 1977, when I was three, and apart from a gap year in Israel and a short stint renting in NW4 after we got married in the mid-Nineties, there I remained for the next 45 years.

In the beginning, many of our newly married friends also lived in Golders Green and it was nice getting together for Shabbat meals and dinner parties. But then, couple by couple, they left, in most cases for Edgware where they could get a foot on the housing ladder.

But not us. We remained in the cholent pot that is Golders Green. I sent my kids to my old primary school, we joined the synagogue in which I had grown up, and my parents, grandmother and Kosher Kingdom were around the corner.

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Golders Green (Photo: Getty)

In short, everything I felt I needed in life was on my doorstep. If small boys on electric scooters, and the occasional visiting Chasidic Rebbe hosting loud gatherings, were also on said doorstep, so be it.

But as was the case for so many people, Covid changed things for us. By the time we emerged blinking from the pandemic, we had left our shul (let’s just say our interpretation of lockdown differed from theirs) and we had pretty much missed out on the formative years of our younger grandson’s life. It felt like the right time to shake things up.

The ditherer in our marriage suggested contacting an estate agent “in a few weeks or so”, but I leapt into action. Within a fortnight there was a for-sale sign outside our house, and within a month it had been replaced with one saying sold.

Then, by a stroke of serendipity, we fell in love with the very first house we viewed. This was partly because the cute little cul-de-sac where it is located reminds me of Ramsay Street in
Neighbours and partly because its layout meant we could both have a home office. But it was also down to the quiet pavement outside our front door: no Rebbes or small marauding boys.

Fast-forward a year, and we couldn’t be happier. We have reconnected with our friends who migrated here two decades ago, and our grandchildren are now round the corner. Family meals happen without the stress of having to pack everything up and stuff it into the car.

On the downside, the kosher restaurants of Edgware don’t open until 10am and the bakery closes at 7pm, not midnight. But these are small inconveniences.

So, if you’re also thinking about moving home this year, may we recommend HA8, where the streets flow with kosher milk and honey (between 10am and 7pm). Just don’t bring your e-scooter, please.