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How to find nice areas to move

Apart from Upmystreet do you know of anywhere else I can check out an area? I have a potential homeswap but they are in SE20 which is Penge. Maple rd. Does anyone know it? Someone told me it is the rough part of Penge.
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Comments

  • You could put the postcode into upmystreet.com which gives crime stats etc and you could also look at the images into google earth and see what the area looks like that way before you make the treck to go and look.
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  • Doozergirl
    Doozergirl Posts: 34,021 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I don't know the road inside out but I used to live on the High Street near to the church. I always thought that Penge was actually quite underrated by people, it's really well looked after by Bromley council; neat and tidy, we always had hanging baskets outside on the streetlamps, we had brand new pavements - it was fine. Maple Road is closed off at one point I'm sure because it has a street market which is also sometimes a French market. That's why I wouldn't have driven up there much. I used to go to the kebab shop on Maple Road. :rotfl: There was a really good chinese as well across the road on the High Street. The best one has gone though - I probably kept them in business.

    As you go to the Anerley side of it, Betts Park has itself a bit of a reputation, for what I'm not sure! You don't have the shops or the station nearby and the houses are certainly cheap in that area between Croydon Rd and Maple Road; we went to look at a flat there and the area was kind of run down. Penge isn't exactly expensive but I think as you get to the Croydon borders and South Norwood, there's not much around to lighten it.

    The nearer you are to the High Street the better it is, just because you're near to things. And Beckenham. The gym there was great; built with lottery funding but it was a municipal gym so cheap! I used to run there and back. Those were the days :o
    Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
  • Kimberley
    Kimberley Posts: 14,871 Forumite
    Doozergirl, the home I like is just by that road block where the market usually is where they close it off :D Upmystreet just described it as a low earner area with mostly single parent families are in council houses :o
  • Doozergirl
    Doozergirl Posts: 34,021 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    It's fine then. It's supposed to be a deprived area and it's true, it ain't Clapham but I never had a bad experience in Penge. My flat would have been about 300 yards from yours, by the little park.

    Like I said before when you were looking at Emers End, Beckenham is fab and we'd go there to restaurants and fancy shoe shops and then come home to our cheaper pad and our take aways in Penge! H would trundle DS up and down the high street on his Tweenies scooter and we'd go to the little park together as well as Crystal Palace park. And the restaurants in Crystal Palace are plentiful and I loved Joanna's (was thinking about there yesterday) - we'd walk home from there. Our flat was lovely with roses around the door and a huge garden which helped but I liked it there.

    DS was nearly three when we left - I felt quite safe there. Safer than other parts of London I've lived in, definitely.
    Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
  • Kimberley
    Kimberley Posts: 14,871 Forumite
    Doozergirl wrote: »
    It's fine then. It's supposed to be a deprived area and it's true, it ain't Clapham but I never had a bad experience in Penge. My flat would have been about 300 yards from yours, by the little park.

    Like I said before when you were looking at Emers End, Beckenham is fab and we'd go there to restaurants and fancy shoe shops and then come home to our cheaper pad and our take aways in Penge! H would trundle DS up and down the high street on his Tweenies scooter and we'd go to the little park together as well as Crystal Palace park. And the restaurants in Crystal Palace are plentiful and I loved Joanna's (was thinking about there yesterday) - we'd walk home from there. Our flat was lovely with roses around the door and a huge garden which helped but I liked it there.

    DS was nearly three when we left - I felt quite safe there. Safer than other parts of London I've lived in, definitely.

    The house is an old victorian one and has the bedroom and room space I now need. I need to find out what buses go straight to Bromley though for the kids college. Once I am driving then I wouldn't mind the area because I can drive straight to Bromley.

    Is the area safe for kids though?
  • Doozergirl
    Doozergirl Posts: 34,021 Forumite
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    edited 18 October 2009 at 6:19PM
    Like I said, DS was tiny when we were there; I never felt threatened. It's as safe as any part of London can be really.

    Bear in mind I live over 100 miles away now, partly for the reason of having somewhere nice to bring the kids up with a choice of schools and more house for the moeny, but I was as happy there as we could have been. We lived on the ground floor, on the high street and never experienced any trouble at all. Had friends round in Franklin Road and they were happy with their house too. I'd love to live that close to a market these days!

    It's the 227 that goes to Bromley from the High Street. It would stop right at the end of Maple Road.
    Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
  • Kimberley
    Kimberley Posts: 14,871 Forumite
    Thanks is it as nice as the Mottingham road area? I have another viewing in a road near Marvel woods SE9.
  • Doozergirl
    Doozergirl Posts: 34,021 Forumite
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    edited 18 October 2009 at 8:58PM
    I have no idea. My experience of Eltham is a big wide road with an awful lot of council houses off it :o I think that's the Rochester Way.

    My knowledge of London goes West from Penge
    Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
  • MrsE_2
    MrsE_2 Posts: 24,162 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Kimberley wrote: »
    Thanks is it as nice as the Mottingham road area? I have another viewing in a road near Marvel woods SE9.

    I'm from more central London but I would have thought Penge better than Mottingham, Eltham, Thamesmead, Abbey Wood way..............
  • davsidipp
    davsidipp Posts: 11,514 Forumite
    dont touch the mottingham road lots of crime from chavvie kids and not many good primary schools unless you try montbelle school of beanshaw.mostly council housing on the mottingham road some quite nice but you also have a big council estate over the road which is called the mottingham estate bad name which runs right through to marvels lane and beyond.friend lived on the mottingham road and was broken into numerous times.i dont know what price range you are looking at try around green lane or crouch croft some semis are 259000 which are on par with some ex local authority places.
    Before you point fingers,make sure your hands are clean !;)
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