Norbury - worth buying in?

UpwardlyMobile

Hi all,
We *really* need advice as we are looking to buy a house in South West London and don't know anyone who could give us objective opinions. We have found a few good options in Norbury, on the RIGHT (East) side of the Streatham High Road. (This seems important, as the neighbourhood to the left of the High Rd seems a little rougher around the edges than this side).

We need a 3+ bedroom house in the 350-450k range and have seen a few that are close to the Norbury station, on and around the main Green Lane road. While the houses are all nice enough, we are really unsure about the neighbourhood - the SW16 postcode is so large that upmystreet, zoopla, mouseprice etc all give very general advice.

Can anyone on this forum help with more specific feedback on this rather small part of the SW16 Norbury area? If it helps 'fit' us better, we are in our mid-thirties looking for a place that is family friendly, quiet and respectable... NOT young, hip, edgy etc. (We'd rather be in a dull but safe place!) We are both working professionals and since we'd do most of our socialising around central London, we just need a place that is convenient to commute in to the city, and safe to come home to even late at night.

Please can you tell us if Norbury is the right/wrong place for this? Feedback from Norbury residents is particularly welcome.

Thanks!!

ILW

It is dead centre between Brixton and Croydon.

UpwardlyMobile

But is it the 'pocket of nice' that separates them? Or does it live up to the same stereotypes of Brixton and Croydon? Actually to be honest, even Brixton and Croydon receive mixed reviews so we really need more specific feedback!!!!

Doozergirl

I grew up off Beulah Hill looking over that side.

As you go up the hillside from Green Lane, there are decent roads and yes, from my experience, it is what you describe that you're looking for. I'd have lived in that area down the hill. It is mainly houses, not flats, which is a good thing for you and not a lot of shops etc to attract anti-social behaviour or loiterers. It's actually quite quiet and restrained. I enjoyed growing up there with the woods to play in and Norwood Grove, which was pretty and the Rookery not far. My friends from my street I all went to good primary schools locally, although none of us on the doorstep and very good secondary girls schools in Croydon. All the road names there bring back lots of memories, all happy .

West Croydon was always a dump, East Croydon not so. The train from Norbury goes into East, thank goodness.

The further from the High Road, the better though, if it's quiet you're after, into the SE19 postcode.

shays_mum

The streets of Green Lane are lovely, but if you have kids the schools are alot to be desired. With that type of budget would look further up the road say Wallington/Sutton where the schools are some of the best around.
HTH

Doozergirl

And with the amount of time the train takes to get to Norbury, I'd probably look at East Croydon, heading out towards Shirley? The train can take 15 minutes to get straight there from Victoria, which is less than it takes to get to Norbury and the trains seemed to run to there all the time, out to the sticks, making it easy to get home from a night out.

jonewer

Its a dump. And its going to get more of a dump. Avoid anything with a CR postcode. The whole area is a toilet.

Avoid SW16 too.

Dont say you werent warned.

UpwardlyMobile

jonewer wrote: »

Its a dump. And its going to get more of a dump. Avoid anything with a CR postcode. The whole area is a toilet.

Dont say you werent warned.

But it's an SW16 postcode... are you talking of the same place? I appreciate all the feedback, just need to be sure we're all talking of the same place!

Emy1501

Norbury IMO is worse than many areas of Croydon. Don't really know Brixton that well so can't comment. Nothing wrong the area if you haven't got kids but I would not want to bring kids up around the area. and the trains that stop at norbury are known for muggings. My kid got mugged on one of these trains recently and the police pointed out it was a known problem.

totallybored

I know the area and it's not too bad, quite quiet and nice sized houses. Gets a bit dodgier towards the co op on Green Lane though. However, I'm not sure how far and what the walk would be like at night from the station?

For 450k how about further up Streatham High Road? There are some nice sized houses off the streets opposite the cinema.

Or how about Crystal Palace?

Ionkontrol

The Americas off Green Lane is about the best it gets in Norbury.
Croydon and Streaham are khasi's.