Where to buy in London??

cattie

Anyone living in London knows of someone, somewhere being mugged in broad daylight. It happens in even the best areas. Especially as in high end areas people have fatter purses and wallets and pricey jewellery.

Unless you have lived there or do live there, then you can't give an informed or unbiased opinion on what the area is like to live in.

kennypowers_2

For those saying that you do not recommend Brixton or Elephant & Castle (and there is agood chance that you have never even been there), why not admit that you you do not like or have a pathological fear of anywhere where a lot of brown/black people live and be done with it? A woman was murdered in Mayfair a while ago so I suppose that's an area to be avoided as well (and I am not trivialising this tragedy to make a point)

Daisy70

I've never been but I hear that Whitechapel is very up and coming now with an amazing art gallery opening up there.

the_flying_pig

Door to door Brixton will likely be a fair bit longer than 20 minutes to your husband's office.

On your budget & c. 20 minutes criteria my two penn'orth is:

Within walking distance - small flat in the old East End, e.g. Aldgate.

Within tube distance - maybe a medium sized flat in a slightly down-at-heel area just south of the river, maybe Elephant.

pimento

Nothing wrong with Bethnal Green if you can afford it. You're almost ion walk to work territory if you stick to the Shoreditch side. I expect you're looking at ex-council for your budget but talk about location, location, location.

You could definitely walk to work from here.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-31747309.html

Out,_Vile_Jelly

Rent before you buy and get your husband to ask his colleagues for any recommendations- word of mouth is useful in a big city.

London has a high number of 1 bed flats, many of which are very average. If you can, I would save until you can get a 2 bed.

blargh

Brixton's awesome, I lived there for a couple of years and absolutely loved it. Definitely has an unfair reputation.

East London-wise I've lived in Manor Park, Stratford and Hackney and those are worse than Brixton but still absolutely fine, again reputation is often exaggerated. I'm now in Harringay, hands-down the most awesome place to live in London imho

Elephant & Castle, however, is made of pure grim and is one of very few areas in London that I would never even consider living in.

WD40

Brixton is massively different to when I used to lurk there 20 yrs ago. Without exception, I would describe everyone I know who's based there now as 'upper middle class'. In fact, I preferred Brixton in many ways back then... It had a more bohemian vibe to it, instead of the white collar clones who inhabit much of it today.

Anywhere in proximity to Dalston, Bethnal Green, Shoreditch, Hackney Wick and London Fields will probably offer poor value for money. Those areas are very trendy and popular with cosmopolitan youngsters who've got wealthy parents.

I think Walthamstow is a good tip.

Does anyone really think it will be cheaper to buy after the Olympics? Is the housing market this fickle? I'm intrigued.

Uk_Lover

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Elephant and Castle is grim. It might be being smartened up a bit but its still one of the only areas on central London I know of that isn't even safe to walk through during the day.


:rotfl:yes it's a bit of a dump but it's perfectly safe to walk about during the day.

StripyRex

I would instead highly recommend that you look slightly further along the Central Line to Wanstead, Redbridge and Gants Hill (18, 20 and 22 minutes away from Liverpool Street respectively).
HTH.[/QUOTE]

I would second this. I've lived in Wanstead for the last 4 and a half years and it is a very nice area.