Walthamstow E17

totallybored

tm_simpson wrote: »

Just wanted to share my thoughts on Walthamstow and hopefully get other peoples perspectives.

I have seen the area mentioned a few times in various threads about where to buy in London.

I have been looking around the last few weekends. I have a budget of £320k and am looking for a 2/3 bed terrace house within 10 mins walk of the tube.

My thoughts are that the area east of Hoe St is nicer around Howard Rd / Church Hill Rd, this is nearer to the Conservation village. However there are not too many properties on the market.

There seems to be a lot of property for sale on roads off Forest Rd which are nearer Blackhorse Road tube. I wonder what peoples thoughts are of this area are?

I saw a nice property near Bakers Arms, but I think the areas isn't as nice and its only really served by buses.

My perception of the market is that good stuff goes quickly and often doesn't make it onto Rightmove. About 80% of the properties on Rightmove are Sold STC which sort of backs this up.

I've not lived in Walthamstow but did live in Leyton near the overground station so knew the Bakers Arms area a bit. My main memory is going to a pub quiz there and seeing a fight break out in the quiz which resulted in someone being glassed, head butted and losing teeth. I never set foot in that pub again and didn't stay living in East London long.

I now live in a dodgy bit of south London but haven't experienced anything like that here.

botchjob

VfM4meplse wrote: »

^^^^ A case in point, who would want their children raised in an area where people express themselves like this (and worse).

So, sweetheart, tell us where you live so we can vomit bile and throw stones from the sidelines. Everyone else here has posted helpful comments. All you've offered is a chip on your shoulder and a myopic prejudice.

You might need to google myopia.

sinbad182

Jesus, look at the chip on her shoulder.

I don't think it's VFMs fault that walthamstow is, erm, the pits.

rob404uk

I enjoy living in Walthamstow but it is like any places of a good size, rough and good bits. People like the village but I like Coppermill lane area, quiet, near great parks, the marches and lea valley. A good place to live. Right by blackhorse road not great imo and not a great fan of forest road. Good luck

botchjob

sinbad182 wrote: »

I don't think it's VFMs fault that walthamstow is, erm, the pits.

What's your postcode, Mary ?

sinbad182

botchjob wrote: »

What's your postcode, Mary ?

W4 sweetcheeks.

What relation does my postcode have to Walthamstow being rank? I could live in dumpster under a flyover, and it still wouldnt change the fact Walthamstow is a horrible place.

BigAunty

Walthamstow is fine - an area with loads of quiet streets of terraced housing rather than shot through with shabby social housing, 20 minute journey into central London, a revamped bus station and some nice pubs and restaurants in the village area.

Lived there more than 10 years ago - wasn't a great fan of the street market, shame the cinema was lost to an evangelical church, couldn't recall a decent centrally located sports centre/gym. Also, back then there wasn't much in the way of decent pubs or restaurants in the city centre, it was mainly a bit spit and sawdust with greasy spoons and shabby vietnamese or indian restaurants, but I did notice some nice new coffee shops when I returned to visit friends who are very happy living there.

Prefer it over south-east London where there is much more evident social and racial tension on the street, murderous teenage street gangs and muggings galore, an even worse concentration of evangelical churches and constant visits to my door by sales teams and God squads.

Looks like Walthamstow has had a recent influx of eastern europeans, an influx I much prefer to other social groups in terms of community integration and rates of worklessness and social problems.

It's never going to be trendy like Islington but it's got good basic infrastructure like transport, shops and housing that frankly some other areas in south-east London lack unless you like poundshops, Western Union shops, irregular overground trains and even higher concentrations of happy clappy churches.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I had friends who lived near Blackhorse Rd. That's an ok area, not great but not terrible. I also have friends who live 10 mins from Walthamstow- lovely house in a nice street of spacious 1930s terraced houses. The area around the station isn't that nice though. Take a walk after dark and see how you feel.

If an area is cheap in London it's cheap for a reason.

demontfort

As somebody who fortunately only rents in nearby Leyton I find it depressing reading the postive comments about Walthamstow and the cluless writeup in the Guardian. It just sums up what is wrong with the London housing market, let's face it Walthamstow is a dump. But you could say exactly the same about Hackney, Brixton, Clapham, Archway and the rest of the grimy belt of inner London suburbs. They're all a filthy patchwork of traffic choked streets, council estates and overcrowded tenements.

I don't mind the area it's not so different to where I grew up but I can accept that it is just an urban armpit. But the middle classes immigrants to London who have paid through the nose for a dingy basement flat or a crumbling terrace (that would be classed as a slum in any other part of the UK) continue to kid themselves that they are living in a vibrant inner city nirvana.

You talk of your love of the diversity of inner London but all the time you're hoping that you area will soon be cleansed of the "dirty" and "dangerous" working class locals and replaced by poncey "young professionals" like yourself who spend their time mooching around coffee shops with their Macbooks writing junk on Twitter.Yes you might see Walthamstow as vibrant, dynamic, up and coming area but from what I saw when I drove through it this morning it's just another down at heel part of east London crammed full of betting shops, takeaways and Poles swigging on cans of Lech.

vuvuzela

demontfort wrote: »

As somebody who fortunately only rents in nearby Leyton I find it depressing reading the postive comments about Walthamstow and the cluless writeup in the Guardian. It just sums up what is wrong with the London housing market, let's face it Walthamstow is a dump. But you could say exactly the same about Hackney, Brixton, Clapham, Archway and the rest of the grimy belt of inner London suburbs. They're all a filthy patchwork of traffic choked streets, council estates and overcrowded tenements.

I don't mind the area it's not so different to where I grew up but I can accept that it is just an urban armpit. But the middle classes immigrants to London who have paid through the nose for a dingy basement flat or a crumbling terrace (that would be classed as a slum in any other part of the UK) continue to kid themselves that they are living in a vibrant inner city nirvana.

You talk of your love of the diversity of inner London but all the time you're hoping that you area will soon be cleansed of the "dirty" and "dangerous" working class locals and replaced by poncey "young professionals" like yourself who spend their time mooching around coffee shops with their Macbooks writing junk on Twitter.Yes you might see Walthamstow as vibrant, dynamic, up and coming area but from what I saw when I drove through it this morning it's just another down at heel part of east London crammed full of betting shops, takeaways and Poles swigging on cans of Lech.

I don't live in or work in or near London, so this isn't slating anything due to any (or lack of) local knowledge. .
Your post seems unnecessarily depressing - why not instead of taking 3 paragraphs to tell people why you don't like places, why not take 1 to do so, then use the other 2 to be a bit more upbeat and say where you think would be a good place to live ?