Nice dull places with bad transport links in London

theEnd

Mitcham's really not that nice, but might be some ok areas near the common. Pollard's Hill is a surprisingly nice enclave off the not so nice A23.

I've ended up between Streatham and Tooting, which is still quite nice for the prices and you have the transport options if you need them.

Cliveclive

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone! This has been really helpful to give us some suggestions for where to take a look. I'm really impressed!

theEnd

Another couple of areas a bit further out:

Shirley / South Croydon. Now Croydon is a dump, some parts of it are really, really bad, but to the South East can be quite nice.

Worcester Park. Very nice town feel, but not too expensive.

Lizling

Penge? Properly dull. Probably just about doable to cycle into work in an hour but does also have the train. No idea what the house prices are like there but I don't think it's got fashionable yet, despite being near Crystal Palace, which definitely has.

andrewm1981

I moved to Mitcham 1 year ago, and most of it is average at best. The cricket green area (why I bought) is pleasant and green. A nice 3 bed is about 450. I'm happy I bought here.

Another place might be tolworth, or ever so slightly further out, Hampton court. Very pleasant, but terrible transport! Most of SW London is pleasant with poor links!

andrewm1981

Actually, just thought of one more - ham. Between Kingston and Richmond, very green, great for cycle routes, and good value. Poor transport!

Fraise

theEnd wrote: »

Another couple of areas a bit further out:

Shirley / South Croydon. Now Croydon is a dump, some parts of it are really, really bad, but to the South East can be quite nice.

Worcester Park. Very nice town feel, but not too expensive.

I agree, Shirley and South Croydon are gorgeous.

West Croydon is a dump, BUT they are regenerating it and the shopping centre there with House of Fraser etc is brilliant. If you can afford it go along a little towards West Purley which has houses worth millions. Beautiful area full of greenery and nearby lovely olde world pubs, restaurants....and scenery to die for.what makes it even more fab is how quick it is to get to central London....just 16 minutes to London Bridge or Victoria on the fast train from Purley station. It is London Zone 6 but also edges Surrey, so you've the best of both worlds.

Much of the South East Surrey is lovely, but it's not cheap, unfortunately.

London is a funny place in that you can live in a gorgeous street with great big houses and greenery, then five minutes away you'll come across horrible run down streets. Even in central London you'll find the same. Wonderful streets with grand houses, then round the corner really scruffy,made proved roads with terrible council estates.

Fraise

Cliveclive wrote: »

Hi All,

My partner and I are renting in London at the moment and looking to buy a place somewhere. We work in South Kensington and Chancery Lane area respectively.

What I hope makes this slightly different to a standard 'where to live in London' question is that since we are both happy to cycle up to an hour to get into work, I was wondering if we could get more value for money by deliberately looking at areas with bad transport links that we can still cycle in from. Similar for the dull idea - we're past the exciting bars part of our lives and more into the starting a family part.

Mitcham is an area that seems like this is true for, but it's hard to tell if this is mainly tied up with it's bad reputation. Maybe somewhere like Dulwich? (outside of the uber-expensive village part)

Any suggestions?

Even the grotty part of Dulwich Is expensive. Here Hill has some rough roads going towards Brixton, but they cost a bomb too:(

You mentioned Mitcham and I would call that dull. Some parts are shabby, but some parts are surprisingly nice with lovely small houses in clean, well kept streets.

You really need to go and see the areas. Looking on Google etc is all well and good, but to really get a feel for the place you have to go there. I wouldn't fancy Mitcham, myself, but I wouldn't turn my nose up at it if finances demanded it. Believe it or not some people like edgy type areas. Sounds mad, but they do.

One good point about Mitcham is it's handy to get to Wandsworth and Lambeth, and Croydon. Location wise it's quite good. Not sure about the transport but people live there and commute so it can't be that bad. I think it's zone 5 (like West Croydon)

Doozergirl

Lizling wrote: »

Penge? Properly dull. Probably just about doable to cycle into work in an hour but does also have the train. No idea what the house prices are like there but I don't think it's got fashionable yet, despite being near Crystal Palace, which definitely has.

Not sure I'd fancy cycling up the hill to Crystal Palace every morning to get towards town. And then back up the other side of an evening!

onlyroz

I did the cycle from Roehampton to S Ken every day for 3 years. It's about 6 miles but you've got to tackle either Putney Hill or Roehampton Lane, both of which are quite steep.