Making the move from North to South London

botchjob

westernpromise wrote: »

Places that are cheap are cheap for a reason.

£600k for a 3 bed house ANYWHERE in London is cheap. Within that budget though, the bits of East London where it's still possible to buy for that sort of money are at least as plausible as in the South, and often with better transport links. And more 'London' to boot. I'd take the East anyday over somewhere soul destroying like West Norwood, the a*se end of Streatham, Morden/Mordor, etc. If the poster is moving from Camden they're going to have quite a culture shock pitching up in Lewisham...

Jhoney_2

The other thing to reflect on is that demographics change. Compare the living experience of e.g the Brixton of now to it's old 'reputation' and presumably all the others who move to London from other parts of the UK/abroad live somewhere and I presume in areas they think are 'better' areas, near friends etc, and you have a whole different community! Not bad/good, just different.

Check out the areas you like and the neighbouring ones as they can be as varied as they can be similar - from street to street in some cases.

Jhoney_2

botchjob wrote: »

£600k for a 3 bed house ANYWHERE in London is cheap. Within that budget though, the bits of East London where it's still possible to buy for that sort of money are at least as plausible as in the South, and often with better transport links. And more 'London' to boot. I'd take the East anyday over somewhere soul destroying like West Norwood, the a*se end of Streatham, Morden/Mordor, etc. If the poster is moving from Camden they're going to have quite a culture shock pitching up in Lewisham...

Why? - don't inhabitants of Lewisham go there too? Where do the people who frequent Camden live? In fact, many do not live here at all and are tourists or weekend visitors, so the culture shock is more like an invitation to live in the real world where all manner of people come and go.;) -

This is London fgs, not some forgotten corner of the planet.

East London is another very good case in point. Until recently (planning for the Olympics and a few tech companies moving into cheap rental space) the place was considered an awful place to live.

Not so much several years later, and the demand reflects that. It's considered a 'trendy' place to live these days and those on the ladder there are quids in PLUS benefitting from improved social and enviromental changes in the area - good for them. It was a neglected tip for a long time.

stonehedge

botchjob wrote: »

£600k for a 3 bed house ANYWHERE in London is cheap. Within that budget though, the bits of East London where it's still possible to buy for that sort of money are at least as plausible as in the South, and often with better transport links. And more 'London' to boot. I'd take the East anyday over somewhere soul destroying like West Norwood, the a*se end of Streatham, Morden/Mordor, etc. If the poster is moving from Camden they're going to have quite a culture shock pitching up in Lewisham...

Depends where in Camden. Like most areas of London the area varies hugely from street to street.

How about this for a Camden stat?

"Although outcomes in terms of life expectancy are generally improving for most people in Camden, they are not improving fast enough for the poorest sections of the borough. In 2006-10 there was an 11.6 years gap in life expectancy between male residents living in the 10% least and most deprived areas in Camden, the highest in North Central London and 3rd highest in London. For females the gap was 6.2 years, 2nd highest in North Central London and 7th highest in London ."

Regents Park is very different to Somerstown.

Say what you like about the boroughs of Lewisham and Greenwich but you don't get 12 year differences in life expectancy street to street.

mjdh1957

When I was ten my parents moved us from Hammersmith to South-east London. Admittedly it was a long time ago, but it was like moving to a foreign country. It took me a long time to forgive them.

duchy

joeistheone wrote: »

I don't think you can compare North London v South London as it all depends on the particular area. The key difference you'll notice is lack of tube (especially Blackheath and surrounding areas which are served by Southeastern which often isn't great) if you commute using public transport. Plus side, Blackheath is fairly leafy (as city living goes) and nice.

Same could be said of Muswell Hill etc though

[Deleted User]

Well £600k will buy you a nice 3 or 4 bed house up my way in South Hertfordshire. I can be in Euston in 35 minutes with the local trainline (via Watford). Sure we may not have gang-land knifing and popup taco-bars, but we've got some decent schools and lots of green spaces.

I heard there were dragons South of the river

Dan-Dan

600k where i am , 33 minutes direct to Euston, would buy you a 5 bed detached in the country

Waldorf_Statler

Chronologically in South London I've lived in Bellingham, Stockwell, Tooting and Woolwich. Though I left the latter of those in 2010 so i'm not entirely contemporary. I now live north of the river - but by 30 miles or so!

Blackheath is wonderful. Though I doubt you'd actually be in Blackheath for 600k.

My first question would be how much you drive. I found driving around South London infuriating.

From a commuting point of view, you could get the bus up to North Greenwich and pick up the Jubilee line. Southeastern trains are very busy by the time they reach Blackheath.

Just curious, but why not move further out?

johannalf88

westernpromise wrote: »

I always treasure this sort of claim, like you can leave home at 8:45 and be at work by 9.

It’s not 15 mins to London Bridge at all of course. First, unless you live in a tent on the platform, you have to get to the train station. Then you have to wait for a train, and we’re not talking one every 2 minutes like the tube; we’re talking trains so 19th-century in frequency that they still have a timetable. After waiting for one you can actually fight your way onto, your “15 minutes” takes you to the platform at London Bridge - at which point you’re still not even half way there. You’re still south of the river. So you’re still in north Croydon, in effect, and only now have you reached what is the start of a proper Londoner’s commute.

So after pushing past Jenny Agutter wailing “Daddy! My daddy!”, you’ve now got another walk to another platform, the Tube this time, followed by a Tube journey that will take you into London proper.

Approximately nobody actually works at London Bridge, so how long it takes to get to this arbitrary point in the middle of nowhere is so irrelevant I don’t know why it’s coming up. I come in from Highgateish and work at Bankish but I don’t bang on about how it’s only 10 minutes to Tufnell Park!

I used to work on Borough high street, so pretty much at London Bridge. I used to look at the train times before I leave, so I knew when the train was due, and then left at the correct time. The advertised time from Blackheath to LB used to be 12 mins, and it only took me 3 to get to the station - hence roughly 15 mins for me to get to London Bridge! I don't even know where Tufnell Park is! We usually go to LB anyway, borough market at the weekends, southbank, the shard, thames river walk etc.

Btw I once left for work at 8:40 and was there by 9 on the dot! Even I was surprised! That wouldn't happen now however until LB is re-opened.