What's Streatham (London) like?

Nimzicki

Nimzicki

Nimzicki

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My girlfriend and I are currently looking to move to London, she works in Camden and I'm looking for work in the capital too so it would be much better for us to live closer to the city. She went to see a flat in Streatham, just off Streatham High Road (near Sainsburys) tonight which she absolutely loved but my worry is that we have no idea what the area is like.

Wikipedia tells me that that road was voted the worst street in Britain in 2002 which is obviously a worry :D But that was 7 years ago now so can anyone tell me what the area is like to live in as it stands now? Is it safe? Massively noisy? Complete hole?

Thanks for any advice :)

Rich
 
Grim.

Edit: I should elaborate. It's a dank hellhole of evil.
There are so many nicer places in South / South East London to live.
Almost as bad as Camberwell / Lambeth / Southwark.
 
You've kind of got all the downsides (expense, crap commute) with none of the upsides (being close to everything, 24hr city) :p

Why not Camden? You can get some good places there for decent money if you look around, it'll be dead convenient for her and for you as well :)
 
While we've been looking you seem to get a lot more for your money down South...I assumed this was because the area was a bit gash and it's sounding like I was right. The place she looked at is really nice though, rent is £950 a month for a large 2 double bedroom, modern, fully furnished flat.

I'm honestly clueless when it comes to London though and not sure if that sort of budget is enough to get something decent and in a good area? Has anyone got any good sites that I should be looking at?
 
Like all of London, some crap places are right next to lovely places. There are some nice bits in Streatham (I think S Hill is nice?) but many of the places are rough. My gf lives very near by in Clapham Park and it's great!

Go round the area you're thinking of - it'll can change drastically in the space of half a mile!
 
Streatham is pretty grotty. Not really sure why you're looking there anyway - it's miles from Camden, would take about an hour minimum to commute each day.
 
Direct train into St.Pancras is 31 minutes and the station is 5 minutes walk from the flat, that is a lot better than the 400 quid a month crap she's currently going through. We probably wouldn't spend a huge amount of time in Streatham itself, would really just jump on a train to Victoria when we want to go out but if there are other nicer areas for the budget that anyone could suggest, that would be great :)

OrphanBoy - it's here
 
jp_bl_68 said:
Streatham's a bit of a dump, imo. I suggest you visit the area, find out for yourself.
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I'm gonna take a look myself on Saturday but still want to find out what it's like long term, doesn't sound great from what people have said :s When you guys say its grim, what do you mean? The area? The people? Wiki says there is a lot of asylum seekers, without opening a massive immigrant debate, is that an issue there?

I'm from Bedford so my bar isn't exactly set high :p
 
It's not that the South is gash, Clapham is pretty good, decent bars and pubs, the Common is nice etc, it's just....really far away from Central London, to the extent that it's almost its own 'micro-town'. Plus the Northern line is hell on earth at commuter time if you are unlucky enough to get that.

You will be looking at an hour to get to Camden, 31 mins to St Pancras by train sure, but then it's 5 mins to walk to Kings Cross tube, then Northern line, couple more mins to wait for the tube, 10 mins to get to Camden, 10 min walk from the tube - it'll be an hour trust me :p

What sort of budget are you looking at? And does it have to be a 2-bed?

Just thinking that Camden is a pretty cool place, and if one of you is going to be working there, it'd be good to be local as there's so much to do :)
 
She always walks from St.Pancras anyway, she works at Centro, French Connection Head Office, nearest tube is Mornington Crescent which like you say is a nightmare in rush hour so its quicker to just walk and skip the tube :)

Budget is around £1000 pcm but this is because I'm currently unemployed, we are planning on sharing a place with one of her workmates so 2 double bedrooms is needed. I don't want to commit to much more than that because I have no idea when I will get a job or how much it will pay but we really do need to make the move soon.

I like Camden but looking now the same budget seems to only stretch to a studio flat :/
 
In my experience it can be a pretty rough area at times. Other than the ice rink and the Odeon I can't think of any other reason to go to Streatham unless you've got friends/family that live there.

You will be looking at an hour to get to Camden
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I don't know about that. I live further out than Streatham and I can still get to Camden in an hour (and that includes taking a bus and a train just to get to a tube station).
 
Ahhh that makes much more sense, yeah Mornington Crescent is just a short walk from there :)

See what you mean about budgets, you're pretty much looking edge Zone2/Zone 3 at that. I'd maybe try and get a bit further North, around Balham is pretty good - though perhaps somewhere for say, 6 months, to get your feet on the ground then a move closer in might be an idea, if time is of the essence :)
 
Streatham is cheap for a reason. SE London is pretty crap on the whole apart from Greenwich, much prefer SW London for Clapham/Putney/Wimbledon/Richmond.

I live in Tooting, and the Northern Line get's me to Camden in under an hour if needed. Also, if the NL does have issues, I can catch a bus to Wimbledon in 15 minutes for District Line or overland connections.
 
Nimzicki said:
She always walks from St.Pancras anyway, she works at Centro, French Connection Head Office, nearest tube is Mornington Crescent which like you say is a nightmare in rush hour so its quicker to just walk and skip the tube :)

Budget is around £1000 pcm but this is because I'm currently unemployed, we are planning on sharing a place with one of her workmates so 2 double bedrooms is needed. I don't want to commit to much more than that because I have no idea when I will get a job or how much it will pay but we really do need to make the move soon.

I like Camden but looking now the same budget seems to only stretch to a studio flat :/
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Tooting/Balham will get you a 2 bed around that price. Our 3 bedroom place is £1350, and Wandsworth council tax is the cheapest in the country :D
 
http://www.upmystreet.com/local/crime-in-sw16.html

I look down on Streatham and I live in Croydon! Actually with your budget I would probably choose Croydon as you'd get more for your money. Further to travel to Camden but probably just as quick if not quicker going from East Croydon (train to London Bridge - Northern Line to Camden Town in about 40-45 minutes I reckon).
 
Avoid. I did a stint of administration at an ND program near Stockwell, and if my clients were any indication, the general area isn't inhabited by very nice people :p

Personally on that kind of budget I'd look further out. Even in my part of town a flat is around £500pcm...and that's an area forgotten\unaffected by the housing boom. Harrow perhaps? Plenty of public transport including the BR line to Euston, only 2 stops from both KC and Camden tube stations...
 
So basically...nobody has anything good to say about it all haha. Shame, the flat seems lovely and being only 5 mins from the station it sounded like a good place to sleep at and head into central London from.

I'll still go check it and out and see what that exact area is like for myself but I'll also be looking at all these other places mentioned, thanks for all the replies and suggestions guys :)

Gog - I saw that and they are worrying statistics, however when you put in the exact post code, it doesn't sound so bad?
 
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