North London/South London divide

[LuckyAmy1986]

I have always lived South of the river and love it, although it's true you do have to cross for a lot of the good stuff! However, colleagues who live North of the river are quite down on the South and how dull it is, how far away from everything etc etc. Do other people have a clear favourite? Is there actually a real divide? Btw, I know this is totally mindless chat, it was just on my mind!

@newsheadlines
What is it from the village? 10mins going down the hill? Probably 20 walking back from the station. I just drive in when I visit.

always wanted to live next to Putney exchange or Centre Court.

Ah well horses for courses.

Off topic but we are contemplating the unthinkable of moving out of London (DH is SE born & bred). I already do some wfh & DHs work are switching from 1 day wfh to likely 3 days at home. We would like more space & fuck me (apologies) but all the traffic calming (?) things that have been put in place recently are doing my head in, its gridlock on the main roads. We could move further out currently zone 2/3 but I'm not so keen. @JoJoSM2 don't tell me off!

@wombledown

Horses for courses. I used to live Between the Commons and really enjoyed it. However, when it came to starting a family neither DH nor me wanted to be in zones 2/3. We wanted that Wimbledon Village sized house and garden but a less built up area so zone 5 works for us.
But it’s a different world to zone 2 out here.

@JoJoSM2 I've often felt that the conversation about North/South divide was primarily one in terms of zones 1-3. I am not saying that other zones dont exist but when people talk about cabs not going south of the river (totally did used to happen in my day) - it wasnt about trying to get a mini cab all the way to Hounslow or Kingston but even getting to Putney/Wimbledon was tough.

And again - no one gets cabs anymore and uber is fine everywhere....money used to be made in the City/Central London and now its Canary Warf i.e. much more accessible from SELondon than either from West, North or even SW London (though that got better). So the whole psychogeography of London has changed and might change again with Covid

Lots of people on average wages rent in London

Very very few can buy unless they have a very large deposit or big into one of the part ownership schemes

WImbledon village has always been very expensive. Wimbledon is on a hill the further down the hill the less wealthy you are (apart from the few council flat around the common)

Part of the reason the ex-dodgy bits of south London aren't so dodgy any more is because young people who grew up there bought in them. The people I went to school with and grew up in Dulwich (North, West and East), Blackheath, Greenwich couldn't buy in those areas - so they bought in Nunhead, Peckham, Mottingham, Eltham. And funnily enough, I spoke to my DM about it and she pointed out that HER generation of Londoners had done the same with Camden, Brixton, Clapham, Islington, etc when they were young. It's a cycle, but it's got to the point now where house prices have become so ridiculous that first time buyers are priced out of even the dodgy bits centrally so they're moving further out. DH grew up in Streatham but bought in Croydon, for example, and we grew up in Sydenham but DSis bought in Clockhouse.

North London is like a completely different city to the one I know. South is much better - obviously

I think it depends on where in the north or south you live. I would be unhappy living anywhere that was more than a 10 minute walk from the river and I like to be able to walk home after a night out in the west end. So to me Islington would be as unacceptable as Clapham.

[quote daisypond]Inverse map:
www.steveprentice.net/tube/TfLSillyMaps/southlondontube.jpg[/quote]
Nice idea, but the map would be better if the circle line was in the same place, because for me that's Central London, unaffected by the north/south divide.