to be afraid to move to north London?

[Samsean]

Hi

We are relocating to north London (harringay/hackney) due to DP's work. Having just visited the place, it feels scary and unfriendly. Is there anything to be afraid of or is it just in my head?

finding it amusing that a SLondoner finds NLondon scary

Must have been like this

.

I think she's still there. Maybe she found the Faltering Fullback

YABU!
Stoke Newington -for boutiques, yummy mummy ness, organic foods and yoga.
Muswell Hill / Crouch End / Highgate -for more of the same at an even greater price tag.
Harringay (not Haringey which is the borough) - for fantastic local community (see previous reference to www.harringayonline.com), great schools, beautiful parks and nature reserves, lovely neighbours, brilliant independent shops with the friendliest shopkeepers, outstanding international cuisine (well mainly turkish but still outstanding!), very good transport links, a place where you will very quickly know loads of people and where people will look out for you.

You can guess which one I live in . Do not come if you don't like international!

YABVU! If you want less 'edgy' places, Hackney (which includes N16, and parts of N1 and N4 so has parts that can definitely be classed as North London) has lovely places, Stoke Newington for one. Hackney also has good primary schools and lovely parks - Springfield Park is gorgeous. It's a very friendly area, with lots of baby/toddler groups.

Haringey (the borough as opposed to Harringay the area in the borough) has Crouch End and Muswell Hill which are both lovely, but also expensive.

There certainly are some edgy parts, I've never been particularly fond of Holloway Road, Hackney centre, Wood Green or Seven Sisters. But there are loads of great Turkish greengrocers and as others have said it's very international.

Don't be afraid!

We lived in the Tower Gardens Conservation (n17) area for several years. It was just off the a10, so we got the odd burnt out car in the road, but generally very quiet. Our cat went missing while we lived there, so my sister and I knocked on doors in the surrounding streets. Everyone was lovely. Wood Green was good for shopping and the posher bits like Crouch End and Muswell Hill were just a bus away.

Ah the great North/South divide

Agree with pamish

What are you afraid of OP?

Im a SE Londoner, but one half of my family are from east London [Hackney] so have an idea of both.

I prefer SE London of course but then Im not afraid of the things that people who don't like SE London are afraid of.

OP I moved - kicking and screaming - from south to north about seven years ago. Within three days I wondered why I had ever been so attached to South London. I loved Clapham but where I am now is a thousand times nicer, vibier and friendlier and I can walk into the West end. I wish I had done it years ago.

Re. haringay, Stroud green is lovely, great shops, restaurants a real community feel.

I would agree with others saying avoid Archway, Holloway and Seven Sisters. Hackney and London fields are great too, especially the latter, you also have Victoria park on your doorstep.

Good luck with your move, don't be afraid, North London rocks!!

At the risk of stating the patently bleedin' obvious, both parts of London have nice and nasty bits

I get confused in South London but I'm sure I'd find somewhere nice to live

Hackney is brilliant though

@ LadyRabbit and the others who are saying they have problems with Seven Sisters - are you saying I am a bad person?

pamish
Huh?! Seriously huh?
Um I am often in and around the Seven Sisters area. I was merely pointing out that there are nicer places to live in a four or five mile radius. Clearly it's where you live and you feel attached to it. Nobody was suggesting you're a bad person! It's just that Seven Sisters is not one of the nicest places to live in London, but nor is it the worst.

A mild over-reaction perhaps?

Harringay and Hackney are two different places so the OP is not talking about Muswell Hill, Crouch End I would have thought. And in north London, she probably means north of the river? As we don't know exactly where you are moving too, OP it is hard to say. Places next to each other in London can be worlds apart -you need to be more specific.

I grew up in North London and never felt unsafe -even Holloway Road

Sorry autocorrect. I meant Harringay and Haringey are two different places.

Seven Sisters was where DD and her friend were attacked by lads with baseball bats while stopped at a petrol station to fill up their scooters in the late 70s early 80s. Their attackers where horrified when they discovered they were girls- they thought DD and friend were lads as were wearing helmets and leathers. At least chivalry towards girls in those days . They were not seriously injured, but DD fell onto her friend and hurt her foot .
I was hysterical and told her never to stop in Seven Sisters at night again. Still a scary place then?

Technically, yes!mIt's just i think the OP was talking about Harringay itself and not the London Borough of Haringey and so the assumption of Muswell Hill and Archway etc. might be irrelevant to the OP. Maybe not though if we don't know exactly where she was talking about

Ps.
When I asked what the petrol station manager did DD said he just rolled down his shutters and stayed inside.

You can't generalise about two whole boroughs. Most people understand that London is a ragbag of nice streets and not so nice streets. You have to cross one to get to the other sometimes. If it makes you uneasy don't move there.

Find your nice house, work out where the best shops are, where the most convenient tube station is, where the park is. Assume you will walk or get the bus there and make your choice depending on what feels comfortable.

Don't forget also that London is also time-specific. Some shopping areas are great in the mornings and hell in the afternoon. Some parks are great at dog-walking times but dangerous at other times.

@ LadyRabbit, I am pointing out that by including Seven Sisters in the list of places too terrifying to pass through, it must be that I am one of the things to be scared of. Not a good feeling.

How am I or my neighbours to read this, otherwise? This is not an overreaction, I would get upset about this if I thought people had the slightest idea what they are talking about.

@ digerd, I could write a list of places where bad things have happened to me. None of them in 7Sis, so far. And I keep going back to them, I doubt that the same coincidences will happen again.

What do you see in Seven Sisters? I am guessing what you see is a lot of people who are not white English. I feel a bit uneasy when I visit the white ghetto I grew up in.

I lived for several years in both. Harringey and hackney (and im alive). I liked both back then but nowdays hackney has changed a lot and some parts have become too pretentious imo.
Now i am in zone 5 and i miss the.buzz. i still go to green lanes for fru
it and veg and fresh herbs and i pop in wood green shopping centre with the kids, i didnt know it is a dangerous place to be.
We should get a meet up all of us who love the area.(no knives in the handbags ok?)

Er yeah that's right pamish I'm scared of Asians or people with darker skin colour.
Which is really fucking funny cos I am one.

Seriously.

I must say we are very spoilt here in N London. Where I live I can walk 15 minutes to

Conservation area
Lake
Museum
Heated Lido
Subsidised leisure centre
Big sainsburys
Little sainsburys
Waitrose
Tiger
Evolution
Primark
and a million and one other high street shops and services
a proper food market
a farmer's market
Good schools and nurseries

In 15 minutes you are on Hampstead Heath

Occasionally I spend £4.60 and get to Covent Garden in 30 minutes but it is not often necessary.

The 'you' in what do you see, is plural.

Is this actually what we are talking about?

Lived in North London for years and I still miss it dreadfully. Everywhere in London has crime - in any big city, its the nature of the beast. Also has loads to do people from all walks of life basically a place to live.