to want to move house in London just because the area where I live has become extremely poncey?

[Mintyy]

Yes, yes, of course we have been unbelievably lucky that we chose to live somewhere that became gentrified and therefore have made a lot of money on our house.

However.

We now feel like we have less and less in common with the people who live here. We are 49 and 51 and have good but not outstanding incomes.

I have just discovered that my new neighbours (who paid an extraordinary amount for their extremely average terraced house) are newlyweds in their early 30s. They are going to be doing building works, so I am imagine an extension and a loft conversion.



We are going to have nothing whatsoever in common with them are we?

I sincerely yearn for more authentic London living. Either inner city or further out and less pretentious and overpriced than where we are now.

Such a pita to have to move though! And nothing on the market .

[fromparistoberlin]

wow, you really are a local girl polly! BIG UP E17 !!!

[PollyIndia]

Fomparistoberlin east17 are legendary! Stay is the best Christmas song. And I have the single of house of love framed on my wall. Brian Harvey is famous round here now for running himself over while eating a jacket potato. You couldn't make it up!

[fromparistoberlin]

did you know that Carole Middleton grew up in....Perivale!!!

yes indeed, explains her brother Gary LOL

[DanceWithAStranger]

fromparistoberlin, one of those is spot on, but I won't say which!

[Ubik1]

Look at him. Just look at him. Walking on the giant pavement. Like a wanker.
Oooh, there's a bus going past at one point. I'm probably on it shaking my fist and mouthing 'wankers'.

PMSL

[fromparistoberlin]

every time a new fried chicken shop opens, something inside me dies

I need twigs and scented soaps

joking aside I do agree with the MC insularity that MissBetseyTrotwood describes, its a very very Londony phenonemen IMO. and its part of the reason why I like living somewhere a bit more "down at heel"

[fromparistoberlin]

polly india, I stand corrected. but the mix of the word Wathonstow and Villiage in a sentance make me giggle

I always think of E17 (that hoodie band)

West London - characterless suburb

Greenford? Perivale? Sudbury? Hayes?

am I hot, tepid or cold???

[MissBetseyTrotwood]

We've lived around our area for 16 years and it has become very gentrified recently. So fast in fact that it has been used as an example of urban gentrification in the national press.

It's more divided than ever. There are schools that are very predominantly white middle class and schools that reflect the old, mixed demographic much more. Estate and terrace don't mix. The Sunday market sells enough retro, foraged, up cycled twattery to sink a cruise ship. It's papering over the cracks though imo; the dealers are still dealing outside my house at 6pm on a summer's evening while my DCs are playing out with their friends metres away and our (old, undesirable) car's still been broken into twice in the last 6mo.

Next year, we're moving. For lots of reasons but one being that I just don't like it here any more.

Our new neighbours are very friendly - as long as you're a middle class graduate family with naice children who go to the right school. If you're not, they're not interested.

Change happens; I don't like it so we're out to live somewhere a bit less extreme.

YABU OP!

[Capricorn76]

@PollyIndia. You're right, Walthamstow wasn't even incorporated into London until the late 1960's. It used to be in Essex and is about a 1000 years old with the village area around the church being the original centre. In any case I've always seen 'London' as a giant collection of small towns and villages with their own identities. Every area really is different although that may change now that every high street is becoming a clone.

[JollySantersSelectionBox]

Is Style 2000 still on Tooting High Street? Used to do brilliant threading on a wallpaper pasting table in the back of the shop for £3.

Actually when I drove by New X for the first time in 10 years last month I noticed that there was a much better class of Chicken shop, very shiny. Saw another on the Old Kent Road too.

Is Chick-King a thing of the past now?

[Binkybix]

Ooh yes, ED is nowhere near as bad as Shoreditch. I hate Shoreditch!!

[PollyIndia]

Fromparistoberlin, Walthamstow village has been a village for about 1000 years. Just because it's now in zone 3 of a huge city doesn't scrub all that history out.

[DanceWithAStranger]

I'm West London - characterless suburb that I won't name for fear of outing myself (and to avoid insulting anyone on here who likes it!), moved here from Queen's Park. Loads of my friends are SE London though so I may well know some of you in RL.

[bialystockandbloom]

Ooh just seen this thread - and opened it cos I thought "oh that sounds like where I live". Which is, ahem, Bellenden village

Biggest sign of the times imo is the fact that Payless has recently changed its name to "Village Grocer" complete with a muted charcoal awning



Camberwell is still pretty rough-and-ready, but lovely houses and still mixed and arty. I do think areas which have a massive great road junction cutting through the middle will never become village-y. Which is a good or bad thing depending on your pov, I guess.

I do actually like the village-y aspect of SE London (lived here all my life) but totally agree with much of this thread.

Wonder if any of us know each other in RL!

[scottishmummy]

The well heeled of Edinburgh can often be heard to tsk the prices are getting like london
There is no telling them any different,house prices are a middle class preoccupation
From scottish perspective Looking at ldn houseprices,they do look like telephone numbers

[LadyRabbit]

Um, I meant PONCIFICATION not pontificating in previous post!!

[LadyRabbit]

Am I the only one who thinks East Dulwich isn't actually that poncey? It's not exactly Primrose Hill, is it? And it hasn't experienced the same kind of gentrification as somewhere like Spitalfields or Shoreditch which have both seen astronomical property price rises and full on pontificating.

OP is overreacting a little IMO.

[minifingers]

"Obviously someone needs/wants them or they would go out of business."

They shut down as often as they open up. Bloody sad really - to see someone's dream go up in smoke like that. Yes, there is money catering for the specific shopping needs of the black community, but business advisers need to take on board that saturating areas like this with fried chicken shops and barbers isn't, in the end, good for anyone. Black people with money in this area would, I'm sure, like to have the chance to spend their money on things other than false nails, hair extensions and junk food.

[crazynanna]

Mrs DV...N19/N6 borders with neighbours like Councillor Catherine West and whats her name...Noel Gallagher's ex from years ago.

[AmberLeaf]

I would love a cupcake shop on our little high street. Anything actually which is not a wig shop (1 is enough, we don't need 4), a betting shop (have 3), a halal butchers (have 6), a barbers (5), or a fried chicken shop (7)

Who is 'we'?

Obviously someone needs/wants them or they would go out of business.

[LondonMother]

We're not far from ED either, in an area that sounds like a delicious brassica. It is gobsmacking how much houses cost nowadays. Having said that, 25 years ago I expect the locals were badmouthing us when we moved in. I was an accountant then and my husband worked in IT. We did a lot of building work on both our second and third houses. We undoubtedly made it more expensive for people who had been born and bred in the area to buy (although it is, coincidentally, the area my husband's family all lived in earlier in the 20th century).

However, back in the 80s rents were controlled and there were strict rules on how big your mortgage could be relative to your salary. There also weren't so many crazy salaries paid in the city distorting the whole market. It's all a lot worse now.

[minifingers]

"You're not describing Tooting high street are you? Actually I think there are more chicken shops. I mean I like dirty chicken but I don't need 11 shops to buy it from."

Go East from there. I'm talking about Little Lagos Thornton Heath. :-)

[crazynanna]

I moved here, edgy N4, from the vair naice N19 a couple of years ago.

In the last year, we have a 'Patisserie' at the end of the road, and the man over the road has put some large garden art thingy in his front garden with big ropes and shiny balls that glint in the street lights.