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 .

Used to live in Clapham but as we don't have £2 million to buy a house we moved down the road. Come to Streatham, we don't even have a Waitrose!

BranchingOut - I laughed at your list and read to my three year old because he asked why I had ('....and dungheap').

In response he said: 'And away we go.' Just in case you also find that amusing.

But it's much worse for people not yet on the housing ladder.

On one side of me it is mixed and the other is not (ED). Very different. I can't imagine the mixed part changing.

Those of you who recommended Peckham as a non-gentrified area to move to... the prices there are rising faster than those in ED - it's the new Hoxton, apparently. Have you seen the ethnic differences on the lane during the day/night?!

We also moved from Clapham - when I first lived there it was like ED was years ago....

As much as I dislike the bugaboo pushing yummy mummys , shops selling handmade crap, 4x4s, posh twats with louds voices called Rupert etc, I still prefer that to drug addicts/dealers, status dogs off their leads, crappy run down shops. In London now, you don't get much in between the two extremes. I have lived in the nice places and the grotty places....I will take the nice every time.

I don't know why small independent shops selling handcrafted items are getting dissed here. Isn't that better than a high street full of chain shops??

Have the shops in ED changed that much? The ED trader, is that right name, has been there for ages. It looks rather quaint now compared with glossier bohemia.

Some lovely new cafés, I'm glad they are there. More estate agents perhaps. They'll be happy. Still got that farmers on the corner with mops.

It could be that it's mostly the type of professions living there that have shifted.

And that fixation on house prices is happening everywhere there's a shortage if school places. Makes people tense (or relieved).

I grew up on a quite nice council estate in eltham apart from the violent atmosphere at times

There are beautiful Victorian and early 20thC villas - and it's not gentrified, plenty if taxi drivers/tradesmen/builders live there. You can discuss your latest designer acquisition from Bluewater, whether to trade in the Beamer.

I've moved away from London 10 years ago as we just couldn't afford it.

Greenwich has changed beyond all recognition, it used to be flea markets, book shops old boozers and pie and mash shop. I don't recognise it now. Everyone has so much money they pay ££££££££ for tint terraces in what is asthma/pollution central for children.

London - that's just how it is.

Marsha, Dul Trader is in WD, ED's is in ED!
There are lots more of the gifty/fashion/houseware type shops, lots of lovely cafes/bars/restaurants, a wee market a la Northcote Rd on a Saturday... But good old Farmers is still here!

I knew you'd be talking about ED!

I wouldn't bother with Forest Hill, it's going the same way. Catford is your only hope.

BigTily yep Farmers is fab. And those new cafés (love Toast). All those housey shops, they're ok.

I can see why it gets irksome, house price / school chat is, but then I go to a more chicken shop / chain High St or DV and ED is like an old sock. Comfortable, quaint old style '90s ponciness.

And I used to be in Clapham, better than there.

The linked to house in Sydenham is lovely- why not move there?

We have moved back to our saaarf London flat after 12 years away, and our bit has become exceedingly gentrified. We have tea shops, a large book shop, chi chi restaurants and a Little Waitrose 20 minutes walk away. I had a look on RightMove the other day, stuck in our postcode + 1 mile, and got to page 40 before I found anything under £1 million. You can get a very small 2 bed cottage (admittedly quite a twee one) for £750,000 and a 2 bed ex local authority flat for £350,000. The prices are just crazy. They have also knocked down a Peabody Estate round the corner from us, which is being replaced by "executive flats" (where did all the residents go?) - and don't get me started on the gentrification of the Elephant, shipping all the inhabitants out to Ashford and making a feature of not having any social housing in the new developments there.

Yes, better than Clapham, but going the same way. It is a great place for going out, but you can't walk down the road on the weekend for all the buggies/trendy 20/30somethings!

I'm from London. If you can afford a nice bit I have no clue why you would want to live in a not so nice bit. Usually this is seperated by one house or street too!

I also don't understand why educated self sufficient people moving in seems to be a bane. Or why if they are intelligent young (families possible) educated etc why you might have nothing in common with them. Says far more about you there unintentionally! ;)

You seem to be wishing for London past. Tbh if I was a mate i might be wondering where you had misplaced your marbles. At worst your house is worth approaching half-whole mill now. That's surely what most in London urban areas might be wishing they had luck to have. I know I do!

When I first moved to London everyone I knew was living marginal existences and had very little money. A lot of people were squatting. It took me a while to get my bearings, sort myself out with a job and figure out I wanted to stay here. I was able to do so because there were cheapish areas to live in with lots of interesting things going on. My London of that time was a mecca for young (working class) European and other internationals.

I'm not sure I could move to London now because the housing costs are so prohibitive.

We moved house less than a year ago and wouldn't be able to afford our current place right now. We barely scraped it then. Whilst I'm happy we moved and we're planning to stay here for ages and ages, it's also very depressing.

I've got friends that would like to move back to London but they'll never be able to afford to as they rent and work in not very well paid jobs. I can already see that other friends (with much higher paid jobs) will be moving away in the next few years because they rent, as opposed to owning a property. They'll never be able to afford to buy in the current area and rental prices are soaring.

I think the shops selling handmade bits and bobs are getting dissed because they sell nothing useful for day to day living. I don't need one in walking distance in case I decide I need to pop out for a wooden plaque to hang on a door handle...

I knew you were talking about east Dulwich before you admitted it. I was born in Dulwich hospital, grew up in west Dulwich and now own an ex council flat in Brixton.
12 years ago I started attending st john ambulance in east Dulwich and then the road it is on was dodgy and run down. In the intervening years the road has gentrified so much that when recently some friends of mine announced that they had bought on that road I wasn't surprised to hear that there had been so many bidders for their refurbished victorian terraced 3 bed that it had gone to sealed bids. The contrast over the years is just extraordinary.

Meanwhile in Brixton, despite living in a Lambeth owned block I find that the races do not mix at all. There are the shops where white middle classes buy and different shops where blacks buy. There are different pubs. And even in Brockwell Park you can see a colour divide of picnicking families from the brixton side of the park to the herne Hill side of the park. Only the lido seems to bring the races together and only then on the sunniest days.

There's a place near me, that's probably had the phrase naice invented for it. Very expensive, has a village shop, cafe vibe thing going on.
But a lot of the locals seem to think they are better than everyone else, and talk down to shop staff, or people from 2 miles away, there's a real attitude about living there.
When I was moving there was a lot of 'aren't you going to try and move there?' Talk.

Well no, I'd rather eat my arm off than get rage everytime I'm in a shop at the sheer rudeness of some people!

You are quite interesting and unusual here.

Not many people who bought their houses a while ago are sad that the house prices in their area have gone up.

I too would love it if houses in your kind of area would stay at a reasonable price, so I could bloody buy one!

You probably wouldn't want me to though as I am 30ish and not "creative" :(