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 .

From an ex-Londoner's perspective, I agree with Angela's point - and others - about skin colour. As a young, white, overpaid professional I really enjoyed the city's diversity. I have nieces and nephews, now living that same life in London; I keep up with their Facebooks. I am frequently struck by how white everyone is at the gatherings they attend. It genuinely wasn't like that in my day

There was a hell of a lot of social & ethnic inequality, but you wouldn't really have noticed it in a pub, club or market because the 'poor' streets were next to the 'rich' ones, and everybody did the same things. London seems more ghettoised now - and the poorer/mixed districts are moving further and further out.

You make a fair observation, Poly. Places like Brixton were built as genteel suburbs, housing the yuppies of the Edwardian boom ... I still think contemporary Londoners are allowed to mourn the passing of 'grittiness', though.

Employers are whining that they can't find enough minimum-wage staff to fill low-level jobs in London. I'm not bloody surprised they can't! The policies that provided their booming markets are the same ones that have pushed their underpaid workers out beyond the Tube.

Do we think this is a predominantly London phenomenon ?
I am from the frozen north,don't know London at all,but up here some places are all Pound shops and Gregg's
Other places yes have boutiques,'poncey' lifestyle shops etc.
Am thinking the difference between say,Crewe and Nantwich,for example,if anyone knows these places!!

I quite like a critical mass of 'me'- althoigh actually there really aren't many 'me' people, but we are similar in that we are either not white or from outside Britain. I'm black South African for example, my neighbours on one side are Tamil, on the other are Pakistani, and next to them they are British with Indian heritage. One thing I don't like is that, for example, in their classes, my DC is the only mixed race child, theere is one white child in my eldest DC's glass, and none in the other twos, and there isn't much blending. So families and groups stick together along cultural lines, but there isn't actually much mixing between everyone as adults (as children, obviously they are all friends etc;) so it means that although technically it is diverse, my friendship group is similar generally (black British, South African, from Botswana or Kenya, or white Eastern European tbh).

I agree Polyethyl

My parents live in an even more gentrified area of S London than the OP. It was a rather different sort of area when they moved in 30+ years ago, and they complain frequently about the 4x4s, basement dig outs, designer clothes and competitive spending that have now taken over.

And yet... and yet... They were themselves part of a new group to come into the area back in the late 70s/early 80s, when young professional couples were "rediscovering" the big Victorian houses to be got for (then) a bargain in S London. They bought in their late 20s/early 30s, and promptly set about doing building works. I'm sure there were plenty of their neighbours who were much less well off, who whinged about them and their ilk.

Mintty who lived in E D when you moved in? Any chance you were yourself part of the first or second wave of gentrification? If so, you can't really complain about the third/fourth waves that are happening now...

MrsDeVere thanks The areas you suggested looked nice! The Village is definitely out of our budget And thanks for the offer too, I may well take you up on that.

I met a lady in a (very long) queue over the weekend.

She was positively bursting to tell me where she lived i.e. now jaw dropping expensive London suburb and worked it into the conversation asap (as I really didn't give two tits where she lived so didn't respond as expected to the "we live local .......?" statement.)

I then swerved the "Let's talk about acceptable schools" conversation.

Once we got through all of that, she was a very nice lady and lovely to chat too. I expect she would be a lovely neighbor.

I live in an up and already come part of North London - I'm in my seventies, have neighbours ranging from early twenties to sixties and we all get along fine. Doctors, lawyers, IT people, actors, a plumber, builder, stay at home mums, childminder. It's great - I know it's been said before, but getting on with people is a two way thing - you've got to be approachable and friendly too.

re-walthamstow village- why do people think its the best part? it isn't all that! if i had money and was buying in walthamstow I'd buy in the area near past whipps cross roundabout going towards snaresbrook, love the area near hollow ponds

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Ewww

i love upper walthamstow Mrs. De Vere, i grew up on Markhouse Rd in one of the little ex-warner flats (we then upgraded to an ex-council on Boundary rd) and i was always jealous of my friend who had the most beautiful 30s semi detached near oakhurst gardens

Oooh...DH and I were idly discussing a move to Walthamstow the other day. Maybe I should look again.

Ahem....sorry the 3 year old on MN again...maybe OP should come to Peckham where we are- that's still fairly authentic :)

I've been to walthamstow village,my friend bought there.we went to a lovely pub
Wee cobbled street and sat out on benches,old pub on corner
Gosh was while back now - you never think of London being villagey

its defo worth a look BinkyBix and do look outside the village, the low hall lane area always used to be rather nice [smile|

is the stow really getting a primarni MrsdeVere?! this will make visiting my parents even better, i usually have to go to the westfield one and its too much in there, come out more stressed then ever! far too busy for me!

my parents sold the ex warner for about £58,000 in '98! [shock| dread to think what they go for now

about time they did something with that space!

At a first look there are some lovely houses for the price of a small-ish flat here....with gardens! Maybe I should visit friends there to get more of a feel.