To ask about the pros and cons of living above a very busy large supermarket on a busy road?

[hellokittymania]

Just that really. The good thing is that I would have very easy access to a giant Waitrose!

Can anyone give me a little more insight though?

I used to live above a supermarket and I loved my flat. The downsides were: huge spiders from the bananas (well I assumed they travelled with the bananas and they scared the life out of me) early morning deliveries, a dodgy motor for the freezer, a big walk in one in the butchery department, which was right under my bathroom and it got on my nerves. It was rented and I would have bought it if it had been possible so the downsides can't have been that bad (although I did go out for a long walk a couple of times to avoid spiders and my husband wasn't impressed that he had to start spider hunts the minute he got home.)

I once saw Limahl out of Kajagoogoo in that Waitrose (helpful)

I love directly oppopsite a supermarket on a narrow road. Deliveries are normally very early around 6am or very late at around 11pm. It rarely bothers me.

As someone already mentioned some lenders won't lend on properties above commercial premises. You will be able to get a mortgage but it can limit the number of potential lenders.

Check what your liability would be in terms of common repairs. Commercial premises tend to have to pay a bigger percentage which can be an issue if they don't agree to work going ahead.

Generally I have no major issues though so would buy above or near a supermarket again.

I have seen lots of famous people in that Waitrose tshirt

But surely none as splendid as Mr fluffy head himself jiggly?

I used to live in a flat a few minutes down one of the side streets just behind Waitrose. It was a great location and easy for getting around by bus or tube. There was noise all night, sirens and traffic but you get used to it - I moved from there to the country and couldn't sleep at first as it was too quiet!!!
Parking was difficult but not impossible.

I didn't realize there was a cooking school in that building as well. I will go around and have a better look tomorrow when I visit the flats. I know that area very well, but with a visual impairment, you can always miss things. This will be my first time buying anything, is fire insurance or anything like that a bigger issue with a cooking school and a large supermarket around?

Nigella no less - more than once!

OP - there has always been commercial property under the flats and insurance issues should be explored by your solicitor (the cookery school will come up in the search).

There are lots of really nice cafes round there

I saw that man of supermarket sweep in a waitrose. He was very orange. Also in (a different) waitrose the singer from Led Zeppelin. He looked rediculous happy for a bloke pushing a trolley. Maybe it was the novelty of it?

I've also seen lots of slebs in that Waitrose. I used to fantasise about living in those flats and lowering my shopping list down in a bucket. In reality, it must be horrendously noisy, unless some of the flats face onto an inner courtyard. And parking is likely to be hideous. Even if you get a resident's permit, you'll probably end up parking on one of the streets behind.

Deliveries where I stay above start at 7am Monday - Saturday and 8am on Sunday. The first delivery is always at that time - so if my alarm didn't go off for whatever reason, I wouldn't sleep in too much! Deliveries also go on late at night.

Shop is open til 11pm Monday - Saturday. The kiddies who are too young to get into pubs all hang around at the shop instead.....

Pros - great when you need to quick pick up some food!

It's not the nicest road is it, whilst it borders Hampstead and South Hampstead, it's a lot of cheap convenience stores and takeaways, Finchley Road far too busy for the road to ever come up that much, pretty rubbish at the south end where it meets Swiss Cottage too. Traffic noise horrendous 24 hours surely it's a main arterial route.

I'd get a smaller pad in West Hampstead or similar.

For those who haven't read all the OP's posts, she's visually impaired. She needs somewhere close to amenities, that she knows well and where she's less likely to tread in some of vast quantities of dog shit that litter West Hampstead's pavements. She also doesn't have a car, for fairly obvious reasons.

Sorry to talk on your behalf hellokitty but I get hugely irked by people not bothering to read at least the OP's posts on threads.

I wouldn't do it unless noise at night doesn't bother you at all - they are likely to have deliveries at all hours (my local Tescos does).

I would check out how soundproof the windows are. We used to live on what must be one of the most insanely busy roads you can imagine, but if you shut the double glazed windows - complete silence! A bonus would be if one side of the flat faces onto a courtyard or something like that, as our old windows used to only be on the side of the main road, so in summer we would open them and the traffic would be roaring past all day and night. Some other flats had windows on either side, which would have been my preference. Check with the supermarket re delivery times etc, but for me I don't think it'd be a problem, in fact I love living in a busy area. I love going to quiet, rural places on trips and holidays, but absolutely love everything being so convenient when I get back to the city. If you like the flat, go for it.

I can't imagine any pros if I'm honest but I really value peace and quiet. Live in a detached house, in a small town with no one at the back for about a mile and hedges high enough that our back garden is private. My dh says I'm antisocial though

Thamk you jiggly, and yes, location for me is very very important. If there were affordable places right on West End Lane or very close, it would have been good. But in my case, I have to check if I can cross the road easily or not. There are some places where I cannot cross the road at all. Where I am now, it is a 10 minute walk to the 02, but I can't cross the roads to get there. So I take the longer route to the tube station and go by tube.

One of my friends lived in those flats 15yrs or so ago. I stayed occasionally and never slept as it was so loud; my friend never had any problems sleeping after the first week or so. As well as finding out about the deliveries etc, there is a set of traffic lights just outside I think (or there was!). The bleep they made woke me up (as did sirens, deliveries & first buses).
My friend never did any form of shopping in advance. We'd just go down to Waitrose & wander around & choose what we fancied.

Noise aside, I think it sounds like a really cool, fun place to live. You're close enough to all the good parts of Hampstead and further into london, depending on how easy you find it to travel.

I've committed the cardinal sin of not reading the whole thread but definitely visit there at different times of the day, if you can. My friends live practically on top of a train station. I jump when I hear a train but they say they don't notice it. It's really personal preference.