London areas? Which are most fun to live in as a newbie??

[IamtheDevilsAvocado]

Aibu to think London areas change quickly -ie ones thought of as 'dangerous' change to lovely village feel... Sometimes it feels within a few months...

Pal is thinking of moving to London, as am I. Both in health roles...

We're both flexible over geography...

Please tell us about your area of London and why you enjoy living there? ..

We love arty stuff, cinema /theatre /exhibitions... But would also like buzzy area with choice of places to entertain ourselves and choice of local shops?

Do hospital still require some staff to live within a certain commute of the hospital. Someone I knew had to live within 20 mins of the hospital.

That’s only if you have to do on calls and some places have an on call room if you have to be within so far of the hospital. Although most hospitals have got rid of the on call rooms for offices. 🙄

Archway is the new Shoreditch (supposedly)

I live in Notting hill and love it.
Close to st Mary’s hospital and Westminster and Chelsea.
It really depends on money and where you’re working.
Personally I won’t do longer than a 40/45 min commute of life isn’t really worth it.
London has so many great places to live in... honestly you’re spoilt for choice here!

It really depends on where you’re going to work OP.

I guess 2k would be absolute max!

Thanks muchly for the advice so far.

Remember to factor in council tax and bills. Depending on the London borough I’d suggest approx £250-£300 combined.
It’s a reasonable budget but being honest you won’t get anything amazingly nice for that amount centrally.
You should be able to get something reasonable further out (zone 2/3) or smaller/crapper more centrally.

Schnitzel

OK the bit between Tufnell Park and Archway has some lovely houses. Highgate is obviously nice.
Archway itself? It must have changed since I had DS1 at the Whittington 15 years ago.
They still haven't fenced of the Honsey Road Bridge after all these years (aka suicide bridge)

We're both likely to be doing locum work - so impossible to say at moment where our work will be.

So in zones 2/3 where are your recommendations netters??

I would really recommend a fact finding visit. What one person loves, another would find intolerable.

If you can I’d stay with friends for a few days/week and travel about. Personally I wanted to live on a train, not tube, line. It’ll help you if you can come up with some criteria like that.

North of the river: Hackney. South of the river: Brixton or Peckham.

somewhere in the Elephant & Castle area would put you in walking distance of Kings, St Thomas' and Guy's.

I would still say Peckham as it has very good transport links. You can easily get to Kings, St Thomas’s, Guy’s, Lewisham and Whitechapel plus probably quite a few others. Very good trains, tubes (Overground line) and buses - or you could cycle or even walk.

As a broad rule, south London is cheaper than north, east cheaper than west. So south east is where it’s at!

I loved living in both Balham and Clapham Junction.
Hated Holloway Road/Archway, I always feel on edge there. Ditto Brixton and Peckham

putney! I miss putney...

I spent 15 years living in London.
Lived in Stratford - great transport links, was cheaper at the time but this was well before 2012 etc.
Hackney - really liked it, easy to get bus into old st/shoreditch which are cool areas. Easy to get to Royal London from here too.
Borough - bloody amazing! Fab area with tons to do, market, backside, walked into central London often, near London bridge station. Good for guys or st thomas’.
Not cheap though.
Bermondsey - great transport links and not far from borough.
Also have friends in Peckham, clapham, balham to the south and stoke newington, finsbury Park and walthamstow in the north... all of which I like!

Camden Town / Kentish Town / Tufnell Park
You do have to pick your area a bit.

Fairly easy access to
St Marys
UCH
Royal Free
Whittington
GOSH
Guys and St Thomas & Evelina

I have lived in London my whole life and knownot very well. When I was growing up I mixed in some dodgy crowds and still know plenty of unsavoury people although I certainly do not mix with them. Maybe I’m aware of things that some middle class people are oblivious to (and that’s not aimed at anybody ornmeant to be as judgemental as it sounds) but you could not pay me to live in Brixton or Peckham. There are some lovely properties in Brixton but behind the scenes Brixton is still a very dangerous part of London with lots of gangs. Ditto Peckham. And camberwell is a dive. There are nice places around the outskirts of them but I’d stay well away from the high streets and estates if home hunting.
Bermondsey is ok and good location, and lots of nice bits of north london. Personally I prefer further out zone 2/3.

My daughter is based at Kings / Guys / St Thomas.
She is renting in Blackheath. An easy commute to London Bridge, or change at Lewisham for Kings.
Blackheath is nice - and close to Greenwich.
Very nice one-bedroom flat (shares with boyfriend) £1300 p/m

Excellebt stuff netters please keep up the useful info

Peckham is great. Been here over 20 years so don't understand posters dissing it at all. Not dangerous but fun and gentrified

try to live somewhere with multiple transport options, so that if the tube line goes down there is a rail option that is feasible, or a bus route (even if it will take much longer). Somewhere like Clapham is brilliant for this, but there are other places that are also served by more than one form of transport

If you are going to be doing shifts, it's be worth studying the night bus map and seeing where it takes you

Maida Vale is a lovely area.

If you'd prefer to be north of the river, Kentish Town is fun and buzzy.