West Norwood no-go area for Natwest

[joanbyers]

www.streathamguardian.co.uk/news/10017748.Historic_bank_branch_shuts_after_attack_on_staff/

This country is just getting worse.

I love the way that the local MP is blaming the bank's security arrangements for the robberies, rather than either the lawlessness her government introduced or the lack of policing.

I can understand Natwest's point of view tbh:

www.streathamguardian.co.uk/news/10021042.Gang_raid_supermarket_and_assault_staff_member/

Sounds like the police weren't interested

We used to live more or less opposite that branch. Until I listened to someone get shot dead outside at 4am one Saturday. Then we moved.

The gentrification and heavy CCTV presence in nearby Brixton seems to have forced gang-related crime into the surrounding areas. I quite liked West Norwood, it was charming, but there's no denying it has some serious problems.

We used to live here and I'm not surprised. It's all very well local people being 'disgusted' but they don't have to work there. The difference between this bank and where I live now is a world apart. I get offered tea in my local bank.

I got tea in the Natwest a mile from Norwood! West Norwood does need a kick up the backside as it doesn't seem to have the sense if community Streatham has.

I heard West Norwood is going to get a Ritzy cinema like in Brixton, which would help a lot - I'd love to go there rather than Purley Way.

notcitrus, did you? I once fainted in Kwik Save in Streatham. They wouldn't even give me a glass of water! Another customer bought me a bottle, they made here queue up at the checkout to pay.

We used to live near Brockwell Park about 15 years ago and it seemed to have been quite gentrified then, Brixton was changing its reputation because there were a load of new, attractive houses being built alongside the park. I must have got the night bus through Norwood loads of times after evenings out in Crystal Palace.

Most of the families I knew sold up, looking for better schools and moved to the country. Has it really gone downhill in that time?

Kwiksave in Streatham, tufty? Must have been a long time ago, hasnt been one as long as I've lived here (may be a supermarket thing; I fainted in Sainsburys in Cambridge andafter coming round I had to queue up all over again to pay!).

I'm a bit of a connisseur of Streatham banks now - HSBC provide water and invite you to breastfeed and change nappies as required during appointments. The Natwest tea was crap from a vending machine, to be fair - should have gone for coffee!

Norwood is a strange place, I think it suffers from surrounding places that bits of it aspire to - Brixton, Dulwich, Crystal Palace and even Streatham Hill and Tulse Hill, leaving only a small bit that admits to being Norwood. The nice parts are so spread out and hilly that you can't walk it and they don't feel like part of the town, and what's left is a bit of no-mans-land near a station, rather like Thornton Heath only nicer.

I live in West Norwood and yes we are going to have a Picturehouse cinema and a swimming pool and gym within the next 2 years. It is a good community with some great shops and friendly people!

That's really good news, guardcat. I really liked West Norwood, it had a nice feel about it. It could potentially be as lovely as Dulwich, Herne Hill, or Crystal Palace and the new facilities will really help.