Would you move to Hither Green if you had the choice to live in Kew/Barnes?

[Sarahhhh5]

Hello!
For those living in Hither Green, would you still recommend it? We are looking there; however, we are toying with giving up on buying and renting instead. The main reason is safety. We were viewing a house yesterday and just missed the stabbing in Hither Green. Lane. The house we viewed was two streets over, so less than a two-minute walk. We live in Colliers Wood, so we are very familiar with stabbings and crime. It happens everywhere. Hither Green seems like the "last" place people can actually still afford to buy, but the safety issues keep coming up. There were two stabbings just weeks before. We are thinking of renting somewhere small just because it is "safe", like Kew/Barnes and throwing in the towel on ownership. Thoughts? Many thanks, Sarah

Hi, How is Hither Green the last place to buy? What do you need? Knife crime is totally random, as far as I can ascertain.

The thing that would put me off Hither Green is that it's next to Lewisham - where there are plans to knock down the perfectly fine shopping centre and build a new one plus ten gazillion flats (despite there being recently built ones which are uninhabitable apparently).
The whole place will be a massive building site for the next several years.

Thanks for your reply - I meant nice homes that are "done" for under £1m. I have been broken into twice, so I guess safety is a bit more important to me. If you live in Hither Green, do you like the area? Did you move there just to be able to buy a house or other reasons?

Thank you - But if you are in Hither Green? do you care? How often do you go there?

You can buy a small house in Kew for under £1m. You could also get a more spacious flat. I’d pick Kew over Hither Green any day.

Wouldn’t live in Hither Green because of the amount of drug crime/drug dependants in the area, they raise the burglary stats. Despite the recent stabbing not that concerned over knife crime there. Lewisham as a whole has very few nice roads… sorry

I was thinking for you if you are living there.
Lewisham will be where you would be likely to go shopping. Access medical facilities, transport, leisure facilities, schools etc.
Traffic is chaos in general but will get so much much worse.

I’d buy a smaller place in Kew or Barnes rather than Hither Green any day of the week. Or if it meant not getting on the property ladder I’d go outside of London and buy in a nice commuter village or town instead of buying in Hither Green.

Kew most definitely

They are totally different types of areas, what are your priorities like transport, shops, schools. I'd look at Dulwich or Sydenham Bromley, Beckenham, Bickley, Sundridge park, chislehurst if you've got £1m and want to be in se.

Thanks! I am SW near Morden, so the area is new to me. Thanks for pointing that out.

Basically Hither Green is a part of Lewisham.
Kew is much much nicer.
(Although I have no idea if there's any building plans in the Kew area. The whole of London seems to be a building site these days 🙁)

That's such a shame , 30 years ago it was such a lovely place, nice little shops, great schools a short walk to Blackheath.

I quite like Hither Green, it has a nice community vibe but is in Lewisham so is quite gritty like everywhere in zones 2/3. If you like Kew why not look at somewhere like Blackheath Standard, Dulwich, Chislehurst.

If you like Barnes then look at Roehampton ? Cheaper there. Or Sutton is cheaper and safe

Kew is nice. But the plane noise!

How about Kingston or Rayne's park?

Why do you need to move from where you are?

Areas outside of Kew and Barnes where you can get a house for £1m and it not be rough.

I keep having reoccurring dreams that I have a flat in Kew, then waking up wondering whether it’s real. Then obviously very disappointed 🤣

I used to stay with my friend in Barnes village a lot many years ago. It is such a beautiful place with a lovely feel however I would never live there as being under the Heathrow flight path was horrendous. Maybe if you live there you get used to it but I don't think I could. It was unbelievably loud.

I'm in Hither Green and like living here! I've been here 20 years now and like that it feels like London, transport connections are excellent, we're within easy reach of touristy areas such as Greenwich and Central London but the area itself is an active and creative community. The recent stabbings are sad but don't make me feel any less safe nor do they make me feel as though my teenagers are less safe. We live probably a similar distance from the most recent one as the property you described.

Lewisham shopping centre is not beautiful but it's useful, as is the market. Bromley has a wider range of shops and is only a bus ride away but the area in general has a good number of independent shops within walking distance of Hither Green.

@SE13Mummy have you seen the plans for the shopping centre though?
It's ridiculous. It's a rare shopping centre that is actually full of shops but they want to knock it down to rebuild it all again with more ruddy flats.
I wish they'd just leave it alone.
(sorry @Sarahhhh5 for jumping on your thread)

Thank you for the comment. Do you mean due to the area in general or because there is a drug treatment centre? After the stabbing we asked a resident that was putting up Halloween decorations for advice, and they indicated that the hither green lane side is considered the "rougher" side with more antisoicial issues. She didnt specifty why. Is that reflected in house prices too? It seems both sides are similarly priced.

I’ve lived next to both Hither Green and Barnes. I’d choose Barnes and that general area. It is expensive, but if you’re a little flexible it might be doable.

@Sarahhhh5 there's an age old prejudice/snobbery (mostly from some of those on the Lee side of the station) that the HGL side is rougher/less desirable than their side. I'm not convinced either side is more rough than the other. The local FB group mentions more muggings/attempted muggings on the Lee side than on the HGL side but that will have as much to do with who posts in the group as it does actual crime rates. The HGL side is probably more diverse but apart from the double-fronted Victorian houses that both sides have, the HGL side's terraced houses are wider, have larger back gardens and are further from the road than those on the Lee side. The HGL side is better served by transport because there's such easy access to buses along HGL but also Rushey Green. Likewise, there's easy access to Catford and Ladywell stations which is useful if the Hither Green line has issues.

Barnes is probably prettier than SE13 but whenever I've been there, it's always felt like it's a long way from anywhere. I guess it's what you get used to and what sort of London life you're after.

I lived in Hither Green 30 years ago, it was a hole.