Husband wants to move to Peckam. I don't!

[speckledpig]

We have been looking to buy a place on the outskirts of London in some of the more affordable places in Kent as we are growing out of our 2 bed flat in north London. We have two girls coming to school age. I am not a London person, I don't enjoy living in London but am here for my husband's work. We have been looking for a few weeks now and have found a few places we both like but husband keeps wanting to move further in to his work. He has now got his sights on Peckham!
With a budget of £250.000 I just don't think we will get anywhere very nice at all. I am really not keen on moving this far into London and Peckham doesn't seem like the safest haven.
So please correct me if I am wrong. He is getting fed up now and doesn't want to move any further out (even though there are places within our budget a 30 min train journey away)
This weekend I have agreed to go and view a couple of flats in Peckham but I am not happy about it at all.
Can anyone please correct my misinterpretations of Peckham to help me change my mind?

And there are those that LOVE living here...hate to say it but it does depend which part you live...it has a fabulous community vibe but if you come with attitude its not much surprise you wont fit in....have seen it time and time again....some ppl wont fit in anywhwere though!

Those that dont like peckham I would like to know which part you lived (so i can nod in agreement) but the part I live in is brilliant but very expensive

I actually get annoyed when ppl diss my place of abode...my initial thought is always come and see where I am...most ppl are very pleasantly surprised with how lovely it is and since it is so expensive it must have something going for it

Any area in London is nice if you can afford the expensive parts. If you are on a mere quarter of a million as a budget you have to be a little more pragmatic. I speak as someone who grew up in SE London and has generations of family from Peckham and Camberwell. It has always had nice bits if you have the money.

and tbf everyone has been saying the expensive bit is nice/the nice bit is expensive.

I live in Sydenham. Lots of young families here,high st a bit shabby but we have a lovely butcher/fishmonger.
Our local primary is really good too.
My next door house in on sale for £280k if you can stretch
I would love for my DC's to have friends as next door neighbours!

To say you would not live 'anywhere near Peckham' is utterly, utterly ridiculous. For a start the uber-trendy/ expensive middle class mini nappy valley of E Dulwich is within 3 mins walk (with toddler and buggy) of huge swathes of Peckham.

Peckham has changed a lot over the last few years. It has brilliant cafes, restaurants, trendy pubs, organic pizza, artisan chocolate, the transport routes have improved, it is boundaried by the regenerated Deptford area and many more benefits. People will like it or not, just like any other area, all you have to do is go and see for yourself.

Be off with you then, all you foolish anti-Peckhamites! I shall just have to enjoy Peckham without you.

[Plans saunter down to Rye Lane via lovely green spaces of Nunhead Cemetary and Peckham Rye to shop in the great new Polish butcher, the superb Chinese supermarket and Khans as well as the bargain pound shops, budget supermarkets and clothes shops (handy for the strapped of cash such as me) and amazing old fashioned African owned fabric shops where I shall pick up Dylon for my son's tie dyeing, followed by trip to Peckham Pulse (which has best hydrotherapy pool and cheapest cleanest soft play around). I will meet all sorts of people on the way and they will all be lovely to my toddler. I will cast a quick admiring glance at the iconic architecture of Peckham library- no time to pop in for books today but tomorrow is another day. Perhaps the Farmers Market will be there tomorrow, maybe one of the the only UK Farmers markets where you will find quite a good mix of ethnicity and plenty of African women eyeing the foccacia with seeming suspicious lofty distaste before telling the stall holder that his prices are ridiculous and haggling him down! Eat that, Whittingstall. I think I will take the children to Ganapatis for a truly spectacular lunch of delicious South Indian curry. My sons are on a free film making course today, courtesy of the Peckham Free Film Festival (well it's next week actually but allow me some artistic license) and while they're away I will investigate the Royal Court Theatre Local event being held at the Bussey building, in case I want to get (cheap) tickets to see an amazing performance event in a brilliant old building. I will take my daughter to one of the several fantastic playgrounds on offer and later I shall pop to the newly refurbished Rye Hotel with the whole family for a nice beer or two and my teens can play table tennis in the garden while my toddler daughter hides under tables and my partner happily sups of lovely ales. And I shall think of you all rotting in your genteel suburbs and laugh. Mwahahahahahahahaha, I shall go.]

Peckham is the last place in the world I would raise my kids. I'm sorry but the place is a shithole.

Where do you raise your kids then, Becky?

All the wonders of Peckham aren't the issue. What you can buy in Peckham for 250k compared to what you can buy in other places is.

South Norwood is up and coming. Primaries improved a lot during recent years (see Dept of Education performance tables), 12 mins train to the City, East London line, Beckenham & Crystal Palace just a stone throw's away, Croydon for shopping, a massive Country park, affordable childcare. I think it has a massive potential and you can get nice 3 bed house for your budget.
I never use South Norwood high street, which is a no-go, but everything else is fine.

My DS just got into faboulous primary and we got a couple of lovely new neighbours, who just moved in from Rotherhithe and Streatham.
Secondaries is on a question mark, but Croydon council is planning to open a new one just 2 roads from us as an annexe of a good Sutton/Bromley school, so that might be sorted as well.

OP has said "Peckham doesn't seem like the safest haven" and "can anyone correct my misinterpretations of Peckham", so I thought she wanted to know about the local area. I agree that it will be a struggle for her to find a middle class looking house with garden for £250000 here or indeed anywhere in London. however, our own place in Nunhead is less than that(ex council, on estate, really needs decorating but has 3 bedrooms, garden and nice neighbours) so I think/hope my posts on the potential positives of the area are relevant.

Fair enough!

I think you would struggle to find a 3 bed house in Bromley or Beckenham for 250k.

My sister has just bought in Eltham/Welling area on that budget having started off looking around Beckenham and finding nothing suitable.

Ee live in West Wickham in a 3 bed semi and when we were looking 2 years ago in this area everything was 300k plus.

Eltham is just a short drive from Greenwich which has changed beyond all recognition over last 10 years. Also woods and parks for walking. There is a rough side in the high street at night but that's true of Bromley too.

Scummy - places like Peckham and Nunhead are, IME, full of people who are short on cash but big on open-mindedness - and you will have the last laugh as you mwah-hhahahahahaha into the sunset because you will benefit from all the regeneration and the people who are short on cash but big on open mindedness moving in.

This is one of my favourite Peckham pubs and it has bollards designed by Zandra Rhodes at the end of it's road!

Mwah hahahahahaha HAHA!

As Kirsty and Phil say, you have make compromises. It's either a long commute, with high train costs and missing the kids bedtimes, or relentless noise of planes overhead, a bit of urban grit, or squeezing yourselves into a shoebox. Unfortunately in London mist of may have to encompass at least 2 of these factors

Or you can leave London and have none of those inconveniences. Much as I loved my 13 years in London, leaving was the best move I made once I had a family. Unless Peckham has changed dramatically in the last few years, it's very vibrant grim.

Loving this thread, as a resident Peckamite. Peckham is fantastic - if you have the cash to live in the decent bits. We moved here when the house we were buying in SW fell through and I suddenly realised that for the same money as the poky three bed Battersea "cottage" we could get a four storey house. In somewhere that was extremely desirable, felt like a well-kept secret, and was ten minutes from London Bridge. We moved SE in 2005 and haven't looked back, love it here.

Having said that, there are very distinct areas of SE15 and I wouldn't want to live in parts of it. And scummymummy you're the first person I've heard describe Peckham Pulse soft play as clean!

Did you see any Peckham places over the weekend OP? How did it go?

I am in Peckham regularly.

OP you can't afford the naice parts on that budget not if you want a house /outside space anyway.

You would get a 3 bed victorian house with decent garden on your budget in Catford

That was a recommendation to look at Catford!

Although I personally would choose to live in catbird,mthere are some really nice places there, good prices and good transport links too. Def worth a look

Bloody autocorrect. Catford!

I like Catbird

Love how this thread is still trundling on and op hasn't been back since last Thursday .