Can anyone sell Leytonstone/East London to me? We've been looking in South East in zones 2-4 but for somewhere that's supposedly the cheap quarter it seems bloody expensive. We have c£350k for a decent grow-into period house and the only major proviso is we'd like to be very close (as in under half a mile) to an East London line station into the City. That effectively rules out Brockley, HOP and Forest Hill which are very expensive near the stations, so we'd be looking at Sydenham/Penge. I think they both look fine, it's just still not great value. I have a sneaking feeling, and DP has even more so, that we've missed the boat a bit there.
So then we had a look online at Leytonstone (swapping East London Line for Central Line) and it seems much cheaper. Why? I know nothing else about East London except that I have a positive dislike of Stratford Westfield and (controversial though this may be) Walthamstow. So there isn't really any pull for me there at the moment, whereas there are lots of places in S and SE London I already like.
No DCs, so schools not an issue but we are very fogeyish mature and tend to like the same stuff that comes with family areas.
All views appreciated.
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MadBusLady · 24/07/2012 21:31
Well they have bought the shopping centre so it's days may be numbered...I'm sure there would be some kind of petition though. You never know, it might be turned into some kind of monument 
I'm the OP, and I am sitting in my lovely house in... South East London. 
We could easily have gone for Leytonstone, it was really just a question of a house coming up. We're very happy here, as it turns out.
Perpetual you will get lovely ex-LA flats in Brockley/HOP/Forest Hill for that budget (2 or even 3 beds), some in 30s buildings which are well worth looking at IMO. Or come a bit further south.
Your ammunition needs: I could go on about the leafiness, Crystal Palace Park, all the cafes and vintage community organic this, that and the others etc, that stuff does exist. Take your boyfriend for tea and cake at Patacakes in Crofton Park, have a little walk up the fabulous Blythe Hill Fields or One Tree Hill, go for a pint in the Sylvan Post in Forest Hill. And one thing that's vastly different down here is how easy it is to get to lovely countryside - we can be in Kent market towns or up on the North Downs Way in 35 minutes.
But this is my take on it - and it's highly subjective, so I apologise in advance for any offence. The underlying reason we left North London is that it's for old people. By which I mean, people who are in some sense established, who got in on the ground floor years ago. There's nothing new there any more, all the community garden groups have been started, all the farmers' markets have been going for years, all the ice cream parlours have been opened (I tell a lie, somebody did open a new ice cream parlour in Crouch End when I lived there - an Islington banker!), there's a Pitcher and Piano on every street corner. It's all very comfy and moneyed and it feels like all the excitement and buzz happened there about 15 years ago, and the people who live there still remember the past glories and big up how "funky" it all is - but all the new young arrivals get is colossal housing costs.
SE London has stuff that's starting to happen now. We feel like we can build our lives here, we might open businesses here, and get involved in community stuff that isn't already being run by an older generation. North London's a great place to rent when you first hit town and get your bearings. South London (or East for that matter) is where you strike out.
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