Where in London to definitely avoid (no judgement)

[PenisesAreNotPink]

I've been researching areas, every time I find a property in a road I like I do a google search on crime - and obviously lots of areas that come up are rife with crimes I'm particularly nervous of owning teenagers, knife crime.

So what areas/roads are particularly challenging?

My current favourite areas are kilburn, cricklewood, kennington, borough, Greenwich, Westminster (westminsters my favourite but only get 300 square feet max for my money and I really need a 2 bed)

I would love a little flat smack bang in the middle of town. With a weeny little kitchen, a fully tiled bathroom with a dinner plate shower head over the bath, a bedroom with views over the rooftops and cozy living room.
You would walk straight out of your door onto a narrow pavement and the joys of London Town

Me too MrsD my great aunt had a place like this in Kensington in Ye Old Days of rent controls.

I actually really loved that tiny Barnsbury house that everyone was clutching their pearls about earlier this week.

yep, avoid Stockwell! (unless one min from the tube and well above the ground level).
The grimmest of all is Harlesden though , not only crime is high but (unlike parts of also-scary Hackney) there is NO funky streets/markets, no urban cool, no vibe, just dullest of dull and very shabby.

Finsbury park I would avoid. I live near stockwell and wouldn't want to live on main road from tube because so busy but there are some really lovely roads more towards Oval. Don't think you'd get 2 beds for 400k though. I don't get Hackney in general.

most of those flats are very extremely dinky tiny -you need to visit them. and mark out furniture, unless you have tiny beds and teeny weeny sofas would be nitemare.... you cant divide rooms up because of where the windows are etc. and add on separate storage room costs.

if you can find a place with very very tall ceilings like my current rental, (my daughter can stand up on the top bunk and not hit her head....) you could consider getting a carpenter to build you mezzanine built in bed for your dd when she comes etc.

but really anything under 50 metres square is tiny tiny .

areas:

west hampstead
maida vale.
small place in hampstead or belzise park - easy to taxi from central London .
Victoria is booming and lots more places open at weekends now.

Clapham.

Not sure if this has been covered, but your preferred flat in Kennington is fine - it's a new-ish block mainly occupied by professional types and they've thrown a fair bit of money at the area. Black Prince Rd isn't great but it's a lot better than it was (there's now a Tesco Metro ). I never had a concern wandering along there at night if needed. The entrance to that block is basically on Kennington Rd anyway, I'd say it was pretty safe.

Regarding Black Prince Road SE11.... I've just moved from there, (Albert Embankment end) and can honestly say I felt safe around there. OK, so there was a shooting about 4 years ago on one of the estates, but as someone else said, it's rarely an innocent person who has been shot....
Black Prince road has large estates either side the entire length. I must've walked that road hundreds of times and never had a problem. The parade of shops at Lambeth Walk and Jonathan Street are grotty but fine. There are some lovely little cafés on Kennington lane near the park too. There is quite a sense of community around there too, something which I really felt when I had my daughter.
In that area is also a great German pub The Zeitgiest, a gastropub The Black Dog, The Tea House theatre - great tea and cakes obvs! Tasty Portuguese cafés, Tamesis dock for a sunset drink.... I could go on.
Vauxhall Spring Gardens is having a revival too, this summer they have had a 'screen on the green' every Tuesday, great stuff.
We moved a month ago and just writing this is the first time I realised that I miss the place....

Hope that helps.

I agree that Black Prince road is fine...