Moving to Forest Gate / Manor Park

[lamii]

Anyone can give me reviews or tips on these areas?
We have approx 350K budget, young arty couple without kids yet.
Safety, markets, neighbours, etc...?
Thank you all

What are you looking for? 1 bed, 2 bed? Period? Garden?

For £350k Maryland, Forest Gate and Manor Park are good areas to look to try and find something decent to live in. Might also be able to get a 1 bed in Leyton?

@YelloDraw
We want a house with a garden, how big as possible. We can refurbish it. I can see 2bedrooms on Rightmove at the moment. Seems doable?

Yes I think you can get a 2 bed house with garden, especially if you move towards upton park and plaistow. Maybe not in 'true' forest gate tho as that has had a lot of growth with cross rail getting priced in and people generally moving out to find value.

I did look around there but

pressed send too soon!

I did look around there but didn't really find anything that ticked the boxes when I was looking. I liked it around forest gate but not so much towards upton park and manor park as the quality of the housing stock seemed poor and not very well looked after. Lots of HMOs etc. However, a house is a house and it can only get nicer with xrail!

@YelloDraw
Thanks for reply. Yes a house is a house but it should not look like a ruin, I agree! I came to London one week ago and looked at so many areas. Sutton wasn't great, Bromley not well connected...etc
Then someone mentioned around Forest Gate on the day I left. Xrail will be a big plus yes.

I grew up in Forest Gate!

One thing I never really appreciated until I grew up is just how good the transport is there, train from Forest Gate to Stratford/Liverpool St is very, very handy (also Ilford/Romford in the other direction for shopping), Wanstead Park station takes you to Barking, Leytonstone and parts of North London, and lots of buses to the rest of Newham.

Neighbours don't tend to make close friends from what I picked up, but are generally very pleasant to each other.

It's become very gentrified since when I lived there so in some ways it's like a different world, but perhaps if you have specific questions I can help? It's hard to know where to start

@ChaseAvenal
Hello!
Thanks for your tips. Mainly I would like to know if it's a safe area, if it's acceptably clean. How about schools and leisure activities? Cafes, yoga and all.
Thanks!

Forest Gate / Manor Park / Maryland...anyone else?

It seems to be reasonably clean, it sounds weird but I guess that's not something I really notice, and safety- depends on the area, I will admit there were times and places where people were a little intimidating or verbally abusive to me and others, but at the end of the day we're all safe and I also get the feeling that knife crime is nowhere near as likely as other areas of East London. It also depends which part of Forest Gate, there are nicer areas and rougher areas, and from what I know, the same is true of Manor Park.
I have fond memories of primary school there (the same cannot be said about secondary but that was for social reasons rather than any kind of lacking on their part) and all the schools tend to be improving every year. Things like cafes etc. seem to be on the increase- CoffeE7 is reccomend by my family! I can't say I know anything about the yoga, but Atherton leisure centre is good for most exercise and other activities. There is a nice market on Saturdays (not sure if every Saturday or once per month/fortnight) near to the train station. Queens Market is great too, I was able to buy fabric for a really good price when I first became interested in making clothes as a teen, and the rest of Green Street has amazing Asian clothing, even when I was just going through on the bus I loved how beautiful and colourful everything was.
The thing I loved most about the area was how multicultural it was. That's the main reason I miss London, but particularly true in Newham.
I feel like I am such a limited help as I lived there for the majority of my life and yet so much has changed in the 5 years since I left to study, but I hope some of this will help you.

Have you looked at Leytonstone? I lived in Forest Gate some years ago and hated it there was always litter and fly tipping about, we would find used needles in our front garden, I ended up taking walks with my DS in the cemetery as the local parks were permanently occupied by junkies. It depends where exactly it is if it's close to the Flats it's better and the conservation area (around Claremont Road) is nice. Personally I don't like Forest Gate. It was 10 years ago thou it's probably much better now.

This is nice. Great location. Wanstead is lovely but you would get less space for your money. www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-61080293.html

When I says close to the Flats I meant close to or on Capel Road.