Thornton Heath

[Lizze87]

Hi all,

Long time reader first time poster!

I've been viewing a lot of properties recently and think I'm settling on the idea of moving to Thornton Heath.

Seems to be great value, and the areas around grangewood park are lovely, nice short walk to crystal palace aswell.

Does anyone else live between grangewood park and the allotments?

What do you think of the area? Can you recommend any primary schools?

Thanks!

Thornton Heath is a bit stabby - does that not put you off? For schools, the website below is a good starting point.

www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/find-a-school-in-england

Thanks for the link I'll take a look tonight, I've been spending the last few weekends there and have always felt completely safe

Where abouts do you live in thornton heath? I've been living here for around 10 years and can really see how much its changing (thinking it might be due to the crystal palace overflow) i certainly feel safe and love it

Someone mentioned the other day they might be investing another £25m in the high street

Thank you, we're looking around the lawns/spa hill/Howberry road area.

We read that too. Hopefully they'll get cinema soon! The closest one is in crystal palace, although everyman cinema seems really expensive!

Yes, we’ve moved into a terraced house near the allotment and love it! My kids are in secondary school so I don’t know about primary school.

I like the rec on Spa Hill especially the woods and trail - I feel community spirit. We can hop on the bus 450 to get to CP and TH. Good luck!

Kaz

I grew up there and my Mum still lives there. It's definitely still "crunchy" but I've never really felt unsafe there. I think most places in London and outskirts are "stabby" to be honest. You only have to watch that Ambulance programme on BBC to see that.

I have lived in "better" areas since I moved out of home and nowhere has had the same sense of community that I have always felt in Thornton Heath.

And the majority of the housing stock is amazing! Such nice houses that you can get.

I detest the word "stabby" to describe neighbourhoods. Please bear in mind that people live in these areas: families, community minded people, people just trying to get by who maybe don't have the opportunity to move to a different area. To hear people looking down on their neighbourhoods, where knife crime can be a real worry for families with teens, is upsetting. Please be mindful of who might be reading these threads.

Thornton Heath - I live close by but I don't know that specific area too well. Have you also looked at Norwood Junction / South Norwood? Amazing transport links, similar price bracket to Thornton Heath, and more green space.

I lived in that area about 10 years ago, had a lovely house but we only stayed 20 months. Felt too gritty, not safe to walk home from the train station at night. We also moved there thinking it was close enough to Crystal Palace but it wasn't really.

Someone mentioned the other day they might be investing another £25m in the high street

If that was coming from Croydon Council don't hold your breath as they have filed for bankruptcy.

On paper, it looks great, in reality the area around the High street is very rough. I really, really would not recommend it.

Overall the schools are poor with the exceptions of St James the Great and St Cyprians are good schools but these are faith based.

Just re-read your post and saw you were asking about primary schools. They aren't the best in Thornton Heath. I know families with children at The Crescent who like it. Again, if you haven't already, take a look at South Norwood - the bit near the lake north of the high street, or below the high street on the country park side (this area is actually much cheaper than the area north of the high street near the lake, because it's that bit further away from Crystal Palace, but just as family friendly and actually closer to Norwood Junction and the better transport links there . These areas are much more quiet and residential than a lot of Thornton Heath. And walking distance to really nice parks.

Depending on the road, good schools in that area would be Cypress, Stuart Fleming (if you are close to the top end of country park side of South Norwood), and Oasis Ryelands. They are all really decent schools and rated 'good' by Ofsted (not that I necessarily think Ofsted is the best measure).

If you look at Croydon crime stats, Broad Green (sort of in between West Croydon, central Croydon, and Thornton Heath) has the highest crime rates. It's because it's closer to central croydon and is naturally a busier area.