Kings Avenue Bromley - is this Downham?

[treaclepumpkin]

Hiya, very specific question that I’m hoping a few people on here might be able to help me answer.

We have been searching for a new home and currently live on the Bromley/Bickley border. The dream would be to be in Bickley (kids go to school there), but struggling to find a property we can afford there.

We’ve found a house here - and really I don’t even know why we viewed it as this side of burnt ash is not somewhere we would normally consider. But now have found a stunning home here on a quiet street and are sooo torn. We would never consider it if it were closer to the Bromley Hill side. It’s pretty much in the middle, just to the right of Kinnaird Avenue.

I know it’s snobbish, but I don’t want to live anywhere that is considered Downham (or could even be mistaken for Downham). The Agent of course sold it as Bromley North, but feels too far away to call it that really. I suppose if could be considered Plaistow - but to me that sounds like a made up area designed to cover up the fact an area is Downham really.

For anyone who knows anything about the area, I’d really love your views on what you think.

Map: g.co/kgs/1vSn4d

TIA!

It’s right near the Bromley Court Hotel by the look of that map?
I think that’s Downham sorry.
I used to work at a bakers just near there.

😂

@Tlollj Thank you. Yes - the top of the road is right by the hotel. I was trying to convince myself that maybe halfway down the street it "turned" from Downham to something else. Sigh...

The property search goes on...

It is in Plaistow. Some might mistake it for Downham because it's near the borders where wards changeover. It certainly is NOT Bromley North.

Map showing the new wards in Lewisham as of May 22 and shows Downham's borders:
consultation.lgbce.org.uk/node/17020

You get a bigger lovelier house for less for a reason. A compromise has to be made somewhere.. better location or better house? Tough to get both on a budget! Good luck!

I have lived in that area all my life. It's not Downham because it's the posh bit! Downham starts at the estate.

It's a nice place to live; there's a good community around Sundridge Park.

I live just a bit further down Burnt Ash and absolutely love it. We couldn't afford what we wanted in Bromley/Bickley so compromised on the area and I'm so glad we did.

Would definitely consider the location of your house to be Plaistow - to be honest, it would be one of my preferred streets to live on; easy to walk to Sundridge Park but also benefit from the shops on Burnt Ash. Whatever you decide though, good luck with the search!

I grew up in Sundridge Park & would consider it Bromley rather than Downham, but the edge of Bromley, just before Downham 🙂

Thanks for the map @SuperDuperRice - so it looks like literally Bromley starts exactly at Kings Avenue 😂. We drove past it again and immediately after Avondale there is a sign saying welcome to Bromley. So it just makes the cut. I guess.

Definitely at "risk" of being confused for Downham by some (including me clearly). We do really love the house.

Nice to know from others who are local that Plaistow is a legitimately distinctive area and they would appreciate it wasn't in a bad area. Also thinking perhaps the "forever home" can wait a couple more years and this could be a good option for now.

Though also thinking in a couple of years we'll probably be in a recession and the price will have dropped down...but that's a whole other issue 😩

Whats your budget

So basically it's snobbery that you don't want people to think you like in Downham instead of Bromley? I lived in Bromley (just off Widmore Road) years ago and I would call it Bromley not Downham, and maybe it's changed around there but I can't see that being a bad area at all!

@BlanketsBanned - around £1m

@ItsSnowJokes - it is snobbery, I can't pretend.We have a couple of family members and also friends who have said in years past they were in Bromley and not downham. I always mentally rolled my eyes and didn't believe them. And now it's coming back to bite me - not that it's something I've ever outwardly expressed to anyone other than my husband really.

Looking at the map, my mental eye rolls were unjustified. They were not in Downham.

But Downham from a crime perspective growing up never had a good rep. Definitely not a place I thought I'd raise kids one day.

Funnily enough talked to my dad earlier. He said back in the day his dream was one day to have enough money to buy a house in either Kings Avenue or Park Avenue. It's a funny old world.

When I last visited Bromley, which was last year it has got so gentrified since I lived there that even Downham proper wasn't rough! I also went to Eltham and that was rough years ago, and that was all gentrified as well. You can't afford the exact area you want, so some of your snobbishness is going to have to go I'm afraid!

There are a couple of lovely houses in Southborough Lane under your budget which is easier for Bickley schools, where are you living now.

@BlanketsBanned - yes the area around there is fine. Not far from where we are now right on the Bickley/bromley town sort of border. But Southborough Lane is such a big/busy road.

Saw a house just behind there when we first started looking - possibly even the first we saw. When we were naive enough to think the asking price would be enough (that was already technically over budget and we thought chucking in an extra £10k would seal the deal). In hindsight if we knew what the market had become/how little supply there was, we perhaps would have fought harder for that one.

Kings Avenue isn't awful for the kids school - looks like a 10 min drive with no traffic, so we'd manage I think.

Still don't know if we will go ahead and offer. But sooner or later our buyers will lose patience. And we'll have to decide whether to move into rented or not. But I'm just hoping against hope we'll get something that works (maybe we already have...).

@ItsSnowJokes Yes, I think I do have to come to terms with the fact that property prices have moved on an awful lot more than we had appreciated. These same houses a few years ago were definitely within budget. But we just didn't ever really get into gear properly re moving - and really I just was too cautious about over extending ourselves.

Unless I win the lottery or something, I guess that dream house in Bickley will just have to wait 😩

Have you considered secondary schools? Because I would make sure you would be happy with those (unless you are going private).

@Abuildingwith4wallsandtmrinsid Yes -we've gone the private route. So hopefully we'll be ok on that front.

OK that is great. It is strange how much the prices have shot up in Bickley! You used to be able to get a huge detached house off eg Oldfield Road just 2-3 years ago.

I think the area you are looking at will gentrify further, but equally I do think if you stick with Bickley (with access to Chislehurst and Bickley Railway station) the three good state primaries (La Fontaine, Bickley, St George’s) and now catchment for Bullers Wood Girls and Boys (plus grammar option in Bexley, Orpington and even Tonbridge) you can’t go wrong in the long run. Even if it means compromising on style of house and getting eg. A more 60s house etc

At the moment it is quite difficult to say what will happen going forward regarding house prices.

I just found this post whilst looking up the history of Downham estate. An estate on which my mother single handedly raised me from 1970 to 1994.

I have had 3 very varied and successful careers. I obtained a first class degree in radiography and I am now fortunate enough to earn a wage that puts me in the top 20% of salaries in the UK.

Tell me. Does your admitted snobbery mean that you will look down your nose at me because of my place of birth? Would you of looked down your nose at my mother who lived on the estate for decades?

How can you be so snobbish when you can't afford a house in the more affluent areas that you do desire?

I appreciate there's areas you may not want to live because of crime rates but to say the reason you don't want to live there is because it's below you is really offensive to those who do and have lived there. People like myself who don't look down on others especially not those who have been dealt a harder hand in life.

I really hope you won the lottery and can afford the house you so desire so you can continue your snobbery but this time with some foundation.

I used to live in Kings Avenue and was there for about six years, its a beautiful road, very quiet and not affected by Downham at all if that is what you're worried about. It is a walk to the nearest convenience shop and unfortunately Waitrose has been replaced by Lidl I think at Burnt Ash. I used to work in Waitrose and the customers were lovely one of the nicest parts of the job but very working class like myself 😁

Not affected by Downham. Just wow.. pseudo snobbery..

Radjon tongue in cheek, as you will see from my reply to the OP, I worked at Burnt Ash and loved the people in the area as explained, because they were the same as me. No need to get on your high horse!!

Yeah my mum worked in Waitrose in the 80s. I'm fact she worked two jobs to keep her council house and family fed. Whilst I appreciate you were joking you're still feeding into this falicy that people from council estates are lesser than others. The original post creator has made it quite clear that they think the estate is below them and replying to that in any way other than correcting them is fuelling it.