Hither Green - Mount Pleasant Road (advice)

[heatherkay333]

Hi there,

My husband and I currently rent in North London and are looking to buy in SE London due to the more affordable costs and better access to nature. Plus we do have more a community there.

We have found a few properties on Mount Pleasant Road in Hither Green (the side closest to the HG station) that seem very nice, but based on past discussions on here from 2018, it seems it's not the best area to live in. I am just wondering if that has changed at all? Is it safe or should we look elsewhere? We would mainly want to make sure we could sell it again at a similar price or higher in a few years if we decide to move again.

Thank you so much for your advice.

I used to live around there. Mount Pleasant Road is nice, especially as you get further towards the Hither Green side. Very family friendly, all of Hither Green is rammed with young families. Mountsfield Park is one of the best parks in the area, loads going on. Nice cafes on Hither Green Lane. You'll need to check that your address gets you into Brindishe Green school, if you are too far towards Lewisham High Street then you will be in a bit of a black hole for school choice.

Don't listen to people who make out that the west side of Hither Green is "worse" than the east side. I mean, it is, but only because the east side is basically Blackheath and full of rich people with their nannies and Porsches. The west side is just more normal than that.

I used to live in Bounds Green N11 (for 5 years leaving 6 years ago) with a close friend who lived just off Mount Pleasant Road Hither Green - I went there once a fortnight throughout that time. She never really had any problems except getting heckled a bit - she was a bit prone to this due to her physical appearance - but it was much less there than when she was in Brixton previously and she much preferred HG. I was never unduly concerned walking solo as a 20s/30s woman late at night coming home but was aware of 'keeping my eyes out' and always let her know I was home safe - things like that you might not do if it was 100% lovely, but it was just part of being sensible and sort of becomes second nature rather than any kind of worry.

I often have battles with my parents about slightly more run-down areas 'oh you couldn't live there...' they'd say - well thousands of people do, obviously, and they're 99% going to be completely normal people just like anyone else! It probably allows you to have a much nicer house if you're not too concerned about it!

Hither Green used to be a bit run down but is now popular with young families and has more nice cafes etc. I think it has come up since 2018.

Yes to be fair I last visited about 5 years ago!

This is all extremely helpful - thank you so much :)

Hi @heatherkay333 Did you find a place? There are a few properties available on Harvard Road in HG at the moment. Reasonable prices and close to Mountsfield Park, Brindishe Green school and the cafés on HG Lane and HG village. Best of luck to you! We love HG and have had two kids here, with my eldest in Brindishe Green.

Thank you so much for checking @Queenieoh and for thinking of me! That is so kind. Such great timing - we actually just picked up the keys to our new flat on Mount Pleasant Road yesterday:) It’s been a long journey getting here but very excited - it’s so encouraging to hear that you love HG! We are on the closer side to Brinidishe Green so we are really happy about that too. The only thing is we don’t know if we’ve paid too much … it took us ages to find a two bed flat in our budget that we liked and I think we were scared that someone else would get it (it happened to us 3 times in other areas). But hopefully it will always be an attractive area to live in - we love the location and so excited to build community in HG. A new experience going from north to south London so I’ll be curious what we think :)) Hopefully meet you in HG!