Elephant and Castle

[ED71]

DH and I are looking to move back into London due to work. Our two DS’s are now in their 20’s and at Uni, one at Central St Martins so he’d be moving with us. Elephant and Castle was a very different place when I lived in London - views on life there now, has it had a proper glow up, good roads, bad bits, any other thoughts. Looking to buy a 3 bed with a garden/outside space. The three dogs replace the DC !

Very random place to move to IMHO. Have you seen any houses there?

What’s your must have list? As in what are you after? Period/ new build/ house/ flat?
do you like parks / coffee shop nearby/ do you drive or commute?
what’s your budget?

No go zone.

of all the places in all of London you are looking at the Elephant and Castle ?!
shakes head in bemusement

traffic pollution central OP as well as everything else …

IMO Borough is nice enough but elephant and castle would be a hard no.

No. Absolutely not. Hideous, hideous place.

It’s incredibly central and off the roundabout (which has some blocks with eye watering service charges and cladding risks) it’s all low traffic networks so incredibly quiet and unpolluted.
Great transport, parks- imperial war museum and 10 mins from Archbishop’s.

It might be nice when they finish it..... whenever that may be.
I think they've been building, knocking down, building again, knocking down since the Germans started the job in WW2.

I absolutely LOVED living there. Lived right on the roundabout in a converted office block and then further down in a house just off the top of Old Kent road. So easy to get into central London. I used to walk home from nights out without worrying as its always so busy. I walked to work, walked to the the Thames for restaurants/bars/etc. Such a handy location. And that was when people thought it was a dodgy shithole.

Wapping is a great place to live too and lots of options. Really quiet but central.

I used to work in E&C but that was about ten years ago so I don't know if it's changed. It was run down and very dodgy then.

It's not a no go zone. There's some really nice bits, depends what direction you go in. I wouldn't rush to live down the old Kent Road way and don't love Walworth Road, but the E&C streets towards Lambeth North, Borough or Vauxhall all have some decent properties around.

It's changed a lot but I don't like it. incredibly congested & not very attractive.

A 3 bed with a garden? In Elephant? Most of the 'glow up' had been apartment buildings. A nice 3-bed flat in one of the shiny new blocks on the Borough edge of Elephant will run £1m easy and not be the best choice with 3 dogs. If you want a big house with a garden, there will be limited choice around Elephant. In which park do you intend to walk the dogs?

@username299 they've knocked the "Worlds Worst Shopping Centre ©" down so now it's a giant building site.

That's a very random place to look for a garden flat!

You have dogs. Look somewhere near a nice park eg Herne Hill or Greenwich, both 15 minutes into centre

The shadow of the Heygate falls across E&C still.

Southwark Council turned off electricity to the blocks, no lifts, no heating,
bailiffs removed last die hards, of thousands of tenants - this is well documented.

All replacement apartments bought by foreign investors.
But why anyone would move there voluntarily defies logic

My god that place was post apocalyptic. And the subway nearby, you took your life in your hands walking through it.

or East Dulwich, with its arty vibe may suit you (better) station, buses,
Peckham Rye Park, Dulwich Park, dog park next to Sainsbury on DKH,
176 bus to E&C along the glorious Walworth Road, 20 mins.

You can't polish a turd, OP.

I lived there when I was pregnant with DC1.
DC1 is now 22 (23 years old next month) and lives there in a beautiful new flat with all of the bells and whistles. But... it's still the Elephant. It's chaotic. There's some nice restaurants around there now, but it's still grim just underneath the surface.
It's just 'too much London'. I thought it then and I think it now. It's just hostile and full-on and relentless around there. Loads of phone muggings. And honestly, property is extortionate.
And it really is no place for dogs unless yours are a banned breed.

In all honesty, there are so many other places in London that you could really enjoy living in. What's your budget, OP?

It's changed HUGELY in the last 10 years!

It's still dodgy though.

Burgess Park?

@username299 if you were there ten years ago, this would have been when
the Heygate was coming down you couldn’t see anything for dust? of course it
has changed, Harry Brown is no longer on revenge watch for eg.

I didn't even know there were houses in E&C! But I only ever go through it on a bus.

Loads of new high rise blocks of flats. Social tenants got kicked out to make way for new developments. Pink shopping centre is no more. Some interesting looking new shops and eateries at that end of Walworth Road.

Sounds like the name of a pub!