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Original poster

Anyone like to tell me about PENGE or Anerley??

98 replies

SpringHeeledJack · 16/05/2010 10:48

Here's the thing- we live in South East London at the moment- zone 2. Although we like it here, we're thinking about moving out a little way (mostly so we can have a smaller mortgage/get somewhere a little bit bigger)

Is there anyone in Penge who can tell me a bit about living there with kids? we've had a look round and think it looks great but some more info from people on the ground would be handy

...and don't tell me Crystal Palace is nicer. We can't afford it

tia!

OP posts:
Monty100 · 18/05/2010 23:30

Xpost - Bibbity are you househunting near too?? I know your name from around mn, I think we've bantered a couple of times.

Yes, secondary schools...........

Monty100 · 18/05/2010 23:31
bibbitybobbityhat · 18/05/2010 23:44

Not really, Monty. Very happy in SE22, absolutely love it here, and have been here since 1996. But it is the chuffing secondary problem.

Monty100 · 18/05/2010 23:59

Ooooo, I was down there at the weekend too! .

Hmmmm, don't know the issues of secondary schools around there, which suggests there aren't any??

bibbitybobbityhat · 19/05/2010 00:03

Lets just say I'm worried about it and dd is now in Yr 4. We are surrounded by all these lush private schools and yet not one state secondary in SE22.

Monty100 · 19/05/2010 00:16

I thought so. You need a plan then. I gave myself a bad back trawling the internet researching schools from here to god knows where when I was doing it and don't recall any round your way. DD is nearly 17 now so it was a while ago.

Obviously you have realised what you're up against.

It's disgusting really.

MissM · 19/05/2010 08:44

If it helps my brother has a tendency to move into grotty areas then move out just before they suddenly become very desirable and trendy. He started out in CP, moved to Sydenham just as CP was becomingthe place to live, and then moved to Penge just as Sydenham became cool. So on that basis Penge is the next Herne Hill and might be a good bet. (I don't know how I've become such an expert on SE London. Am a NE London gal myself).

Hullygully · 19/05/2010 10:17

May I say on a slightly tangential note and with the benefit of experience that I CANNOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH the importance of factoring in the schools.

We moved to an area we absolutely love, all arty and appening, bit rough round the edges etc, when the dc were little and school seemed so far off, particularly secondary, and then came up against the grim reality. Of course, we didn't want to move, we had friends and lives, and so did the dc. People warned us of this and we airily dismissed it with an "oh it'll be all right (by magic) attitude."

So, think on...it all comes around sooner than you think and you have the chance to avoid a nightmare in the future.

Thus endeth the homily.

SecretSlattern · 19/05/2010 10:23

I wouldn't consider Penge, CP or Sydenham to be 'up and coming' places at all. I have lived here all my life and cannot wait to move out.

Monty100 · 19/05/2010 10:26

Hullygully I agree with that. It all happens so fast.

I viewed a house a couple of weeks ago where the lovely woman was moving to get dc's into a favoured primary school! I told her to forget that, most primary schools are good around the area, concentrate on the secondary schools.

She was quite taken aback, but you could see the sense dawning on her.

It costs a lot of money to move.

Monty100 · 19/05/2010 10:26

Secret

Tell us more.........

Original poster
SpringHeeledJack · 19/05/2010 14:43

I do get your point, Hully- but secondary schools are a problem and moving to be nearer a particular one can end in disaster, as some of my friends can testify...

Schools round here can turn in a heartbeat, and anything can happen in 6 years- where school type, admissions criteria, quality, catchment etc etc are concerned. No-one would touch my son's school with a ten foot pole a few years ago- he's in Y8 now and I got an awful lot of s when we put it first on the list. After ds started there, four kids- that I know of-were able to more or less walk in to a Y7 place the week they asked for one when things went wrong at their first choice schools.

Now this school has a waiting list as long as your arm for next year's Y7(bear in mind this is only two years later ) And- wahey!- it doesn't have a catchment area. Well, not yet, anyway...

I'm stuck because I'm not keen on academies, selective schools, single sex schools or Church schools- so basically we're stuffed. The best we can do is plan to move for a few years and then shift- if we can!

OP posts:
Hullygully · 19/05/2010 14:49

Ok. Good luck with the house hunting!

Original poster
SpringHeeledJack · 19/05/2010 14:53

God am dying to know where you used to live, and where you ended up- but far to discreet to enquire

OP posts:
Hullygully · 19/05/2010 14:54

It's not a secret..

Original poster
SpringHeeledJack · 19/05/2010 23:01

Oh tsk and fie! of course it is, Hully. We are all Words On A Screen and do not take corporeal form.

Apart from on weekends, in Penge

...Whitstable??

Miss M- I'm one step ahead of your brother. Have already missed out in massive boom in Wapping and will probably manage to do the same here as well

OP posts:
Hullygully · 20/05/2010 06:54

Whitstable is posh.

marga73 · 20/05/2010 10:18

We've placed an offer on a lovely terraced house in Penge. I've been to the area a couple of times and I'm a bit apprehensive about its lack of street trees and its "chav reputation".

I hope area is changing because we love the house.

Would love to hear more about people who recently moved there.

SE26666 · 20/05/2010 11:00

I moved from Brixton to Sydenham (near Penge East station) in 2001 before dd1 was born.

I think it's fab round here. I really, really like it. But to be honest, Penge has been less and less on my radar in the last couple of years. We had DD1 at school there but it was a mistake to send her to a church school. She is now at school the other side of sydenham. If I'm honest, I don't miss not hanging out there twice day. But I sometimes go to the Penge Sainsbury's.

I feel like I'm in London but there are more trees, less loonies and far less chance of a parking ticket. Penge east station can take me shopping malling in brommers in 15 mins or the same amount of time takes me back to Brixton, the Ritzy, Fujiyama and JOY.

We went 10 grand over budget to buy a house on a really nice road and it was the best overspend we've ever made.

With year 3 and recep dd's I am crossing my fingers that Cator or Sydenham girls (the state school) might be a good idea.

I'm not a Beckenham fan.

Original poster
SpringHeeledJack · 20/05/2010 14:14

oh Marga I don't want it to change. Gentrification gets on my tits a bit- we suffer a bit from it round these parts and I've seen it unfold disastrously in the past. Process seems to go:

  1. move into area because it's cheap
  2. moan about area lots (schools, pubs, caffs, postcode)- campaign to get Iceland turned into Waitrose, that sort of thing
  3. posh shops start to move in (eg picture framers, nick nack shops that local folk can't afford to shop in)
  4. house prices rocket, as do commercial rents
  5. "old" local shops disappear-
result- split community, lots of grumbling and general gnashing of teeth

(I don't mean you personally of course. Want to keep in with you in case we end up being neighbours )

SE26666 A lot of folk from my son's primary ended up with Sydenham Girls and as far as I know they're all very happy with it

roffle at 'Brommers'

and DP is very agin the idea of Beckenham. Whenever I raise it, he says "two words- Kate Lawler"**Big Brother winner about 2002. Think she opened a few shops in the Glades

OP posts:
Monty100 · 20/05/2010 16:27

Spring - the HIPS have been suspended .

My EA is emailing me asking if I'm ready to take the plunge .

Original poster
SpringHeeledJack · 20/05/2010 17:49

oh good luck Monty!

-we reckon we're going to try and do without an EA, when we're ready to go. Give us a week putting notices in shop windows and we'll be off to Kinleigh with our tails between our legs

would love to know how you get on!

...and who'da thought we'd manage 47 posts on Penge?

...oh I do so loooove mn, me

OP posts:
Hullygully · 20/05/2010 18:14

It has been a joke of much longstanding chez Hully that all roads lead through Penge. Any route described by my db for over 20 years has always involved Penge. Perhaps it is a hotbed of leylines. Penge is woo.

Monty100 · 20/05/2010 19:02

Lol Hully.

OK Spring - you've put a cat amongst the pigeons now. Are you selling your own?? Someone said to me recently 'why you would pay someone to market your house is beyond me.' That's a whole other thread isn't it! I really do resent the cost of moving, which is why I'm still here.

Kins is who I'm with, or not as the case is. Oh and the ea said to me today that as soon as you're on the market you'll get to see all the best houses and if you have an offer on your property you get to see the ones that have just come on!!

MissM · 20/05/2010 19:24

Hey, my brother says all roads lead to Penge! He told me I was bound to move there one day (I haven't).

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