Where to live in London?

[vjoe]

Hey guys,

I am moving in to London in a couple of months, but I am having trouble deciding where to live.

I will be working in Canary Wharf, and I would like to avoid having to spend more than 20-40min travelling to the job.
So far, I have been considering Camberwell, Peckham, and West Ham.

Personally, I am not a big fan of 100% residential areas. I like to have pubs, supermarkets, shops and a gym around. I also prefer flats to houses, but that seems to be very hard to find in London.

In terms of budget, I would like to avoid spending more than £700 pcm.

What do you reckon would be the best area for me?

Thanks for your help.

[J0e Musashi]

North London. It's cleaner than East London, and less poncey than West London. Sarf Landon isn't really London anyway, plus they don't even have electricity there.

[vjoe]

What is "poncey" and "sarf"? :P

Which areas do you recommend in North London? From what I have been reading, Kilburn is not very safe at night.

[abigsmurf]

Probably don't need to say this but... Avoid Dagenham and Barking like the plague.

[vjoe]

Actually I appreciate it. I barely know London.

Are the extreme East and extreme South of London the places to avoid then?

[merf]

I've been norf all my life so not totally unbiased but regard sarf as a bit dodgy, in reality there are toilets both sides of the Thames, better transport north though, thats unarguable.

Biggest factor I'd say is look at your commute, multiple changes and buses are a nightmare as each one is just something waiting to go wrong, plus look where you are and what alternatives are when it does all go wrong.

I'd be looking to be somewhere with a tube and train and easy acces to canary wharf, if not the wharf itself, the DLR can be a bit of a mare and in particular is suffering from a lot of enigineering works at some of the bigger interchanges I believe. People I know who use it also say that in general docklands is too big for the capacity of the DLR.

[fuse]

less poncey than West London

You, me, outside, now... to compare manbags, naturally.

[Decider-VT]

North London. It's cleaner than East London, and less poncey than West London. Sarf Landon isn't really London anyway, plus they don't even have electricity there.

This.

It is a curious but well-known fact that bugs are much commoner in south than north London. For some reason they have not yet crossed the river in any great numbers.

[fuji]

Probably don't need to say this but... Avoid Dagenham and Barking like the plague.

Cross off Newham too!

[endo]

Yeah, I lived in West Ham when I first moved to London and the area can be a bit, shall we say, spirited. Then again, depending where you live in Manc, you might be right at home with stabbings and random street violence. That was 10 years ago now though and presumably bits of the area are a bit better with the Olympics coming and all.

In fairness though, I was living in Manchester myself immediately before moving to London and I felt safer in Newham than I did up there.

As for actually nice places to live- I've got to agree with the others and say look for somewhere north. I've always liked Highgate/Muswell Hill. The Boogaloo is a great boozer.

[Kongster]

Manchester is fine for the most part. It's just Moss Side where you have to watch your back at all times, really.

Camberwell, Peckham, and West Ham should definitely be avoided if you're looking to move down South.

[ItsThere]

I just moved to Brick Lane. Probably a bit too cool for me to be honest but I like it so far!

Hustle and bustle but nicer people in the East end (for the most part) than I met in my last digs up in Wood Green.

Turnpike Lane is pretty manky - best to avoid.

[Decider-VT]

vjoe, is your budget of £700pcm inclusive of bills, council tax, etc?

[endo]

Manchester is fine for the most part. It's just Moss Side where you have to watch your back at all times, really.

And Longsight, and Cheetham Hill etc.

I'd agree that the city centre is largely fine, but some other suburbs are the pits imo. Withington was supposed to be a nice place (which it mostly was to be fair) and although Fallowfield isn't exactly billed posh it's supposed to be OK. In spite of that, practically everyone I knew had been mugged, stabbed, had a gun pulled on them (very keen on that they were in the mid-90s) etc. Maybe things have changed, but I couldn't wait to leave in the end.

[abigsmurf]

Kingston upon thames and Tolworth are reasonably nice places, fairly close to the edge of london though.