South East London

We currently live in North London and are thinking about crossing the river to SE London, possibly Brockley/Ladywell area. Just wondering where is good to run, is this a good area to live, top tips on the SE area? People are pretty territorial about where they live, so I'm just interested to see what this throws up really!

Thanks x

Depends on the money really....... I am SE12 and it is about £160k for a two bed flat round here but a mile down the road in SE3 it is nearer £300k

Some bits of Forest Hill are nice, Brockley has good and bad bits.......quite a bit of new development going on,,,,,,only problem is the crap transport really,,,,,,no tube unless you head for Woolwich so Charlton is going up in value......... pick a rough area and I can be more precise

Mmm Brockley is improving.  Ladywell is still a bit crappy.  I used to live in Sydenham/Crystal Palace.  It's nice round there if you stay up the Crystal Palace bit.  Nice big park there and lots of hills for hill training.

Forest hill is a bit dodgy in places especially around the big housing estate as you go towards the Sydenham end.  Mr Shimm's best mate lives there and he is getting ready to move as his kids are getting older and he doesn't want them growing up in Forest Hill.

Crystal Palace is pretty nice really.  I used to live down the hill as you go towards Sydeham, in Lawrie Park Gardens.  There are some nice places round there.  There is a dodgy housing estate out the back of Lawrie Park gardens which I would avoid.

If you go through Sydenham there are some nice victorian houses to the right of the high street towards Penge way.  Penge is pretty grotty, I would avoid there but if you go towards Beckenham it gets really nice.... and pricey.

To give you an idea of price round there, we sold our 2 bed flat for £185,000 5 years ago.

They were doing up the sports centre last year.  It has a big pool and running track.  

Edit cos I'm writing like a 3 year old today.

Near a track is always good - as above and Ladywell too (Kent AC)

Crystal Palace - reminds me of the old runs I used to do with Herne Hill on a Sunday am from Tooting Bec - streatham Common - Crown point - around CP, up that bloody hill and back to Tooting. Good times

It's nice for running, yeah. There's One Tree Hill, around Peckham Rye, Crystal Palace is down the road.

I don't think Forest Hill's that dodgy. As I say, I like HOP. It's a happy medium when living in a city. Wouldn't live in Brockley if you want to get the train into work, though.

On the whole Forest Hill is okay, just stay away from the housing estate. 

Grove Park and Downham are okay too, we are getting a bit further out now.  Grove Park has a train station and good buses.  Mr Shimms Gran used to live there.   You get a few kids on their silly scooters but it's generally quiet.

Ah Simon,  Tooting.  Now that is a great place. I used to live in Tooting Broadway, I loved it.  Wimbledon is nice too.  *sigh* I used to live right behind the Centre Court Shopping Centre.  Fantastic place to live.  But very, very, very expensive  *big sigh*