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Its good to be back in blighty!

Stepps isn't exactly a barrel of laughs mind.

Stepps isn't as bad as people think, plus there's loads of new luxury flats & houses going in there now. Further down the road heading towards the city centre is totally manky though (e.g. The infamous Red Road flats which remind you of an early 70s Iron Curtain slum, but these are getting torn down in a year or so apparently - to the detriment of the Glasgow skyline some people are claiming!)
 
Woah... as a SE London resident, I'll have to beg to differ!

* 90% is way over the mark. I'll not quibble with the fact that parts of SE London are absolute sh*tholes. Those that jump to mind include Belvedere, Erith, Thamesmead, Welling, Kidbrooke, New Cross, Bermondsey, Peckham, Catford, Nunhead, most of Deptford, most of Surrey Quays, parts of Woolwich, parts of Plumstead, parts of Lewisham...

Hmm. I make that about 70%.

:eek: :minger: :hilarious:

Seriously, though, there are some nice bits of SE London - Greenwich, Blackheath, Dulwich, Brockley, Honor Oak, Crystal Palace, Herne Hill... and Forest Hill. It's obviously a while since you've been there, Bigshrimp - but places like the Horniman Museum and the advent of the East London Line extension mean that Forest Hill has really come up in the world in the last few years. If it weren't for the fact that Forest Hill is reknowned for being the subsidence capital of SE London, property prices would have rocketed in that area.

As with almost all of London, whether somewhere is nice or not changes rapidly - both in distance and time. You can go from a nice street to a skeggy street in the matter of a few yards, while a crap area can become very pleasant in the space of just a few years. My sister used to live in Clapham in 1990, and it was rough and dangerous. Now, you can't move for BMWs and yummy mummies.

Basically, don't write SE London off entirely. It has some bloody rough bits - I was shocked at some of the sink estates around Belvedere in particular, when I last went there I thought I'd been teleported to Bucharest c. 1970 - but it's not all bad.

Matt

as soon as i saw some slagging SE London, i gave it 2 posts before MtS would be on a rant :p

he is of course, entirely right. Really surprised to see anybody that concerned for their safety in Forest Hill, unless you were unfortunate enough to spend most of your time on the Dacres Estate. Even a lot of the crappier areas Matt identified look worse than they are- I've found myself staggering around New Cross in a drunken state at many an early hour and not had a hint of bother, you're a lot less likely to get randomly started on there than you are in Southend High Street (incidentally, there may be attempts ongoing to make New X trendy again- the Amersham Arms pub has been bought by the owners of the Lock Tavern in Camden and is re-opening as a posh pub/300 capacity gig venue).

as for ****ty parts of the UK: Ipswich, Stoke-On-Trent, and Stafford spring to mind.
 
You obviously haven't lived on the Craylands estate. Or Felmores. Or Chalvedon. Or Five Links. Or (insert any Basildon conurbation here).

Having lived in Bas for about 35 years I actually love the town to bits - which is just as well because each weekend it gets smashed to pieces.

Stepps isn't exactly a barrel of laughs mind. North Shields isn't a beauty spot either.

Thankfully, the only real experience of Basildump I have is of the town centre and the area one of my mates lived in (can't remember the road name, although to get there you had to turn left opposite Staples) and they're not TOO bad...!
 
incidentally, there may be attempts ongoing to make New X trendy again- the Amersham Arms pub has been bought by the owners of the Lock Tavern in Camden and is re-opening as a posh pub/300 capacity gig venue.
Ooh, I shall have to look out for that one.

I'm still waiting for YB to get bored of looking for a job and to decide instead to come and open a decent pub within walking distance of my gaff. The area is absolutely begging for one...

Matt
 
Woah... as a SE London resident, I'll have to beg to differ!

* 90% is way over the mark. I'll not quibble with the fact that parts of SE London are absolute sh*tholes. Those that jump to mind include Belvedere, Erith, Thamesmead, Welling, Kidbrooke, New Cross, Bermondsey, Peckham, Catford, Nunhead, most of Deptford, most of Surrey Quays, parts of Woolwich, parts of Plumstead, parts of Lewisham...

Hmm. I make that about 70%.

:eek: :minger: :hilarious:

Seriously, though, there are some nice bits of SE London - Greenwich, Blackheath, Dulwich, Brockley, Honor Oak, Crystal Palace, Herne Hill... and Forest Hill. It's obviously a while since you've been there, Bigshrimp - but places like the Horniman Museum and the advent of the East London Line extension mean that Forest Hill has really come up in the world in the last few years. If it weren't for the fact that Forest Hill is reknowned for being the subsidence capital of SE London, property prices would have rocketed in that area.

As with almost all of London, whether somewhere is nice or not changes rapidly - both in distance and time. You can go from a nice street to a skeggy street in the matter of a few yards, while a crap area can become very pleasant in the space of just a few years. My sister used to live in Clapham in 1990, and it was rough and dangerous. Now, you can't move for BMWs and yummy mummies.

Basically, don't write SE London off entirely. It has some bloody rough bits - I was shocked at some of the sink estates around Belvedere in particular, when I last went there I thought I'd been teleported to Bucharest c. 1970 - but it's not all bad.

Matt

A couple of months to be precise. Like most places they have their good parts, although I've yet to find one in Vange!! Yes I know there are a few nice rows of houses between Forest Hill going towards Catford, but even here there is all manner of rubbish continually discarded (mattresses, TV's, sofa's needles! etc) but most, not all people in these areas not very nice (being polite. I've spent the last 4-5 years seeing somebody who lives there & I got to know South London well. Needless to say, I will never move there!

Each to their own. Anyway, why live so far away from your beloved Southend?! ;)
 
Purely from personal experience my least three favourite places would have to be:

Tottenham
Mansfield
Grays
 
Bracknell, Berks - Stayed down there for a course a couple of months ago. Town centre was a pure homage to really really bad 1960s architecture. It made Basildon town centre look like paradise!
 
Jumping on the Mansfield bandwagon, and without coming all over TMWLT

Oh God, that would be terrible. Coming all over TMWLT

jarvissmall.jpg
 
Thankfully, the only real experience of Basildump I have is of the town centre and the area one of my mates lived in (can't remember the road name, although to get there you had to turn left opposite Staples) and they're not TOO bad...!

Ghyll Grove? Whitmore Way? That part of Basildon is an absolute dive.
 
Compared to the rest of Basildon, though, Ghyllgrove and Whitmore Way aren't too bad. Those crappy old houses leading from Pitsea to the Five Bells on the old A13 are awful though. The people that inhabit them, too .... dregs, I tell you, dregs.

Sad to say, too, that Mansfield does have a station now. Well, a halt rather than a station but it's there.
 
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