Where have you lived and what was it like?

[Berrichonne shrimper]

So where have zoners lived and how was it for you?
SHELLBEACH ROAD CANVEY--a old prefab house,loved it but i was only little.
LIEGH BECK LANE-- canvey again til i was about 5,backed on to canveys ground so watched rubbish football from my window
ST CHRISTOPHERS CLOSE-- last stop on canvey ,bit rough but i liked it,3 storey house,was due to go to the local comp but got lucky when mum pegged it and went to st anselms with my school friends.
KENT AVE L-O-S--again rough but i liked it,god bless council housing.
PALL MALL L-O-S--step mother got pregnant (not by me)so was time to move,19 own place loved it,near the broadway,brilliant,didnt pay the mortgage for over a year they made me sell and i came out with 20 grand,result.
ELMSLIEGH DRIVE L-O-S-- BROUGHT A HOUSE WITH A GAY BEST BUDDY OF MINE THAT ID KNOWN FOR OVER 20 YEARSoopps caps off,after 2 months i hated him,not bad area not a lot going on.
PALL MALL L-O-S,so good i moved there twice,i brought a flat 3 doors away from my old one off the girl who was now dating my gay mate(whom i bedded whilst they were together),right next door to the petrol station,loved it.
NESS ROAD SHOEBURYNESS--ended up with old 3 bed villa stlye house as they called them after a nice bit of murky work,hush hush say no more.
left the wife and gave her the flat in pall mall and the a year or so later the side wall fell over,nice,.
Mved in to
REPTON GROVE-eastwood i think,horrid box,naff nieghbours but safeway was close,it was ok seeing as carols husband was paying.
NESS ROAD--came back to the house for a good few years,area had got bad didnt really like it much,5 times i ended up clumping groups of blokes after a wee up my door or a attempted break in.
FRANCE EUROPE--bought a house to spend 15 years doing up and moved in after 3 months,best place i have ever lived,love it.
the end,or is it.

 

[Thorpe Groyney]

Pentonville Road, N1 - Surprisingly safe as the block of flats we were in (Angel Hose) were 'protected' - for a 'reasonable' fee - by the local underworld peeps. Proof of the pudding was our Humber Hawk was stolen in the morning. My old man made one phone call and lo and behold it was found by the end of the day.


Elm Green, Pitsea - only stayed there a few months. House was appallingly designed but still keep in touch with the neighbours almost 40 years on.


High Road, Vange - another house less than aesthetically pleasing. Neighbours were eccentric, a bit of wife swapping going on (we all knew the bingo caller from number 63 was having it away with the night warehouseman from number 8), the consequences of which reared its ugly head once when the wife was banging hysterically on our front door with blood oozing from her head and her normally placid husband raging after her with a kitchen knife. As the 80's went and 90's came along, the troublemaking kids at school became full time criminals and the area went depressingly downhill.


Fryerns - surprisingly quiet, nice end of terraced house, really nice neighbours, close to local amenities but far enough away for any chavs to bother hang around. Only spolit by getting married.


Craylands - probably everything you've read or heard about. The epicentre is the shops in the estate. Right by there are the crack dens and hideaways for criminals and migrant workers. The further away you were from the shops the less troublesome elements you were exposed to. Neighbours were rough and ready, but they looked out for you, as you did them. Still plenty of loud noises and sirens in the early hours at weekends though and always kids hanging around corners looking surly.


Hamstel Road, Southchurch - best move I've ever made. I'm amazed by how quiet the area is. Neighbours are really nice. Local shops aren't surrounded by chavs. Within easy reach of the beach, the park, a decent pub (The Exchange) and Roots Hall. Surprised by how much I like the area.

 

[Napster]

Oooh, loads.

Woodgrange Drive, Southend - nice big house, lived when I was a nipper and between uni years and after uni
Then Edinburgh:
West Nicolson Street for one year. Live above Hot Head in the attached Street View
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=west nicolson street&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl
Excellent base, student digs, no living room. Three pubs on same road. Lived above a record shop, and told Gene to fck off.
Second year moved to Inverleith Row, bit outside area, but huge mansion type place. Landlords ****ed us off.

Third year, Warrender Park Road - student central. Two different flats, made some good friends this year. Near the Meadows so good for footy
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=west%20nicolson%20street&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl
Fourth year, st leonards crag - behind a rozzers, but excellent views of arthurs seat.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=west%20nicolson%20street&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

Then graduated, got a job in Tolworth, moved to Howland Way, near Surrey Quays (Millwall area). Dodgy area, decent pad, quite small. Came back to Southend every weekend
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=inverleith%20row&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl
Then got a job in Windsor, so moved to Acton. Not the smartest move. Awful place, Iranian landlord who threatened all kinds of nonsense when I moved out. No living room, no lock on bathroom. House on North Circular, so noisy as well.

Moved back to Southend, then moved in with missus in Kent. Now live in Cranbrook in Kent. 70 foot garden, fantastic neighbours, very low crime, and everyone knows us. Fantastic.

 

[bucket&spade.f.c]

In my mum for 9months - was dark,warm and wet but got aleast 3 meals a day

then Benfleet for the rest of life

 

[TrueBlue]

Hockley - same house for 24 years I don't want to live anywhere else in the world

 

[Firestorm]

Candover Road Hornchurch:
Moved when I was 6 , can't remeber much about it really but I must have liked it as moving away made me ill for a month....

South Green, Billericay:
65-82 basically grew up there , met the first wife there. bit of a hike to the Railway station and also from RH but I loved it, Couldn't afford anywhere in Billericay when I married so moved away

Napier Avenue 1982-1985
Ground floor flat in a new (but very badly done conversion) , walking distance to the Station and RH and the Aristocrat wasn't a bad boozer in those days, one bedroom meant that the first kiddie to arrive signalled a house move. Rocketing house prices gave me a 50% mark up in 2 and a half years, which with a couple of promotions at work meant could get a house Well in Shoebury anyway.

Watkins Way 85-96
A new build 4 bed semi within our budget, it was too good to be true..and given that the builder went bust 2 months after I moved into what was a very cheaply built house it was probably right. That said we had a great time, the small estate was good and so where the neghbours, having bought early enough the slump of 88 didn't financially affect me, but a number of the original occupants (were were the last house to be sold on the estate) moved after a couple of years , the new neighbours were moving at the crest of the price boom and found themselves in serious poo by the time 89/90 came around and the only people buying were housing association. This , and the massive estate built in the adjacent field was starting to have an affect on the estate, although tbh it was the wife falling out big time with the lady next door which led to wanting to move.
I understand that the area has gradually dropped recently too.

Barnstaple Road
Been there since 96, hopefully this is my retirement fund. Love the place...

 

[BrettieAngell]

Grew up on the kursaal, til I was bout 6 or 7.

Lived in a couple of different houses in Southchurch after namely Richmond Street and Lovelace Gardens, I'm currently living in Lovelace Gardens just over the road from one of our old houses! Loved growing up here and its still a good place to live.

A couple of different places in the town centre when I moved out of the folks, one of which was Heygate Avenue, bit dodgy but quite interesting have a few stories from those times! The other was Elmer Avenue, had some good times there but it was a hole and we had to leave because the gas was disconnected in January!!

Spent some time living back with the folks in Barnstaple Road in Thorpe Bay, nice area but very boring.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Born in Collier Row, Romford. Lived there until I was 24 (I think).
Moved to a shared house/bedsit in Hackney for a year.
Bought my own place in Stoke Newington. (Best placed I ever lived and I'd be back like a shot if I could afford it and the missus would come!)
Sold that to fund traveling and moved back home to Romford for awhile until I got back on my feet and lived in Hornchurch for a year or so.
Offered a job in MK so came up here, lived by the Grand Union Canal for a year in an old lock keepers cottage which was magical, especially in the summer but the landlord sold up (and not to me :madman:) so here I am in north MK in a place known as Wolverton.

Never lived anywhere near Southend or even in Essex!

Edit: If you click the link you can see my old flat in it's full glory!

 

[canveyshrimper]

Cricko's first house.

 

[Firestorm]

Born in Collier Row, Romford. Lived there until I was 24 (I think).

Never lived anywhere near Southend or even in Essex!

Romford is Essex , RM postcode as opposed to an E although it is considered a London borough for administration purposes.

Were you born in Oldchurch ?

 

[MrB]

Sackville Road, Southchurch
Born there and stayed till 16 when my Dad remarried and suddenly three step sisters entered the equation and we had to move. Loved living there and was very upset that 'outsiders' had forced us to move.

Woodgrange Drive, Southchurch (though my dad would say Thorpe Bay)
Moved from a 3 to a 4 bed house at the Thorpe Hall Avenue end but there was still 7 of us there, those maths just didn't work so I was there less than a year, moving out when I was 17.

Westcliff Park Drive, Westcliff
Lodging with a female colleague from work, not a great area but easy walk to work. Was a good first introduction to living away from home at 17 with lots of her 22/23yo friends coming round regularly!

Fowler Close, Southchurch
Bought my first house at 19 just behind Sacred Heart Church/School. Housing Association Shared Ownership Scheme so a 2 bed semi for £50k and I only needed a mortgage for half of it with dirt cheap rent on the other half. I was earning £9k a year when I bought that place! Wonder what that would get you know? Anyway, being a Housing Assc development, it was mainly full of ex-Council tenants and consequently was teeming with chavvy kids at first. I could put up with it, close to shoops, work and then train station when I worked in London) but then these chavvy kids became chavvy teenagers and when I had my car stolen that was the last straw and I moved out after 8 years.

Belle Vue Avenue, Southchurch
A very brief stay after my house was sold but the gf and I were in the process of buying a house together so I moved into hers for a few months (literally round the corner from my previous house!).

Parkanaur Avenue, Thorpe Bay
Bought in 2004, absolutely love it. Nice and quiet, close to shops and station and I can see myself staying there forever. Bought with the GF who eventually became the wife and then the ex-wife, now a batchelor pad. It's also the furthest I've ever lived from Roots Hall!

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

Could be the basis of a good thread this Tony :clap:

June 1970 > Dec 1972 BRANKSOME ROAD, SOUTHEND .. no memories whatsoever, rather unsurprisingly

Dec 1972 > Aug 1988 NEW ROAD, GREAT WAKERING .. My formative years, some good and bad memories, schooldays, first car, first job etc...

Aug 1988 > April 1989 AVENUE ROAD, WESTCLIFF .. mad, mad days .. i moved in with some mates as i'd just trashed my car and had no way of getting to work in the morning from banjo land, within 3 months i'd lost my job as the mad cycle of all night partying and working on the back of 2 or 3 hours sleep was never going to last .. one day one of the lads told my girlfriend i'd slept with some other girl* at one of the numerous parties (i have no idea why) and i felt i had no option but to move out .. plus i'd got another job by this stage and really needed to keep it !!!

* of course i had, but the other half didn't need to know of it

April 1989 > Oct 1989 BACK HOME WITH DAD AS A STOPGAP .. I hated every minute of it, and to be fair i think my dad and sister did to, i'd crashed and burned so many times in the past year with not a care in the world but now i was living in my fathers house under his rules again .. couldn't wait to get out

Oct 1989 > May 1992 COTSWOLD ROAD, WESTCLIFF .. Another flatshare, only instead of 4 lads in a 3 bed flat (cosy !!!) it was a decent 2 bed place that i shared with my pal Iain (Shrimptank on here though he rarely posts anymore) quality laughs, quality (well some of it) and plentiful fanny and we had a riot of a time, some of my happiest days ever i'd say, and then one day my chubby friend jacked his job (he was earning a fortune but just walked away) and we couldn't afford it anymore

May 1992 > Aug 1993 PRESTON ROAD, WESTCLIFF .. A phase i hope i never have to revisit in my life .. living in a bedsit with about 8 other rooms all sharing one bathroom and one kitchen, although the room was a good size it had one poxy window fitted so high in the wall as to be worthless, it was a desperate place and how i stuck it for over a year god only knows .. enough said

Aug 1993 > July 1999 LANCASTER GARDENS, SOUTHEND .. from the depths of despair to the heights of ecstacy, i loved living here .. finally (FINALLY !!) i was growing up and had my very own flat all to myself .. well most of the time anyway, however it also became to local hang out for numerous friends and we rarely had a dull night, with sometimes a double figure tally of guests sprawled throughout the place after everyone had been down TOTS. However things were moving apace in my personal life and one day my girlfriend (who had moved in in the early part of 1999, curbing a fair few of the raves of course) announced she was pregnant .. we needed a bigger place

July 1999 > April 2001 YORK ROAD, SOUTHEND .. Now i know York Road has its knockers (wahey !!!!) but i can honestly say in the two years we lived there we didn't have a jot of trouble .. it was between Honiton and Cheltenham Roads so between the tarts and the thugs there was an oasis of calm, a truly massive flat with a lovely little garden the only reason we left was because i wanted to get on the property ladder

April 2001 > Nov 2003 QUEENS ROAD, SOUTHEND .. The best of times, the worst of times .. Early in 2001 we found our dream flat, nowhere near the size of York Road but dead handy for town and my job .. in fact everything was perfect and 3 months after moving in we got married, the unholy trinity of marriage kids and mortgage (the 3 things i'd sworn i'd never do) swept away in 18 months .. barely 2 years later it was over, not surprising really, with mounting bills and both of us working as many hours as childcare would allow we just ended up living seperate lives .. we moved on

During 2003 the property market was really starting to gather some momentum and in the early part of the year my wife and i started to househunt, figuring we'd better get a step up or we'd be stuck on the lower rungs for ever, we saw a few decent places but the ones i liked she didn't, and the ones she liked etc.. finally we found a place in McDonald Avenue which we agreed on, sold our flat within a week and stepped up the efforts of finalising the purchase of a 3 bed semi that was going to seriously stretch us financially but what we wanted .. it all went pop, and to my ex's eternal credit (and my gratitude) she told me before we completed everything, many a callous bitch would've moved in and then booted me leaving me in financial ruin while she gets a house out of it, and to her further credit she announced that because i'd paid every penny of every mortgage payment she didn't want anything of the £30k profit we were set to make from our own impending sale .. i ended up giving her £5k to help set her (and more importantly my boy) up

Phew, nearly there .. sorry if i've bored you senseless people, but you know i've found this very theraputic and have seemed to have run off a little.

Nov 2003 > Now .. BELLEVUE ROAD, SOUTHEND .. With my income slashed, the CSA payments pending and my own flat sold i had little time at my disposal to find somewhere to live, ideally i wanted a 2 bed place but realised pretty soon i'd have to settle for the one, i stumbled upon this place and was hooked immediately and finally this summer have managed to refinance enough to turn it into the 2 bed i'd always wanted, it was an expensive project but saw an immediate rise in value of £20>25k so it has definately been worth it and don't intend moving again for a good while yet

 

[TrueBlue]

Born in Collier Row, Romford. Lived there until I was 24 (I think).
Moved to a shared house/bedsit in Hackney for a year.
Bought my own place in Stoke Newington. (Best placed I ever lived and I'd be back like a shot if I could afford it and the missus would come!)
Sold that to fund traveling and moved back home to Romford for awhile until I got back on my feet and lived in Hornchurch for a year or so.
Offered a job in MK so came up here, lived by the Grand Union Canal for a year in an old lock keepers cottage which was magical, especially in the summer but the landlord sold up (and not to me :madman:) so here I am in north MK in a place known as Wolverton.

Never lived anywhere near Southend or even in Essex!

Knew you was never one of us - explains allot

 

[TrueBlue]

Nov 2003 > Now .. BELLEVUE ROAD, SOUTHEND .. With my income slashed, the CSA payments pending and my own flat sold i had little time at my disposal to find somewhere to live, ideally i wanted a 2 bed place but realised pretty soon i'd have to settle for the one, i stumbled upon this place and was hooked immediately and finally this summer have managed to refinance enough to turn it into the 2 bed i'd always wanted, it was an expensive project but saw an immediate rise in value of £20>25k so it has definately been worth it and don't intend moving again for a good while yet

Yeah I do like your gaff it aint about size when you have it nice and done up like yours Lee

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

Yeah I do like your gaff it aint about size when you have it nice and done up like yours Lee

Cheers Scott .. as you know i'm really proud of the old place

 

[TrueBlue]

Cheers Scott .. as you know i'm really proud of the old place

Just need to get that oche in place on the foor for the darts something removable

 

[seany t]

Grew up as a kid in Seaforth Grove in Southchurch not far from where the new ground will be built (if it ever happens). Then the family moved to Great Wakering and we lived in a house on the High Street, 2 minutes walk from the Methodist Church in the centre.

Then the parents split and things got trickier. Ended up in a house with my Mum down the far end of Wakering before I then went off to Uni. In this period, I lived in three different places in Norwich (City College Halls a fair way out and two places near the old hospital site) and loved every minute of it. I dare say it was largely down to the independence, local pub and being at Uni but it was / is a great city with a wealth of good pubs / arts / gigs / cinemas to offer.

Upon returning to Essex after graduation, I was now earning so the local council clobbered me by taking most of my monthly wage to replace the benefits my Mum and sister got, meaning we moved again (to Shoebury this time, near Asda). However when I learned that both I and my Mum would be financially better off if I moved away, then I hot-footed it up to London.

My mate lived in Putney and I worked near Hammersmith so I took the spare room up for grabs and eventually 4 of us boys from Uni all ended up there, largely taking the **** out of my mates shoddy DVD collection and playing Pro Evo on PS1.

Then after 3 or 4 years of that the missus and I co-habited in Wandsworth, which I far preferred to Putney. Better pubs, a bit more down to earth and just more 'me'. Now in Southfields as our landlord sold our house and we only had 2 weeks to find a new one (somewhat annoyingly). I like it here too, but I think our future is just out of London to the NE, where houses are (kind of) affordable and the commute back to the family isn't so bad.

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

Just need to get that oche in place on the foor for the darts something removable

yeah i know .. still got the masking tape down at the minute which is far from perfect

 

[OldBlueLady]

Born at home in 1962 at 105, Wenham Drive, Westcliff, proper traditional terraced house, you all know what I mean - just 3 roads from Roots Hall so it was in my blood from a young age.
1966 to 1976 - 45, Grovewood Avenue, Eastwood went to school at Edwards Hall, did 11+ as catchment and got into Westcliff. Happy Days in Eastwood, you could still get through on to the Arterial by then of course, but we had lots of freedom and lovely neighbours, everyone got on and everyone helped each other out. Flooded in 1967 I remember, when I lost my wonderful electric train set!
1976 - 1986 - 43, New Road, Hadleigh this was my dad's dream, to have a house built to his spec. They bought an old dilapidated corrugated iron shack and one of his closest friends who was in the building trade, built the house to his requirements. Many, many happy memories of "Palmer's Pad", John Burrows at the end of the road, the Methodist Church and Youth Club the opposite end, both pivotal parts of my youth!
1986 -1987 - Glebelands, Benfleet a brief sojourn, only a couple of months, parents still there now
1987 - 1992 - 47 Bowbank Close, Shoebury first home of my own, was happy enough there. Some of the neighbours were lovely, some very strange. We had a recluse next door to us (not the attached side) and he never opened his curtains, his garden was metre high weeds and he had an ants nest inside the big picture window where his lounge was - gross!
1992 to date - Stansfield Road, Benfleet moved in 3 weeks before my son was due! Remember it well, was a fantastic way to get out of doing anything on moving day! Been happy enough and the area is lovely.

 

[seany t]

1987 - 1992 - 47 Bowbank Close, Shoebury first home of my own, was happy enough there. Some of the neighbours were lovely, some very strange. We had a recluse next door to us (not the attached side) and he never opened his curtains, his garden was metre high weeds and he had an ants nest inside the big picture window where his lounge was - gross!

How odd, the place we lived in was 2 doors up at 43. But it was a fair few years later so our paths would never have crossed back then.