Area near East Dulwich train station (West)

[showa58taro]

Hello all, I'm new to both this forum and to London as a city, so I hope you bear with me if my questions seem particularly silly. Have been offered a job near London Bridge station, and need to find a place to live in London. A good apartment/studio flat came up recently in East Dulwich, near the trainstation (I think it's just a 3 minute walk west, and a bit north). I was wondering a few things about this area, if anyone knows about it.

1. Is there a fair selection of stores/shops where you can get your shopping done? (Talking more daily groceries than anything else)

2. Is there a pizza place and/or some fast food near East Dulwich trainstation?

3. Is this area fairly crime-free? (By this I mean, is it average, or am I moving to one of the rougher areas of London. As I say, new to London (am from Sweden, actually) and I would hate to move to an area that is well known for violent crime, mugging, theft, or general misbehaviour of some local gang or something)

4. Is East Dulwich generally a nice place to live? Are there nice local amenities like restaurants, pubs, parks, entertainment?

Any help anyone could offer me would be very much appreciated.

[SeanMacGabhann]

1. Is there a fair selection of stores/shops where you can get your shopping done? (Talking more daily groceries than anything else)

Food wise you couldn?t be better off. Cheap freezer-shops, multiple grocery corner shops, 1 mega supermarket, 1 smallish supermarket, 2.5 butcher shops, fishmonger, bakers ? all here

2. Is there a pizza place and/or some fast food near East Dulwich trainstation?

Plenty, and even better near the train station is one of the best. Il Mirto

3. Is this area fairly crime-free? (By this I mean, is it average, or am I moving to one of the rougher areas of London. As I say, new to London (am from Sweden, actually) and I would hate to move to an area that is well known for violent crime, mugging, theft, or general misbehaviour of some local gang or something)

As you can imagine nowhere in London is free from any kind of crime, and London in particular tends to have leafy areas rubbing shoulders with much poorer areas. If you are so inclined you could read horror stories in the press (or in this forum) every day but in day to day living you wil lbe fine

4. Is East Dulwich generally a nice place to live? Are there nice local amenities like restaurants, pubs, parks, entertainment?

Generally, yes. It has all of the things you mention, but other parts of London do some things better. Theatre and live music are much better catered for in North London for example and visually it isn?t much. But parks are all around us, and plenty of pubs and restaurants

[cate]

Have private messaged you.

[showa58taro]

Thank you for the PM, and for the on-forum message. I feel like I have gotten a bit more insight into the area. Anyone wishing to add more details/insight or opinions on the area, feel free. The more I know the better a decision I can make. Thank you both for your quick replies, you've been a real help.

Sebastian

[cate]

There are a lot of entertainment places on the South Bank and around Waterloo inc. Festival Hall, Old Vic, Young Vic.

There is also Borough Market which extremely close to London Bridge. Also a thriving food scene in Brixton and Elephant and Castle.

[Alex K]

Taro-kun, I lucked into the St Francis estate ten years ago. Brilliant place to live: Good neighbours, Sainsbury's as my corner shop, and transport to everywhere. Not only that, it's getting better -- see comment on IL MIRTO, above.

Welcome! Enjoy your time in East Dulwich.

Venligst (or however you say that in Japanese) --

[p_glover]

Have live in ED for 3 years. Would recommend it to anyone.

Happy hunting for a flat, you wont regret moving in to the area.

[eater81]

For your first two questions, why don't you just come down here and have a look about?!

3. Is this area fairly crime-free? (By this I mean, is it average, or am I moving to one of the rougher areas of London. As I say, new to London (am from Sweden, actually) and I would hate to move to an area that is well known for violent crime, mugging, theft, or general misbehaviour of some local gang or something)

London as a whole is the most crime ridden city in Europe, and that's saying something when there is a city full of half a million scousers anout 200 miles up the road. Whilst some parts of the city may be safer than others, nowhere could be described as safe. There were for example recent muggings reported in Dekker road in Dulwich village, one of the most expensive and exclusive areas of the entire city. The area by ED train station is particularly notorious for crime, due to the vast expanse of council housing just over the road and the close proximity of Brixton, Camberwell and Peckham, three of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the whole of the UK.

4. Is East Dulwich generally a nice place to live? Are there nice local amenities like restaurants, pubs, parks, entertainment?

Well no to be honest. If your only aim in life is to get drunk, spend your Saturdays stuck in traffic and go to work, then it may suit you. If you are looking for any kind of quality of life, avoid.

[cate]

Eater81 is a Negative Nancy. Don't listen to him. All his posts are similar if you look back at his posting history.

[SeanMacGabhann]

citation, as they say, needed

[HonaloochieB]

For 'Europe' read Eater81's fevered imagination new person, there is of course some crime, some grime and times they are a changin'.

But it's got all you seem to want and perhaps a bit more, no tube link but Brixton's only a 20-25 minute bus journey most days so that's all right then.

Actually I'm not sure I want an underground station, I reckon it might encourage riff-raff to do what-not as they might please.

Though a tram might be nice. And of course a Wimpy Bar.

[showboat]

Oh wow...

I've been a long time lurker on this forum but I actually felt moved to create an account just so I could post in response to Eater81.

What a load of rubbish. I mean, seriously - this person lives in a fantasy land.

Here it is 58taro - I was born in East Dulwich, grew up here. went to school here and still live close by (Wood Vale). I've seen this place develop for the last 35 years and I can categorically tell you that Eater81 is spouting nonsense. I would use stronger language but this is a public forum.

1. "London as a whole is the most crime ridden city in Europe" - really? Where is the proof for this?

2. "that's saying something when there is a city full of half a million scousers anout 200 miles up the road." - ah, racism. You show your true colours.

3. "nowhere could be described as safe." - nowhere ANYWHERE can be described as safe in ANY city. There are nutters and criminals all over. However, in all my years here I've only had ONE bad incident, and that was definately alcohol-fueled. I've walked around here at all hours of the day and night - including "the vast expanse of council housing just over the road and the close proximity of Brixton, Camberwell and Peckham, three of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the whole of the UK", and been fine.

4. "If you are looking for any kind of quality of life, avoid.". Really? Eater81 has a warped view of this part of town. Would I really be raising a family around here if I didn't believe there was a good quality of life?

Unlike Eater81, who obviously lives in some kind of obscure world that the rest of us can't see, I know that East Dulwich and the surrounding areas offer a wonderful opportunity to those who come here. It's great fun, relaxed and actually pretty safe, and given that I spent half my formative years with some rather ne'er do wells on the streets of Peckham and Brixton, I think I'm qualified to speak on this.

Come and join. It is of course rather expensive... Half a weeks wages will barely buy you two bits of cheese in the East Dulwcih Deli these days ;-)

[eater81]

This site give you a good idea of the scale of crime in the South London area:

http://spotcrime.com/uk/london

It looks like it relies on user reporting for London which would account for it only showing a fraction of crimes, e.g. the recent violent muggings on Dekker road are not shown, nevertheless it does give a good indication of the frequency of crime in London.

What I find shocking is the nature of the crimes shown:

12-8, Brixton road..."A mother and daughter were found stabbed to death..."

01-08, Tulse hill....."A 15 year old was arrested after a man was stabbed 5 times."

2-07, West Norwood..."A 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death outside his school by four men who pulled up outside in a car."

It is not I who is living in fantasy land.

[buggie]

Ok eater81, but were any of those incidents random attacks??

Unfortunately most of these incidents are carried out by people known to the victims.

showa58taro, I hope you have the noggin to see that the majority of posts on this forum (not just this thread) talk about the great things in this area, and that the regular grumblers have been posting on here so long that you start thinking they can't dislike it that much round here!

[Huguenot]

I think the OP was after info related to living in ED, and you've just listed cime elsewhere ;-)

Sebastian, the Metropolitan Police deliver crime figures for London that haven't be derived from sensationalist tabloid press. Whilst you can argue that they don't cover all crime, they offer a very good comparative picture of areas inside London, and show ED to have lower than average crime rates. That should answer your question for you.

Have a look on their website?

As SeanMcG says, just about everything you need is here. There's a huge Sainsbury that by the sound of it is 5 mins walk from your proposed flat.

The thing no stats will tell you is that ED's a bustling, friendly, compact community. The fact that it's not on the tube is a positive bonus, and certainly no handicap. London Bridge is 11mins away on trains that run on average every 10 mins at rush hour, and every 15/20 outside of that.

[eater81]

Tulse Hill, Brixton and West Norwood not close enough? 1-2 miles is a long way though I suppose.

Well here's a couple more, from this very forum in fact....

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,523127

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,512348,516939#msg-516939

And a special one for Buggie, (who seems to somehow know who the perpetrators of my perviously listed crimes were, quite how I have no idea), here's a stabbing on Overhill Road, from less than two months ago, that was apparently a completely random attack.

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,489132,495280#msg-495280

To the original poster, I suggest you enter things like 'stabbing' , 'mugging' and 'murder' into this forum's search bar. The ones I have listed are just the tip of the iceberg. Do that and you will reveal this area's true colours.

[expat]

>I suggest you enter things like 'stabbing' , 'mugging' and 'murder' into this forum's search bar.

I doubt the forum is an accurate statistic....

[expat]

You could look at the MET side

http://www.met.police.uk/crimefigures/index.php

But all areas have good a bad parts....

[SteveT]

It is as safe here as you can expect in a major city and better than most other areas in this city.

There are stabbings and the odd murder although they are often drug related or domestic eg. husband and wife.

Don't worry this is considered to be a safe area.

[James Barber]

Take a look at http://maps.met.police.uk/ The borders for East Dulwich wards are wrong (which makes Peckham Rye look below average for crime and ED average for Crime in London).

If you go sub ward level you can see for many crime type we have low or no reported crimes.

One exception to this is around Lordship Lane between Goose Green and Northcross Road and probably relates to alcohol.

I've also attached latest Met Crime stats. The original file was over 4MB so I've only kept the last two years data by ward for Southwark and every ward in London for July the last month full stats available.

It shows East Dulwich for crime is 141/624 wards in London. Which places it in the best quartile for London.

[James Barber]

Murder rates compared international per 1,000 population places UK 46th globally better than USA, France, Iceland, Australiam, Canada and marginally worse then Germany, Spain and Italy. http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murders-per-capita

[Maccers]

Eater81 - if you don't like it around these parts, then I expect you know what you ought to do.....

[showboat]

I second that...

[BillyPilgrim]

Ignore him. He's a troll. Not a very good one either.

[Ladymuck]

Have lived here around 14 years. I love it. Lovely neighbours - real sense of community spirit. And, in addition to the amenities mentioned above, it has its own football club (Dulwich Hamlets). Bliss!