Dalston is completely different. It has some amazing houses, some very very old houses, some picturesque bits, right on top of the city (the closest residential bit to the city besides Bethnal Green area)and some nice parks. It has a history of being posh in it's early days (like Kensington and Islington which both had times down on their luck before they rose again) so it has form. Stoke Newington always looked attractive even when it was rough as dogs. It also benefited from the overspill from Islington in the eightees' sky high house price rises. There had always been excellent housing stock in Dalston, the east end started to get a bit trendy starting with Bow, and Stoke Newington (dodgy when I lived in Islington in the 80's). Also Dalston and Hackney had lots of middle class young squatters and artists in the dilapidated council properties that the council showed no intention of doing up and were not habitable for council tenants. When those people grew up/got jobs/diluted their radicalism, they tended to stay in the area, many having the right to buy. And the cafes and hang out places that these consumers wanted had already begun to happen, whether collectively or commercially. Are any of those perfect storm ingredients present in South Norwood?