Is East Dulwich Becoming Too Posh? (Lounged)

[blinder999]

"greed and social climbing and the constant sliming up the property ladder"

where did that come from? living in a dodgy flat in South-East London hardly makes anyone into Gordon Gekko

[*Bob*]

*Bob* Wrote:

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> I mean.. My home town was a shit place to live

> when I was 18.

Just checked.. nope, it's still a shithole.

However, a one-bedder there is coming in at ?74,930. So anyone who feels aggrieved at me exercising my right to buy in their hometown is more than welcome to exercise theirs in mine.

[mockney piers]

Feel the same way!!

Actually home town isn't a hole, but it is the most boring place on the planet.

This chap even manages to make it look quite nice!!! And yep, thems squirrels black.

[Brendan]

My home town is great! I love it and visit it as often as possible. You can go to the pub without shoes on and mullets aren?t ironic yet.

So are black squirrels genetically more similar to grey or red ones and are they invasive to the UK?

[mockney piers]

I think they're genetically grey squirrels with black fur, think albino but too much pigment rather than too little. They're also imports from N America, where they do rather well in the dark thick forests of the north appalachians.

Someone brought a load over at the turn of the (previous) century to put in Letchworth's parks, where they've done alright for themselves. Apparently they're being spotted across the herts/beds/cambs border region these days.

You can get black red-squirrels, though not sure if there are many in the uk; I've seen them in Austria.

[mockney piers]

Cor, EYEWTKABSBWATA

http://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/fr/INFD-6HTK9B

[Brendan]

Cheers MP. I actually googled them in my lunch break. One can never know too much about the colouring of small rodents.

[mockney piers]

Our letchworth pub* was the Black Squirrel and is East Dulwich in microcosm. A rough and ready place to get your drugs or a kicking, underwent refurb to be a shiny rough and ready pub where the locals looked uncomfortable drinking Peroni insterad of Carling Black Label, eventually to become a Thai food eatery/drinkery complete with garden awash with kids; failed, became a ditto mexican eatery, and a little bird tells me that too has gone under.

*It was originally a quaker town so had almost no pubs until the 60s and very few until the late 90s. Luckily it was surrounded by pubbed up villages, and Hitchin and Baldock, former coaching/market towns.

[Jeremy]

Maurice Wrote:

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> It's the age old debate, yes Sean. Those who own

> property feel quite differently from those who

> have not. Indeed.

Not true, many home owners would be quite happy for prices to remain static, rising prices across the board just make it harder to climb the next "rung" on the "ladder".

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

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> But the reason people can't afford to live in

> their own towns if they WANT to, is not because of

> people moving from other areas, it's the overblown

> housing market and property speculation/second

> homes which is doing the damage

Exactly right... I used to think that the market was self regulating, and that house prices would stop rising when investors couldn't break even on their rental income... but I think we passed this point in London some time last year.

[Maurice]

Climbing the next 'rung' doesn't require static prices (or rising). If I want to climb to the next rung, I assume my house price has risen at the same rate as the next rung - so it matters little.

[peckhamboy]

Except that if both rungs have risen at the same rate, the gap between them has become wider in real terms

[Maurice]

That's true, if you are moving from Peckham to Chelsea.

[peckhamboy]

It's true, full stop.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Albino squirrels are common in Ruskin Park. No idea if they're posh.

[Keef]

My home town is also sh!t, I just use their internet forum and pubs :)-D

I don't usually agree with Maurice, but

Why do people believe if they are born and raised in a community they have a right to be able to afford to buy a property there?

Is a totally fair question, and that's from someone who is well and truly priced out.

[Jah Lush]

*Bob* Wrote:

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> I mean.. My home town was a shit place to live

> when I was 18. So I left.

I seem to have done this in reverse. I was brought up in Dulwich Village until I was 18. I've been more or less slumming it in East Dulwich ever since.:'(

[SimonM]

>>You can get black red-squirrels, though not sure if there are many in the uk; I've seen them in Austria.<<

Saw some in St Moritz once (not bragging - it was off-season there! :))

[RuthE]

Maurice Wrote:

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> Why do people believe if they are born and raised

> in a community they have a right to be able to

> afford to buy a property there?

It is understandable that a certain proportion of people born and raised in a particular community will want to remain there in their adult life and raise their own families there. Thus the integrity of the community is maintained, with a healthy balance of people who have always "belonged" in the area and feel they have a stake in its future, rather than the only non-incomers who can afford to live in an area being those of the older generation who have tiny mortgages which shrank into insignificance due to high wage inflation in times past.

The fact that UK tenancy laws don't give any long-term security of tenure leads to people viewing buying as the be-all and end-all for anybody seeking housing stability. Anybody who is neither old enough to have had a secure council tenancy when it was a working-class norm rather than the preserve of the very poor and/or destitute, nor unfortunate enough to have experienced hardship in the recent past leading to to the allocation of one of the few remaining council properties, has two choices - buy, or rent privately with no protection of either tenure or rent level.

I don't agree that anybody should see property ownership in their home town as a right, but I do think that for the most part it's important that people should have the chance of a secure home for the long term future.

(Obviously, borrowing ridiculous salary multiples on an interest-only mortgage is likely to be counter-productive!)

[Maurice]

It's sort of like the job contract isn't RuthE? We want the three months notice when we're made redundant so we can get the cash. But when we find something better, we're always keen to reduce it.

Renters want protections, until they want to move.

[SeanMacGabhann]

"renters"

I need to wipe the spit from the INSIDE of my monitor screen Maurice..

the comparison with employers is telling. If an employer gives you as minimum notice as possible (that day?) the impact on you is potentially catastrophic (ask some of the homeless guys on the street - they had jobs, mortgages, families etc - some of them)

Whereas for many of us, leaving a company, with the best will in the world, isn't going to deflect it from it's general purpose is it or affecct it's bottom line anyway??

You SEE the difference???? Don't you???? No, I thought not

[MrBen]

fish Wrote:

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> Is ED becoming too posh?

Yes but not quite. I once made the grave and horrific mistake of walking into Inside 72 with my tailored suit and a tie on. I call this the "suit test". If people stare at you then the area is not officially posh.

If the barman welcomes you with a smile it almost certainly IS posh. The barman at Inside 72 did not exactly welcome me with a smile. So next time I went, I put on some skin tight black jeans, a sleeveless T Shirt with a daft slogan on it and a pork pie hat. And I got free shots.

Recently I dressed in a full gorrilla outfit and walked down Northcross Road, peering through the busy window of Thai Corner. It was....liberating. Because all people thought was "there is a strange man dressed as a gorilla".

The Bishop now has lots more suits on a Friday night as does Liquorish. They never used to. I have a large collection of suits but I also have an issue with wearing them out here based on how I'm judged wearing one (city boy, wealthy, arrogant, lack of indiviudality, probably votes Tory etc etc). So I get changed so as not to cause offence. I'm not a demographic I AM AN INDIVIDUAL! Weirdly I also dont like to see anyone else wearing them either. Do you all hate me already. Am I talking boll*cks? I'll stop then.

[Ted Max]

It's your bowler hat they're staring at, Mr Ben.

[Brendan]

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

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> I need to wipe the spit from the INSIDE of my

> monitor screen Maurice..

I reacted in the same way Sean but not being as diplomatic as you I refrained from commenting so as not to taint this forum with my unchecked bile.

[Maurice]

Oh pardon me. I wouldn't want to cause distress. But I do believe there are two sides here and stand by my statement that renters are keen for every possible protection but when the shoe is on the other foot, they want to bear no responsibility.

[barrymarshall]

MrBen Wrote:

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I once made the grave and

> horrific mistake of walking into Inside 72 with my

> tailored suit and a tie on.

> The Bishop now has lots more suits on a Friday

> night as does Liquorish. They never used to. I

> have a large collection of suits but I also have

> an issue with wearing them out here based on how

> I'm judged wearing one (city boy, wealthy,

> arrogant, lack of indiviudality, probably votes

> Tory etc etc). So I get changed so as not to cause

> offence. I'm not a demographic I AM AN INDIVIDUAL!

> Weirdly I also dont like to see anyone else

> wearing them either. Do you all hate me already.

> Am I talking boll*cks? I'll stop then.

It was the tailored suit what did it in the 72, Mr Ben ... bog-standard M&S off-the-peg, nae bother. :))

I too see the proliferation of suits in ED but it ain't necessarily a bad thing. Perversely, by thinking that a suit gives off a negative impression of yourself, you are actually reinforcing the very stereotypes (ie you must be a city boy, Tory voter etc.) that you want to cast off.

In fact, if you think about it, what could be more individual than just waering a suit because, well, it's a suit, and my clothes don't really need to say anything about me.

I sometimes wear a suit and I'm an anarchist. I've even worn one a few times in the 72. I don't really care if someone thinks I'm a Tory.