Linwood close

[youandiaredominoes]

I'm considering moving and without fail there always seems to be properties available to rent in Linwood Close, in between Denmark Hill and Peckham Rye stations. Why is there a constant stream of availability?

The properties are flats and don't look too bad and are really spacious. Is the location the main issue? I looked on police.uk and there isn't higher than normal crime rates. Anyone have a theory? Anyone live/lived there?

[KT]

I lived in Linwood about 9-10 years ago. We rented a two bedroom top floor flat, and had no problems living there.

Good points:

1. Quite spacious for what we paid.

2. Walking distance from Denmark Hill and Peckham Rye stations.

3. Quiet apart from the trains.

4. Accommodation over two floors, which was quite nice for a flat.

4. Plenty of off-road parking.

5. Some nice grassy spaces to sit outside on a sunny day.

6. Not too much neighbour noise (although if you had particularly loud neighbours this might not be the case!).

Bad points:

1. No gas supply to the estate so electric hob, electric shower and electric storage heaters (which I HATED).

2. Nestled at the junction of two railway lines, so a fair bit of train noise (which after a while we didn't notice).

3. Railtrack used to use the car park at the back as an access point for engineering works (mainly weekends), and ended up parking maintenance vehicles all over the car park when they weren't supposed to.

4. No service bells for the postman, so unless you were in a ground floor flat with your own front door you often went a few days without post until someone was home to let the postie in (or you ended up coming home to piles of mail dumped on the ground outside the door).

5. The alleyway (by the George Canning) that you cut through to get home from the Denmark Hill station could be a little scary at night on your own.

6. Very small kitchens.

Overall we were happy at Linwood and I wouldn't put anyone off living there, although please bear in mind my recollection of the place is from quite some time ago. Perhaps the large number of properties you see available is simply down to there being over 100 flats there?

[Bonfire2010]

Hi -

We live on the close at the moment, also in a top floor 2-bed,and are very happy here.

Some of the points that KT mentions as negatives are still valid, however:

Although the kitchens are small (which is the main negative for me) the trade off is that the rest of the flat is spacious. We are split over two floors which makes the flat seem quite big plus there is a large attic space which is great for storage. Some of the other owners have reconfigured their kitchen/living room area into open plan which makes for a very spacious and airy feel.

If you are used to using gas (as I was) it can seem a bit of a pain to only have electric but I don't even think about it now. We had storage heaters when we moved in but had them removed and replaced with no problems. A lot of our neighbours have done the same.

The postman has access to the individual blocks so there is no issue with not getting post (in our experience at least).

There can be some train noise, but to be honest we don't really notice it now. There are occasional overnight works on the tracks which can be a bit of a pain, but these are not frequent and we are given notice well in advance. Apart from this the Close is actually very quiet.

For me, the main positives are:

Space - the flats do feel very spacious. Plus the storage is good which is not always the case in apartments.

Most of the flats are owner-occupied so the residents care about the development and taking care of it. There are resident commitees that liaise with our management agent and any problems are generally sorted out quickly. We also have a new forum for the Close which one of the residents has set up.

Our neighbours - the Close is very friendly.

The gardens - we have a lot of communal garden space and a wood! The grounds are well maintained and we are looking at ways we can best utilise the wood area for the residents.

Proximity to stations and amenities. Peckham Rye and Denmark Hill are nearby, as are Bellenden Road, Lordship Lane and Sainsbury's. We are also a few minutes walk from Lettsom Gardens.

Parking - all the flats have allocated parking, plus there is plenty of visitor parking if you have people over or are having a delivery.

As KT says, there are over 100 flats on the Close so maybe this is why there are generally a few available for rent?

[rich_thomas]

Morning,

I have lived in the close for three years and love it.

As mentioned above the flats are spacious. The residents are friendly and there's a real sense of community.

We now have an onsite caretaker who is in the close from around 8am till 4pm.

I couldn't say enough to promote it.

[youandiaredominoes]

Cheers guys - I'm mainly hearing positives! I might go ahead an arrange a viewing. It's equidistant between Denmark hill and Peckham rye stations and you seem to get very spacious rooms.