What's it like to live in Brixton / Brixton Borders

I ask because I need to find a flat for two mates and myself to move in around September. I've found quite a few nice looking flats which are seem to be a lot cheaper than equivalent flats in other areas. Transport links are good for commuting to uni too.

Is it as bad as people say? I don't know, I've only ever been there twice: tube station to BC and the academy.

Not as bad as people say - if you go looking for trouble you can find it, but majority of Brixtonians are just normal londoners looking to get on with their lives. Good bars and restaurants too.

if you like being woken up late at night by boom boom bass from old beemers it's not too bad.

one of my mates lives in brixton. the old bloke that lives next door to him got stabbed in the arm over the weekend. apparently some yoofs tried to mug him and he didn't have a bar of it. the good news was the neighbours were all straight out to help, the cops were there in 90 seconds and the old boy was ok.

apart from this incident, my mate has lived there a couple of years and reckons it's generally ok.

i really like it, as vinylillain says you only really get trouble if you're looking for it.....i would say avoid the stockwell end of it though, i used to live 2 dorrs down from brixton cycles on stockwell road, and that sucked ass.

Hmm. I think I just need to make a decision of whether it's worth the saving of £10-20 a week.

Finding a place to live is a pain in the arse. Especially when my uni is smack bang in the middle of South Kensington - hardly the cheapest place to live in London - and my mates don't ride. They want to be 30-45 min away.

Spagettihoops - so the parts nearer Stockwell are worse? For some reason, I assumed Stockwell was better.

No stockwell is worse

Have you looked in olympia/west ken/barons court?

Ok, I'll not bother looking in Stockwell.

Yeah, I have. My halls were in the grounds of Charing Cross Hospital, so I know Hammersmith quite well and we all loved it there. Unfortunately, it's out of our price range. They work out about £130 per week per person excluding bills, we need somewhere £100 per week per person excl. bills.

From what I've found it's tricky:
Go further west to get cheaper properties, but journey time goes up and you're quite far from central for going out.
I'd be happy to go east, because the rate at which rents decrease is greater going east than going west. Hence the benefit of being nearer good places to go out, but a bit of a trek to South Ken for my mates on public transport.

I haven't bothered looking north, as it's getting well away from uni. South of the river might be the place. Battersea perhaps?

Hmm . . i see your problem . . Battersea not cheap, unless you go down the ex council route, though you can get a good deal on the mansion blocks around the park if you go for on eof the 5th floor flats with no lift . . try this website, a couple of mates made it, searches all the other property websites for you

http://www.dothomes.co.uk/

Also remember asking price is rarely achieved in rentals, i pay 305 on a place that was on at 350, i just told the landlord i would move in as soon as the last tennant moved out, an empty property is a landlords worst fear, especially given current ecenomic climate.

Also have you seen the new development by parsons green tube - its affordable housing and i know that some of the units are for rent, though it wont be readu for a couple of months.

I live smack bang in the middle of Brixton and I can't imagine living anywhere else... It's like a little piece of heaven in south London... Word...

8 year i lived in sw2.

it started getting shitty, but looks like it's kinda got something back these days.

i would live there again, it's dependent on exactly where you settle cos some parts are grim and others are full bore middle class bollox.

find a middle ground and you will prosper

I live in Se5, lived here for a year, going to stay for another. I'd recommend camberwell over brixton, better studenty vibe and more open late at night. Even peckham is good. Don't be scared of saaf london, it's no worse than any other part of london.

I live near brixton jam, which means non-bike people have brixton road to get central (easy links to west london via bus/central/east). If you live camberwell way you have camberwell (new) road, links to whole of london via elephant, and ditto with peckham you have peckham rd/old kent rd - easy transport links for the whole of london, because of the carbuncle of transport that is e and c.

word - feel right back home cycling round Peckham, Camberwell, Brixton etc. after 10 years away. Where I live is not the liveliest of places tbh but the quick roll down Queens Road and beyond gets you right in the mood. I've thoroughly enjoyed commuting to drinks from there - the 11 mile westies is a joy.

This thread is about Brixton !

@everyone who has posted (except me) - racist.

Calling people racist = racist.

Which makes you a racist, you racist.

When I used to live there it could be pretty shit sometimes. 10+ gangs of guys on every street corner down Cold Harbour lane and the main drag.
The CCTV and increased police action round there have done wonders I hear.

Is it as bad as people say? I don't know, I've only ever been there twice: tube station to BC and the academy.

Most of the people who "say" have never been there in their lives. Robbery and violence are above average for London (see here: http://www.met.police.uk/crimefigures/datatable.php?ward=00aygd&borough=lx&period=year)

But we're talking 50 incidents per 1,000 population compared to an average of 23.3. Put another way 950 people who were untouched against 976. Either way up, the vast majority are unaffected by crime.

and most of those people were probably drug tourists looking for 'edgy' brixton on somerleyton road.

I live smack bang in the middle of Brixton and I can't imagine living anywhere else... It's like a little piece of heaven in south London... Word...
but you been high most of that times :p

but you been high most of that times :p

I have everything I need here... But yes, what you say is pretty accurate... ;)

I guess that you're at Imperial so my experience might be helpful. I was at Imperial a few years ago and moved to Brixton when I moved out of halls. Been living here since then (2001) and it's pretty good really. It takes about 35 minutes to get to South Ken at rush hour and the 345 goes all the way (although it takes ages). Like people have said, some bits are scummy, some are pretty middle class and some are in between. It is definitely sketchier than hammersmith/barons court/earls court but that's the same of most places (since that part of west london is fucking dull) and there's a lot more interesting stuff going on.

I recommend coming down on a saturday to wander around the market, got to a couple of pubs or something, check out brockwell park or catch a gig at the windmill. That'll give you an idea of the nice sides to the place and then a walk from the tube to your prospective flat in the dark will give you an idea of whether you'll find it too sketchy!

Part of growing up is learning how to handle the rougher parts of London not that Brixton is particularly rough mind.