Londoners are perennially in search of the next cool place to live – that sweet spot in between a whole host of ugly vices.
It must not be too expensive but also not too stabby; be between having no scene at all and having LSE students turn up to celebrate their last exam with a bottle of Bollinger; between every other high street property being an estate agents and every other high street property being a dubious open air butchers and/or phone unlocking kiosk.
Soho and Camden are long dead. Shoreditch is passé. Dalston is the most recent victim. So where should the trendy person set up shop in London now?
New Cross
Good For:
Getting to your trendy Hackney media/PR job via the Overground. Heading to monthly hipster circle-jerk Steez. Cool venues like the Amersham Arms and New Cross House. Attending your visual sociology & anthropology lectures at Goldsmiths.
Bad For:
It may be too late. Property prices have gone up 36% in just three years. And the average two bed will put you back £180 a week each. Not exactly Bohemia is it…
Seven Sisters
Good For:
The sort of huge warehouses that made Shoreditch so attractive to the talentless parasites that Charles Saatchi decided to give millions of pounds. Cheap rent. Great studio spaces around Fountayne Road
Bad For:
Still a little unrefined for some – that there’s a Costa there now is a big deal. Lots of angry Spurs fans. ‘Traditional’ (punchy) cash-only pubs. Cock fighting (unverified).
Bermondsey
Good For:
Craft beer – home to the famous Bermondsey Beer Mile. Craft food – home to the Maltby Street Market. White Cube gallery remains decidedly punk and authentic. Genuine cockneys.
Bad For:
Impossible to get anywhere if you live south of the tracks. Do you actually like craft beer that much? Do you actually like food markets that much? Angry Millwall fans. Genuine cockneys.
