South-East London

When you’re looking at a tube map, do you ever wonder why there’s a large white area in the bottom right corner with no tube stations on it? The area void of tube stations is South-East London. Now, unfortunately, a lot of people who move to London use a tube map as their main reference point for working out where different London areas are. This means that 9 times out of 10 they are completely unaware of many great places to live, just because they’re not glaringly obvious on a free London Underground handout. This is a real shame, because South-East London has a lot to offer. What the SE postcodes lack in terms of tube travel are made up for with amazing train connections and bus routes. Many different areas such as East Dulwich, Sydenham Hill and Herne Hill all have regular train services that will get you into either London Victoria or London Bridge Station in around 15 minutes, which is obviously still a wonderfully quick commuter time. However, the lack of tube has kept house prices for purchase and rentals generally lower than other areas of London, which is reason enough to take a look at it. Sure, there are some dodgy areas, aren’t there everywhere (?), but it’s also worth bearing in mind that Dulwich Village, which is the home to leading public school, Dulwich College, has the postcode of SE21, so it can’t be all that bad.

In the next few months though, South-East London will officially be put on the map. The former East London line is joining the London Overground network in 2010 and will see stations such as Brockley, Honor Oak Park, Forest Hill, Sydenham, Penge West, Crystal Palace, Anerley, Norwood Junction and West Croydon, appearing on the map for the first time.

Another benefit that South-East London has to offer are vast open spaces. You really can’t go far at all without bumping into a park – a welcome change from tower blocks that hog the skyline of other parts of the city.

So take a look at South-East London before the secret’s out!

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