Wimbledon - anyone live/lived there?

[Cloo]

Went scouting around today, as it's an area gsv and I are thinking of looking into for when we move in together.

It looks nice enough to me - soulless and shopping-malled in the middle, but nice in the residential areas (whether we can afford some parts or not I don't yet know). But was wondering if anyone had any advice or knowledge on the area?

Before anyone says 'You'd be better off in Brixton, ya slags', gsv is working out in Surrey and Wimbledon is as close into town as we can get with good transport connections before his drive gets unbearable! He's in Surbiton at the mo, but I'd much rather be closer in to town if possible.

[golightly]

Wimbledon has pretty good public transport links; the main line into Waterloo and the District Line. It's also fairly easy to get to most parts of South London by car if you have one. The area is pretty standard suburban fare, to be honest, but I don't think it's essential to live somewhere edgy and exciting as long as you have enough enjoyment in your own life. If you like greenery then Wimbledon Common and easy access to Richmond Park is a definite bonus.

[Velouria]

A friend and rare Urbanite lives there, it's nice ... but incredibly stupendously expensive. And parking can be a nightmare, especially when the tennis is on.

Good luck :)

[Donna Ferentes]

It's probably expensive because it's good. Tube stations, theatres, shops and stuff. If you can afford it it looks to me like a really decent place to live.

[marty21]

i lived in southfields for a few years, very quiet apart from the 3 weeks of madness during the tennis

[Cloo]

I'm also quite keen cos, although the public transport's not great for it, it'd make going out in Brixton much more possible because I reckon a cab ride back wouldn't be too outrageous. This would mean no leaving PROD early and so on!

[Donna Ferentes]

In fact you can take the Northern Line provided you don't mind risking changing lines at Stockwell.

[marty21]

public transport is pretty good to wimbledon, district line, northern line, thames link, trains from victoria and waterloo i think, plus yer buses, and the tram?

[davesgcr]

Lived there for 7 years and would still be there now but Mrs Davesgcr wouldent live south of the river.

Great place - good mix IMHO - I lived in the area off the Broadway between there and Haydons Rd station - a rid of terrace houses - odd few blocks of flats where bombs took houses out in the war.

Great bunch of locals - got on well - mix of pubs from "interesting" to posh - the common - good shops on the road up the hill - local bakers / bookshop - can always get home with good trains to 0050 and 2 nightbuses.

Fantssic common - nice walks etc etc - walk to Richmond without touching tarmac - Thames not far away.Plus anyone in the world has heard of Wimbledon !.

If that dont sell it then nothing does ! (not cheap - but not all posh either!)

[Cloo]

Thanks for the area recommendation - I'll look into that. I did look around off the broadway and that looked quite nice.

gsv is keen to have good access to large green spaces so he can have a good place to go for a run, and there seem to be plenty of those.

[ViolentPanda]

For slightly cheaper housing you might want to look at the areas between Wimbledon and Tooting (South Wimbledon, Colliers Wood etc). Still good transport links, mind.

[butterfly child]

Wimbledon Village is rather nice...

(waits to be called a snob... ;))

I have an ex who lives in Southfields, it's really nice there.

[Cloo]

Village is probably out of our range price wise, nice as I'm sure it is!

[Andy the Don]

Ahhh... Wimbledon, homeland & God's chosen ground..
Which area/road are you looking at..??
Great pubs in the Village King of Denmark, Rose & Crown, Swan, Billet, Hand, the common is one of the nicest green spaces in London.
Wish we could afford to move back..
Sweet home SW19/20..

[Cloo]

Area-wise we'd be looking for good access to the A3, which gsv needs to get to work, and, as I said, access to green spaces, but that seems to be not much of a problem overall.

[tarannau]

Never really liked the main areas myself. Wimbledon town centre's a bit soulless and corporately uncharacteristic during the day, a bit of a chain-pub drinking mecca for townies at night. Someone once unkindly tagged it a slightly posher Croydon with ideas above its station. And Wimbledon Village, although nice and very expensive, can be unbearably twee and far too full of useless boutique shops.

That said, as Andy suggests, there are some top pubs just off the beaten track, especially for the real ale heads. If I had to, I'd save a little money by living in one of the outlying areas like Colliers Wood or Southfields - I'm not sure Wimbledon town centre is that attractive.

[marty21]

how about earlsfield? i used to go through there a lot, looked ok, a few nice pubs and that...probably cheaper than wimbledon and southfields, and one stop on the train from wimbledon i think...

[Cloo]

I want to avoid the 'interim' stations without fast services... people have mentioned Earlsfield, but it has the disasadvantage for gsv of being closer into town.

[Wintermute]

I live in south Wimbledon, off Kingston Road. As a few people have already pointed out, it's incredibly handy, travel-wise. You're a ten-minute walk from town and the overland rail and District line, the Northern line is a similar distance, and a couple of minutes drive in the opposite direction puts you on the A3 at New Malden. So probably just about the easiest place in SW London to get anywhere from.

Unless you've got 1/3 £million to spend on one of those big fucking period houses, you're better off looking at the peripheries. There's a wide range of houses and flats down Worple Road, getting cheaper as you get nearer to Raynes Park. Which is understandable; as a thriving community centre, Raynes Park has to offer both a surprisingly long train station and a pointless one-way system. And a Co-op.

The other way is Merton / Colliers Wood, which also has some nice housing at nice prices. You're also closer to the leisure centre and the small nation that is the Sainsburys Savacentre. It's fucking HUGE, they have an entire wall of soup. You've got to see it.

Anyway, I digress. I like Wimbledon, it's a very pleasant and useful place to live. The town centre is... well, it's got what you need. Apart from that it's nothing to write home about. And at half eleven on a Saturday night, don't even think about going down the broadway, it's fucking carnage. But show me a town centre that isn't.

And of course you've got the annual sport of pointing lost tourists in the direction of the tennis. Or whatever local landmark you feel that they should visit instead.

[elvislives]

I used to live in Colliers Wood, and to be honest I would say it's best avoided. It has a worrying number of BNP type pubs with St. George's flags and slightly threatening undercurrents of violence.

Wimbledon itself is quite bland, and the traffic can be quite horrific when you need to get to the A3. However, the village is beautiful.

Oh, and most important of all, the high street has a good branch of Office, so you're never more than a few minutes away from your next frivolous shoe purchase....

[Donna Ferentes]

Colliers Wood has got one very good pub though. If only I could remember the name.

Also, if you want to get to Brixton you can get a bus as far as Brixton Hill.

[Cloo]

Actually, looking at Earlsfield the trains are pretty good, but it may be too far in for gsv.

We'll be renting rather than buying - we both have OK earnings (gsv more than me) and I'll be renting out my house as well, but I don't think we want to go over the top with rent prices.

[stroober]

Putney is not to bad either, nae far fae brixton, good travel links

[tonywild2001]

It also has at least one pub with a rainbow flag. i think you'll find the St. Georges flags only fly when there's footie or something on.
It also has a good market at Abbey Mills the pub is pricey but they have good live music on the weekends

[davesgcr]

Earlsfield is now a lot more gentrified than it used to be - therefore probably matching Wimbledon prices - the latter is still a better bet in transport terms as you have the 2 tube lines and more options bus wise.

Checking out the "peripheral" bits of SW19 as previously discussed should be worth doing IMHO.- all the other things as well like library etc

Earlsfield though now has 18 trains per hour in the peak - a hell of alot more than it used to have and is about the 6th busiest station on the SWT network - indicating how very much more popular it has becomes since I lived in Wimbledon in the 1980s.......

Funnily enough what spurred me to move to SW19 was running into an anti Thatcher protest outside the Town Hall in 1984 when she was speaking there - thought that was a good omen and redoubled my search for a flat accordingly !

[Cloo]

Looking at an A-Z and give what people have said, it looks like our most strategic bet may be the triangle between Southfields and Earlsfield - near A3, access to park and I guess just about walkable to either station if you get the right place.

Earlsfield rent still looks OK on a cursory glance.

[BEARBOT]

i lived in colliers wood for 6 months a few years back....
the area was a bit dull but no trouble of any kind that i saw..

at that time wimbledon had MANY charity ships but i think they have gone the way of the ones on northcote rd,clapham.. :(

the theatre in wimbledon looks like it might have some ok plays on from time to time,,
victorian horror and suspense...

the best thing about the entire area IMHO(other than the common) is the thai temple in extensive grounds
it's near the common...anyone can go in you dont have to be a practising buddhist. it is a nice place to walk,comtemplative and dramatic temple..sorry i dont know if the thai monks would let yr fella jog there ;)