Which is worst: Hackney or Brixton?

[Andy the Don]

I've lived & worked in Brixton for 2 & a half years, during that time I had a bottle thrown at me & hit the back of my head whilst walking up CH lane, my girlf, at the time, had her crotch rubbed by a cpl of guys while arm in arm with me!, jacket stolen in a pub, bag stolen, someone tried to grab my cash at the cashpoint, saw a guy shot in the neck on CH lane outside the Dogstar, a close colleague(swedish girl, 5"3 & very petite) punched full in the face & robbed as she got her purse out to give a begger a £1, bike nicked & been bitten by a crackhead!.
Been living in Hackney 2 years...........got a couple of nasty scratches by the neighbours cat Dennis on Sat morning, had a rocket fired at me 4th Nov last year by some pesky kids!, apart from that its been a trouble free existance.

Brixton is poo
Hackney is splendid

Sorry to read this Utopia, I used to live & work in the Brixton area for approx 4 years & had no problems at all. Okay I am tall & well built & keep my wits about me when walking around the area. Regarding your Swedish colleague, very nasty, but getting your purse out to give money to some homeless crackhead is just the height of stupidity. I know that Brixton can be loud, rude, nasty & teeming with unsavoury characters, I would feel the same way about Hackney. But saying that I will always have a soft spot for SW2/9 & still visit mates down there. Believe it or not I have had more agro in nice white middle class towns like Hersham or Woking than in either Brixton or Hackney.

 

[CharlieAddict]

I've lived & worked in Brixton for 2 & a half years, during that time I had a bottle thrown at me & hit the back of my head whilst walking up CH lane, my girlf, at the time, had her crotch rubbed by a cpl of guys while arm in arm with me!, jacket stolen in a pub, bag stolen, someone tried to grab my cash at the cashpoint, saw a guy shot in the neck on CH lane outside the Dogstar, a close colleague(swedish girl, 5"3 & very petite) punched full in the face & robbed as she got her purse out to give a begger a £1, bike nicked & been bitten by a crackhead!.

you and your firends sound like the most unluckiest bastards ever!

 

[Iguana]

???? what a load of rubbish. Brixton is great.

Right, so my experiences are rubbish just because you disagree. Before I went to Brixton I had a positive opinion, I like lots of parts of Hackney, even Dalston. But my impression of Brixton is that it's a pit, the whole place just has a nasty undercurrent. I admit I haven't seen a huge amount of the area, but in the time I spent working there I wasn't inspired to explore.

I'm not sure how you can compare Hackney and Brixton though. Hackney is a borough with lots of different areas some better than others. Brixton is just one area. And Hackney has the Lea and the marshes. There is little better than a Sunday afternoon walk along the river with my pups to Springfield Park for lunch in the park cafe.

 

[Monkeynuts]

And Hackney has the Lea and the marshes. There is little better than a Sunday afternoon walk along the river with my pups to Springfield Park for lunch in the park cafe.

Well, Brixton has an outdoor pool that is actually finished / open. And a tube. So there.

 

[Manmasi]

Silly poll

Never been to Hackney, so can't comment on better or worse aspects. Like a poster above said, to make this reliable you'd need a sample of a few people who'd lived in said areas at the same time for the same amount of time. This just invites stereotypical bollocks and urban myths.
Some people do have bad luck in Brixton, it seems a few have had a lot of bad experiences while others have not. I've lived in Brixton for 3 years, I don't feel 'safe' anywhere in London after dark, Brixton is noisy and there are some fruitcakes about, so what? If I got mugged twice in a week of course I'd feel different, personal experience is all this boils down to. A good practical tip, to feel safer on the streets in London (at night), cycle! Buying a bike is the best thing I ever did. Brixton has lots of good qualities, Ritzy, Portugese deli, EXCELLENT transport links, nice park, a couple of nice bars, i'm happy with that.

 

[Cowley]

I'm not sure how you can compare Hackney and Brixton though. Hackney is a borough with lots of different areas some better than others. Brixton is just one area. And Hackney has the Lea and the marshes. There is little better than a Sunday afternoon walk along the river with my pups to Springfield Park for lunch in the park cafe.

Brixton has greenery too, pretty much all of Brixton Hill is a conservation area for a start!!! It also has Brockwell Park and the Lido.

Whilst I agree you can't really compare Hackney & Brixton as one is a Borough and the other a Place in Lambeth...I don't think you should just dismiss Brixton as some sort of Warzone that is centred around Coldharbour Lane!!! Brixton stretches from the Centre over to Stockwell, Oval, Herne Hill, Streatham Hill, Clapham & Tulse Hill. It's basically divided into Wards...so in itself it's a pretty big place.

Brixton has some fine streets and pockets of extreme wealth...it's not some sort of Ghetto Haven!!!

 

[kakuma]

i lived in brixton for 14 years and was murdered twice, i lived in hackney for six months four of which i spent in a medieval torture chamber for heresey

tough to call

 

[Crispy]

:d

 

[Treacle Toes]

i lived in brixton for 14 years and was murdered twice, i lived in hackney for six months four of which i spent in a medieval torture chamber for heresey

tough to call

 

[DJWrongspeed]

i lived in brixton for 14 years and was murdered twice, i lived in hackney for six months four of which i spent in a medieval torture chamber for heresey

I'll remember that one Ninja

What's worse? probably Kenton up near Harrow, most boring part of London ever......

Brixton past 11pm is lively, sure, but in the main it's pretty much the same old place i've always known, get over it. Bad stuff can always be avoided by a determined and unwavering march off, if you get my drift.

not sure what <poster342002> means about 1999? what happened?

 

[Treacle Toes]

Based on the results of this thread I have decided to move myself and all of my friends and family to Brixton...Hackney is obviously toooooooooooooo? You see it's sooooooooooooo??????????? The adjective to describe it hasn't entered the English language yet....Or perhaps I don't know it because I went to school in Hackney and obviously once I move south i'll be taught it.

 

[Utopia]

Well, Brixton has an outdoor pool that is actually finished / open. And a tube. So there.

Ahem......http://www.hackney.gov.uk/c-londonfields-lido .......oh yes it heated too unlike Brockwell!

And you can keep your overpriced, unreliable, lung polluting, noisy, pit pony syndrome causing tube!!!!

 

[Utopia]

you and your firends sound like the most unluckiest bastards ever!

We're not "bastards" actually & my luck has seemed to have changed for the better since leaving the 'delights' of Brixton!

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

Brixton has the more aggressive drug dealers. However, that could be construed as either a positive or negative aspect, depending on one's outlook.

erm not to ptu a downer on things but you'll find hackney has the highest recorded gun crime in london... i'm guessing that's prolly to do with aggressive drug dealers rather than the survivalists colonies in london fields...

 

[poster342002]

not sure what <poster342002> means about 1999? what happened?

It just seems that things in the area took a real nosedive from around that point and there just seemed to be a lot more trouble going on from then onwards.

Like I said earlier in the thread, people I know/knew used to come to Brixton before that and go away pleasantly surprised that almost of the myths about Brixton were just that - myths. However, from 1999 onwards, just about everyone I know who's come to visit has experienced some sort of hassle or aggro within minutes of arrival.

 

[superdoopa]

Right, so my experiences are rubbish just because you disagree. Before I went to Brixton I had a positive opinion, I like lots of parts of Hackney, even Dalston. But my impression of Brixton is that it's a pit, the whole place just has a nasty undercurrent. I admit I haven't seen a huge amount of the area, but in the time I spent working there I wasn't inspired to explore.

I'm not sure how you can compare Hackney and Brixton though. Hackney is a borough with lots of different areas some better than others. Brixton is just one area. And Hackney has the Lea and the marshes. There is little better than a Sunday afternoon walk along the river with my pups to Springfield Park for lunch in the park cafe.

the stuff you were saying about stinking so bad of weed at a job interview from walking through clouds of it sounded like absolute rubbish to me...

 

[claudy]

I used to live on villa rd, about ten-15 years ago and in the morning when i would take the dog out for a walk in max roach park it would be littered with handbags discarded once the contents had been removed following the previous nights muggings, that and the noise of the sirens leaving the station, on the weekend you could count to ten and hear another one go off. That said i was born in Hackney, grew up in and around the east-end, neither is a rose garden hence the decision to leave altogether for my kids sake, I now live in pleasantville, cornwall, its funny the locals all say how dodgy the estate down the road is, I cant help wondering how they'd fare walking down sandringham rd!

 

[lighterthief]

erm not to ptu a downer on things but you'll find hackney has the highest recorded gun crime in london... i'm guessing that's prolly to do with aggressive drug dealers rather than the survivalists colonies in london fields...

I'm not equating drug dealers with gun crime. I'm talking about the minute you get out of Brixton Station you get offered drugs of one kind or another. I have never been offered drugs on the street in Hackney. I'm not saying drugs aren't available, but it's more the case that you have to seek it out rather than the other way round.

 

[claudy]

I'm not equating drug dealers with gun crime. I'm talking about the minute you get out of Brixton Station you get offered drugs of one kind or another. I have never been offered drugs on the street in Hackney. I'm not saying drugs aren't available, but it's more the case that you have to seek it out rather than the other way round.

therein lies the reason i moved out of london altogether, my eldest son is 17 and quite capable of getting into plenty of trouble in Falmouth, I dread to think what he would have been like had we stayed in london. I was always in trouble as a kid in east london but dont remember ever being offered drugs on the street, something which has since happened when i was living in brixton albeit a few years ago now

 

[lighterthief]

Well, Brixton has an outdoor pool that is actually finished / open. And a tube. So there.

Erm, Brixton has an outdoor pool that is unheated and, um, closed. Hackney has a heated, outdoor lido which is open And who needs the tube anyway? You like travelling on the tube?

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Thats a hard one because they both suck. Maybe Brixton tips it because it is in the not so wanky south and doesn't go on quite so much about how great it is.

No 'bed bars' either.

 

[Iguana]

the stuff you were saying about stinking so bad of weed at a job interview from walking through clouds of it sounded like absolute rubbish to me...

No, I said I was worried that I would stink of it not that I did. I'd hardly have gotten the job if I had gone in stinking of hash. And three weeks later I hired someone who said she felt pretty much the same thing.

I don't smoke tobacco, but if I am around someone who smokes it then I tend to smell of it afterwards. Worrying that being surrounded by people of smoking hash might make you stinkof it is hardly ridiculous.

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

I'm not equating drug dealers with gun crime. I'm talking about the minute you get out of Brixton Station you get offered drugs of one kind or another. I have never been offered drugs on the street in Hackney. I'm not saying drugs aren't available, but it's more the case that you have to seek it out rather than the other way round.

right because there isn't a tube station to loiter outside of it doesn't happen perhaps you look like a pig trust you will be offered drugs all the time.

However statisitically, and in reality gun crime is equated to drug dealing. it's not just we have a hell of alot of sub post offices which are easy to turn over...

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

therein lies the reason i moved out of london altogether, my eldest son is 17 and quite capable of getting into plenty of trouble in Falmouth, I dread to think what he would have been like had we stayed in london. I was always in trouble as a kid in east london but dont remember ever being offered drugs on the street, something which has since happened when i was living in brixton albeit a few years ago now

he'd prolly be little different from what he is now but a londoner ...

is he allowed tap water?

seems a tad ove protective if you ask me... London, Hackney, Brixton are not these amorphous mass which will utterly consume you and posion every part of your life. They are just places where people live, the communities are build within them by the people who live there just as anywhere else ...

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

Erm, Brixton has an outdoor pool that is unheated and, um, closed. Hackney has a heated, outdoor lido which is open And who needs the tube anyway? You like travelling on the tube?

we also have that great thing a heated indoor swimming pool.... sadly it's not water proof...

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

No, I said I was worried that I would stink of it not that I did. I'd hardly have gotten the job if I had gone in stinking of hash. And three weeks later I hired someone who said she felt pretty much the same thing.

I don't smoke tobacco, but if I am around someone who smokes it then I tend to smell of it afterwards. Worrying that being surrounded by people of smoking hash might make you stinkof it is hardly ridiculous.

not heard of deoderant....then...

 

[Monkeynuts]

Erm, Brixton has an outdoor pool that is unheated and, um, closed. Hackney has a heated, outdoor lido which is open And who needs the tube anyway? You like travelling on the tube?

Pleased to see the Hackney one is now open. Brixton's closes for the winter, of course.

Not quite sure why I added some pro-Brixton points. Just felt like it Don't live there and don't care much for the tube either (just as well as there isn't one here), although it must be handy sometimes.

 

[boohoo]

This all seems to really turn into a north south thing.

And it also boils down to how much time spent in an area.

 

[lighterthief]

right because there isn't a tube station to loiter outside of it doesn't happen perhaps you look like a pig trust you will be offered drugs all the time.

In that case I'd be curious to know exactly where in Hackney the level of streetdealing exceeds that of Brixton.

 

[Onket]

therein lies the reason i moved out of london altogether, my eldest son is 17 and quite capable of getting into plenty of trouble in Falmouth, I dread to think what he would have been like had we stayed in london. I was always in trouble as a kid in east london but dont remember ever being offered drugs on the street, something which has since happened when i was living in brixton albeit a few years ago now

This used to happen to me in Swindon from when I was 15. So from 15 years ago now. I don't think it's just London.