Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #478179 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Synopsis
What is it really like to live in the 33 different boroughs of London? What price band can you expect in different areas and what kind of people live there? This updated guide walks the reader through London, borough by borough, and provides information on the various aspects of London life.

Customer Reviews

Useful as an overview only
This is useful as an overview. It has provided some useful information for us, but really you can't base any firm decisions on it - neither ruling areas in or out. I also noticed that some of the information on where we live now (Brixton) is quite out of date.

Very useful book which captures each area's atmosphere
This book is extremely useful for a quick assessment of an area. It gives a short description which captures the feel of the area and who lives there very well. It is straight and to the point, giving an areas upsides and downsides, postcode/area naming snobbery etc.. Details about travel, shops, recreation etc are invaluable.

The book has a slightly negative slant on virtually every area, but this is good because it balances the estate agents' spin.

An unbalanced view of London
For anyone who has never lived in London, the North-South divide might refer either to the distribution of wealth between the two hemispheres of the globe we live on, or the division between the salt of the earth industrial North of England and the lager drinking dot.com South. For Londoners, it has quite a different meaning. In a nut shell, the North is where you can find art, culture, transport and a black cab home after a night partying in Shoreditch, whereas the South (with the exception of a few pockets close to the river) is a vast wilderness with none of the artistic, architectural, historical, or nightlife interests of its culturally better endowed neighbour. Perhaps this is a little biased, but then this is my point. As an avid reader of the Evening Standard's Wednesday property section (to which Sara McConnell regularly contributes) I cannot help but notice the frequency with which some unknown part of South London is hailed as London's new artistic or cultural quarter. "Where to Live in London" is like an extended version of one of Ms McConnell's articles. The book is well written and well laid out, with all the useful factual information that it is necessary to consider when looking for a property. However, although very subtle, the constant up-playing of everything South of the river and the feint praise for all things North does begin to grate after a while and one starts to wonder if the said author might perhaps live somewhere in this less fashionable part of London. Before I moved to London and bought a property North of the river I invested in two London property guides, both of which I found useful. Of the two, I know which one I would give my full support. For anyone already living in South London who wishes to reassure themselves that they made the right decision, I would recommend this book. For those considering a move who would wish to see a more balanced view of London living, I would suggest the books rival, "The New London Property Guide" by Carrie Seagrave.