living in south london/deciding between living in a flat in brixton or streatham - C or D

Streatham - more comfortable, better serviced by high street action, further away from the centre, more safety.

I appreciate what I have living in Streatham, but would feel a litle closer to the action in Brixton.

but then streatham seems kinda dead as an area, so maybe that would be worse for her when travelling late at night, i dont know

brixton i supose is more active, so being in the heart of it might be nice, but then its only a bus ride away isnt it?

Transport's much better in Brixton, there are always other options if one form goes tits up.

streatham might be the safer option, but it seems a bit dead, and i dunno if walking from the BR station there would be better for her than walking from brixton tube

to be honest, im a bit worried about the safety for myself as well, i suppose its just a case of pros and cons though with brixton, you get all the energy and vibrancy but you dont get the other things

i really have to make my mind up soonish though
streatham is the safer option i suppose but brixton might be more interesting (not sure if interesting is always good - the reviews on nowhere.co.uk were quite mixed!)

sorry for all this internal dialogue!

i dont know why im only looking at south london, maybe just cos its cheaper for what you can get, its def not nearer to my workplace

What time/day was it when you visited the flat? Did you feel uncomfortable, or are you just reaching conclusions based on hearsay?

i didnt feel uncomfortable visiting the flat, its a kinda quiet area, its just the travelling aspect for my flatmate/cousin im concerned about

visited at night once, and once by day as well
might just go for brixton actually, the flat in streatham is a bit nicer and brighter (plus it has a nice plush hallway!) but at least brixton is nearer to the tube (would have to get the bus there from streatham) and theres nightlife there too, not much to do in streatham really is there?! so will prob be in brixton more anyway

I don't know if there's a crime difference between Streatham and Brixton - there has been a rash of breakins on our street and we live in a really quiet bit.

However, Streatham is a lot more affordable and a lot more quiet. If you want excitement, Brixton is only a 10 minute busride/20 minute walk away.

if you live in brixton the area going towards herne hill/dulwich road is nicer and safer than brix hill. triangular area between brix, stockwell and clap north also has lots of nice, affordable rents but make sure not to live on landor road itself unless you want to be hassled to buy drugs every single evening.

brix, herne hill area has far more variety of shops, restaurants, nightlife than anywhere else i know of in south london. having said that, it's still not exactly a utopia.

re danger, i have v little first-hand experience of brixton, but having lived in hackney and bow for the past year and a bit - both of which have probably worse reps - i can say that the danger levels are usually overrated as long as you take a sensible amount of care.

well, the thread starter asked specifically about brixton v. streatham, so i suppose that's why we've stuck to those topics, g.

brixton was the first place i lived when i moved to london. i am a bit of a worrier too, and safety did concern me, but i can say that having lived there for the better part of a year, i had no troubles at all. however that's just me. my flatmate was stabbed for his wallet once a few years back over towards brockwell park/water lane, which can indeed be dodgy. i lived off brixton hill on hayter road (past the fridge, before the white horse), and i'd say that generally, the streets on the west side of brixton hill (toward clapham) are nicer, and seem to have less crime/nastiness. vicky is right about how to get around the hub of brixton at night if you feel uncomfortable - just keep walking 'with purpose', and you're normally fine. sure, there can be crowds, drunks, tension, etc, but you'll get that in a lot of places late at night in london...

sadly, i think that a lot of the general 'fear' of brixton has to do with the area having a large black community, and the underlying fear/racism white people have of such things. sure, ignoring ethnicity, the stats do speak for themselves - the crime rate is high in brixton. but it's high in plenty of other parts of london (and england) which don't get as much attention as brixton. of course the riots have a lot to do with that, but that was ages ago! anyway, that's a whole other discussion and i don't want to de-rail the thread about it...

i've felt less safe in plenty of other areas of london. brixton treated me well.

sorry i can't offer any opinion of streatham, though.

this is true, but these parts aren't as popular with the young (white) professional twentysomethings who find brix so exciting.

There are better places than both mentioned on this thread - Camberwell has some decent bars and restaurants and nice housing. Peckham Rye (as opposed to Peckham proper) is actually really pleasant and leafy. Herne Hill is also pretty cool but awkward to get in and out of - but then people don't really move to South London for its proximity to the city centre. Unless you want to move to Elephant & Castle, which trust me, you don't.

If you're going anywhere south of the river and have price/transport issues, my recommendation would be Lewisham - you can get bit more for your money and there is always a train or DLR going within the next five or ten minutes, up to about midnight.

I meant more or less safe.

I never got any trouble living off Effra Road in Brixton, and I never actually felt close to any trouble. It's not a desperately poor area or something. There's all the weed dudes but people mostly keep to themselves. Nobody ever came up to me like "have you got the TIME mate" or anything. I know less about Streatham.

not to the degree that i've experienced. i know it's skewed because i'm always there around a big nighttime event, but it's enough to make me think "ugh" (rightly or wrongly) whenever brixton is mentioned.