Dalston vs Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green > Hackney > Dalston. Dalston is overrated.

Which smells better? Catshit, dogshit or horseshit?

(Well, actually horseshit smells slightly nicer as herbivores shit generally does, but you get my point.)

hackney has always seemed really ANGRY to me

all horrible

dalston is closest to me and probably worst though.

at least it isn't stoke newington.

I thought Dalston was slightly improved these days. Some of the clubs have been closed (which made it too noisy at night for sleep!) and some of the streets have been cleaned up. My mother-in-law tells me she hasn't had any drugs left in her plant pots for a good while. Besides, it has the Rio.

The trains from Dalston Kingsland are also more punctual since Silverlink died.

Don't like any of them really but then I'm a West Londoner and anything East just gives me vertigo, i.e. where am I which way am I facing how do I get out of here? Beyond Liverpool Street I need a search party to come and rescue me.

dalston is ~in~ hackney, technically. i like them all but dalston wins, cuz it has me in it.

it's in the borough of hackney but it's not in hackney

Yeah the Mare Street area isn't Dalston at all really.

All dachshunds are dogs, but not all dogs are dachshunds.

Dalston is in Hackney, but not all Hackney is Dalston.

They're all fine. I don't really hang out in Bethnal Green much (it feels a bit emptier than the other two?) but I don't see Bethnal Green Rd as good as Kingsland Rd/Stoke N Rd or Mare St. I live in Clapton specifically but am not gonna be lame and claim the territory I live in just so happens to be the best of the lot (it's furthest from zone 1 being the main drawback).

PS fuck haters

Think I actually like Whitechapel and Bow more than any of these.

you're just picking the ones closest to where you live obv

voted for neasden

I suppose, if I *have* to pick I'd plump for Dalston because I've been to some good parties there. But come on, it's bloody *Dalston*. ugh.

(it seems rather unfair that I, as a Sarf Londoner, have to know more about the geography of East London than any East Londoners every know about the tiny geography of South London like, say, where Streatham, Brixton and Clapham all fit together.)

give it a fucking rest for gods sake

bow? when i lived in bow i felt weirdly isolated in comparison w/dalston. miss wandering down roman rd and browsing the r&b street stallz of a saturday though, broadway mkt isn't quite the same.

pretty sure there's rnb stallz on dalston market itself

more reggae

What was that outburst in aid of, Steve?

misses dom ;_;

http://b0.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/00962/00/26/962376200_l.gif

DG OTM sensation re Hackney anger

i didn't know you bought CDs anyway lex

streams music over gaydar

I suppose Dalston, Hackney or Bethnal Green must be problematic areas for white supremacists to live.

London Fields on a Saturday afternoon = whitest area in the whole city

I quite like the slightly more isolated atmosphere of Bow, it has a quieter and more integrated feel than Dalston. Maybe its the slow hipster creep up from Shoreditch but Dalston feels more like several totally different groups and types of establishment rubbing slightly awkwardly against one another. I don't get that feeling as much in Hackney proper.

I mean, I know all London feels like that to some extent but I notice it much more in Dalston.

I'm going to Cafe OTO in Dalston in a couple of weeks. What's the story with Dalston? I'm up in Glasgow, not a Londoner, so forgive my complete ignorance as to why it needs a thread.

Aye, it's gonna take you a couple of weeks to get there.

Shettleston vs Tollcross vs Carmyle - it's a tough one.

you get knifecrimed after buying shit from the oxfam shop

Bow is certainly quieter, maybe that's the only reason it doesn't seem as 'bad'.

i think Hackney and Dalston have the same problems all in all inc. huge diversity masked by an often stifling cultural segregation.

So that's the equivalent Glasgow poll? Hurrah! Can't wait.

krakow it's just a popular place to live for the middle class hipsters hence "controversy"

I've been in the Dalston Oxfam shop. Don't see the fuss really or maybe the guy who blogs about it buys up all the decent stuff. Bought a nice jacket there once though - Kenzo, mustard coloured i.e. that was the colour of the jacket not someone having spilled mustard on it in 1974, only £2.50.

krakow it's just a popular place to live for the middle class hipsters hence "controversy"

-- blueski, Thursday, August 28, 2008 12:36 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

all three kind of are tho.

OK, that was my guess from posts thus far. Just like Shettleston then [insert ironic smiley here].

I'll be bringing some Haghill loving to the London hipsters.

Also they're popular because they're cheap and close to lots of stuff.

'cheap'

there's always such a sense of "outside gazing longingly in" about people who hate on these places. white middle class hipsters or no, i think they're all pretty good places to live.

hahaha you are such a projecting cock.

man i wish i could shop at bethnal green tesco

^^^bronson = miller, yah?

i used to hate on dalston just because i didn't know it at all and i still have a bugbear about 'privileged' types hyping their ends (not sure if ends if the right term, got it off bronson) sometimes. so moaning about these parts of town getting more attention than others which aren't really any better or worse is fair in that respect but otoh STFU you tedious bastards who weren't even born within the sound of the zone 6 bells.

Haha last time I was in Streatham we sat in deckchairs in a friend's back garden drinking beer as a two gangs fought with a load of police in riot gear in a car park just behind us. All parties concerned totally ignored us, it was weird.

Streatham is now heart of the South London Gun Triangle now they've moved all the crime up over the hill to make Brixton all nice. :-(

Funny how Streatham Hill used to be "nice" and the Dip down by where I live was viewed as a hole. Now Streatham Hill is full of Brixton Hill overspill and Streatham Villarge is all gentrified and posh.

I live in Stoke Newington, and am therefore a middle class hipster. I, like all 3 locales, but choose Dalston for the Oxfam shop, range of restaurants and interesting street life. I guess this confirms everyone's worst opinions of Stoke Newington types.

fake neil s

what's your favourite restaurant? i'd go with Shanghai i guess (lovely interior but lovelier food). 19 Numara Bos Cirrik good for Turkish.

shanghai is amazing for hangover sunday dim sum. santa maria del buen ayre on broadway mkt also a favourite, will rep for lmnt and mangal too. and the vietnamese places towards sditch on kingsland rd, esp hanoi cafe and tay do. really must go to the stone cafe one of these days.

didn't think shanghai is that good plus i hear they con you about their suckling pig experience

x-post

Yeah, Shanghai's good, particularly the original Lyon's Tea Room interior. I like Stone Cave for Turkish- cheesy kebabs! Would like to try a Ghanaian place too- any recommendations?

bethnal green wins because it has a tube station. and also people who live there don't normally have the illusion that they're living somewhere good.

i don't know any ghanaian restaurants in dalston though there is a ghanaian food stall on saturdays on broadway mkt which serves delicious stews - have been recommended this place in south norwood (!) though: http://www.thegoldcoastbar.com/

That restaurant looks all the awesome but is out of the way even for me.

I don't think I've been to any of these places, so it'd be churlish of me to vote.

Just wanted to use churlish, never said it on ILX before.

I like Bethnal Green the best!

I love Bethnal Green, it is just pretty relaxed and peaceful, has a nice park by the tube station, and I feel very safe there.

I don't know why someone would have a major problem with it really, it seems quite innocuous.

In many ways life there is akin to the heady days of 30 or 40 years ago, where people SPEAK to each other. And LISTEN.

I once said hello to a black man!

ah that'll be Len. he's a real character isn't he?

i once saw a guy passed out on the pavement in front of the salmon and ball

good times

i once saw a guy passed out on the pavement in front of the salmon and ball

I'd say he was an Irishman was he? He was!

If forced to choose between Bethnal Green and Hackney I would take Bethnal Green, but my first choice would really be the weird interzone that lies between Hackney Road and the canal, up around Cambridge Heath Road. Is it in Tower Hamlets? Is it in Hackney? Is it Bethnal Green? Is it Cambridge Heath or Haggerston? None of the above, it would seem.

What's the best way to get between Dalston and the St Pancras/King's X/Euston area?

I'm staying at the St Pancras YHA (just opposite the station) and going to gigs at Cafe OTO, which is apparently just next to the Dalston Kingsland station.

Is the Overground and then changing to Victoria or walking the best bet? How about straightforward buses?

Get the fucking number 30 bus

It goes the whole fucking way. It also goes past Highbury and Islington station you can get the fucking Victoria line from there

some fucking priest you turned out to be

overground+victoria probably easiest.

fucking priest

Fucking hell, thanks.

I'm going to a gig at Cafe OTO on Sunday!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

VICTORY

ANGRY HACKNEY

How was Cafe OTO Neil S?

I blame the Geffryes Museum lurkers.

Apathy is the winner here.

Yes, apathy is the emotion that springs most easily to mind when thinking about Hackney...

Never made it I'm afraid krakow, due to hangover, rain and insufficient will. Story of my life!

don't take the overground on a sunday it only runs every half hour.

sorry i meant the fucking overground on a fucking sunday, it only runs every fucking half hour

Every half hour on Sunday is fine - that's what bothering to plan your journey is for.

but you can also just bother to plan to jump on the fucking 30 bus

I didn't spend any time in Dalston except while in the venue, so my perception is based on passing through it evenings and late nights only, but I didn't see much sign of hipster-ness. The comparison to Shettleston/Tollcross in Glasgow seems quite apt from what I saw (except for the fact that it's only when visiting places such as London or Birmingham that I realise quite how white Glasgow is for the most part). Number 30 bus for the fucking win by the way, though I walked out there from the centre on a couple of nights, which, for an outsider, was a not unenjoyable walk.

where the fuck can I watch fucking Ireland play tonight without fucking England being put on at 21.00? I'm thinking the fucking Perserverance in Hackney cos they show fucking GAA but I'm not fucking sure.

does anyone know?

fuck sake

trying to avoid the fucking Dundee on Cambridge Heath Road, shudder

19 Numara Bos Cirrik good for Turkish.

^^this is true!!

will you not watch it in The Bohola House young man?

or the Old Shillelagh on Church St will deffo show it

That's pronounced "shillaylee" btw

a likely story

Is that a real pub? The Old Shillelagh? they need to update their Irish names to stuff like "The Relocated Priest".

I guess I could go to Bohola House! It's near and will definitely show it. Owned by an ILXors auntie.

It is indeed real. Very long and thin is how I would characterise it.

Just like a Shillelagh!

Indeed! They serve very good reasonably priced Guinness too.