My Girlfriend is from Sarf East London and always reminisces about the times gangs came down from Thamesmead and beat everyone up…Oh happy days. Also A Clockwork Orange and Misfits were filmed there, just to add to the mystique. My hands were actually trembling as I drove over there for a nose about (public transport is almost impossible from where I live, also in SE London)
The area was built on marshland on south bank of River Thames, but oopsy they completely forgot to add shopping facilities and banks. To be fair it has improved over time, but not much.
Parts of the area still have the Cubist/Brutalist/Modernist style (which are having something of a revival; well a few pics have turned up in art exhibitions in Hackney) and others are smaller low rise new-ish estates, with a surprising number cul-de-sacs to get lost in.
But you know what, I will stop being so condescending, the area is super quiet, there are numerous lakes and it is cheap, really cheap. Like South Yorkshire ex-mining town cheap.
The average property price is £187,734, 166.2% below the London Average of £499,732 (April 2014) and Crossrail is coming (near-ish)
Maybe it is worth a look after all….
Famous for
Clockwork Orange, Misfits and the video of Come to Daddy by electronic musician Aphex Twin were shot here. Downton Abbey it most certainly isn’t.
Positives
Cheap, very very very quiet. Loads of water, several parks and open spaces. And Crossrail will be near-ish, one of these days (years)
Negatives
Feels so disconnected from the rest of London, as if it is kind of frozen in suspended animation.
Transport Links
Not good, Crossrail can’t come quick enough. Thamesmead is also cut off from the north of the River Thames and is in the centre of the 15 mile gap between the Blackwall Tunnel and the Dartford Tunnel/QE2 Bridge. If you want to cross the river, it’s the Woolwich ferry for you. Bus to Abbey Wood train station is your best bet.
Schools
Primary, Hawsmoor School and Windrush Outstanding. Secondaries, St Paul’s Academy Plumstead Manor School Good.
Drink/Eat
Mmm…Greenwich?
Property All properties correct via www.zoopla.co.uk on 9th October 2014
To buy £220,00 three bedroom semi-detached family home with garden
To buy in Thamesmead click here
To rent £1,100 pcm (£254 pw) two bed, two bath fourth floor apartment in West Thamesmead, with balcony views of the Thames
To rent in Thamesmead click here
