South Tottenham
South
Tottenham, is located, as you would imagine, at the very south of
Tottenham, and it borders the predominantly Jewish-based community of
Stamford Hill. Of all the areas that Tottenham as a whole borders,
Stamford Hill is the area which many would see as being the most
affluent, and therefore this is what has caused the knock-on effect
to South Tottenham, in that it boasts much of the most expensive
properties within the area. I have seen property's go for £500,000
for a three-bedroom, which is simply unheard of in other parts of
Tottenham. For example, in Northumberland Park you might be paying
£250,000 for a property with a similar specification. Much of
this may just be down to basic logistics of the area: to get to
London Central from Tottenham, you had to head south, and therefore
Tottenham South is the part that is nearest central London. However,
it is more than that. Much of South Tottenham borders the River Lea,
and having been somebody who has walked down by the river quite
regularly since 2005 to 2012, I have noticed a marked improvement in
many of the developments that have sprung up around the River Lea.
Many of them actually look very nice, for example, Watermint Quay
Despite
being a relatively new housing development, I actually think it looks
extremely nice, and would not look out of place in Chiswick or even
parts of Richmond. I used to traverse the River Lee ticket from my
home in Tottenham to Hackney Marshes to play Sunday league football,
and I will never forget the first day I walked down there and, to my
amusement and surprise, I came across a rowing club? A rowing
club?!?!?! in Tottenham?!?!?! It would appear so.
And
it actually looks pretty damn nice as well!! (I actually got my phone
out and called my partner to say "You'll never guess what I've
just seen?") On a Sunday morning, there were groups of
well-to-do teenagers, putting themselves through their rowing paces.
None of them seem to be nursing hangovers, and they all seemed to
have a surprising amount of enthusiasm, considering it was 8:30am. It
was almost like they were their of their own free will! Behind them,
a rugby game was commencing, while a crowd of about 80 people looked
on. I walked down, and came across a lovely little cafe, which was
joined onto the rowing club. Just past that, was a lovely little
picturesque bridge.
And
then we come to the actual Marina itself, which is surprisingly nice. In fact, for any bands that are based in the area, they even seem to
put on gigs there. Although I am not 100% certain where the gigs
are, I have seen a couple of bands posting links to gigs on Twitter
that they have at Springfield Marina, N15.. It would be a fantastic
place to play a gig, although to be fair, it is quite far away from
public transport. There are even some Tennis Courts right next to
it, which are in pretty fantastic shape; they seem to be maintained
very well, in that they have been laid recently, and there
never seems to be any rubbish or litter there, and the nets are also well
maintained. In approximately 2009, my ex-partner and I decided to pop
down there for a game of tennis. Having popped to the nearest Argos to buy rackets,
located right next to Tottenham Hale station, we made the
approximately 25 minutes walk down to the tennis courts located in
Springfield Park. We saw a sign up on the wall saying that it was
£5.20 for one hour, so we stayed for 90 minutes, and then
headed off to see where we could pay our fee.
However,
it was only then that we realise that everybody seemed to be playing
their tennis, and heading off in different directions, with seemingly
none of them heading towards any sort of building which looked like
an official Council building to pay. We walked for approximately 10
minutes in Springfield Park before we finally came to a lovely little
cafe area, and it was in there that we realised that was where
the council offices were. We walked in and asked if we could pay,
and the gentleman who worked for the council there said,
"Pay
for what?"
"The
tennis?"
"Oh,
God, right, yeah, I'm not actually sure who you pay for that....."
10
minutes later, and we still could not find somebody to accept the
money. Eventually, the gentleman just suggested to us, "look, I
wouldn't worry about it to be fair..." So, it would seem, there
seem to be free tennis courts located approximately 25 minutes south
of Tottenham Hale Station!! We ended up going back approximately 12
to 15 times and never once did we see anybody pay, and it was a
fantastic facility within the area. It gave us something to do and
also kept us very healthy.
Here
is where we get to know one of the greatest paradoxes about
Tottenham. Once again, the best and the worst seem to sit
side-by-side, as Springfield Park is a mere five-minute walk away, if
that, to the notorious Murder Mile in Clapton. Now, this blog is for
me to inform you about certain parts of the area, but the fact that it
is called the Murder Mile, I don't think it needs to much
embellishment..... (I'm going to bow out of this one gracefully...)
South
Tottenham also has a massive added benefit of recently being added to
the Overground Train Network. I have been actually quite taken with
the Overground Train service, and it used to go past my flat in Bream
Close, when I lived there. Having said that, it barely went by at
all. That was because the train seemed to be once every 30 minutes,
but I would swear that there were whole hours that went by without a
train going by. And also the train seemed to stop at roughly 10pm.
Not officially, mind, it's just that I never saw them - they seemed to
be cancelled a lot. This was when it was called the Silverlink, or
the North London line. However, recently, the London Underground has
totally revamped, spruced up and relaunched this line under the
London overground name. And how is it? Well, it's great actually!!!
The trains arrive every 15 minutes, and what's better, they do
actually arrive every 15 minutes!! No hour long wait for South
Tottenham residents of 2013. South Tottenham residents of 2008 may
have had to wait for one hour for their train, but no more! It has
fantastic commuter links to Gospel Oak, which is great for exploring
Hampstead Heath.... Yes, you see, if you live within a few minutes of
South Tottenham station, then technically you could be 20 minutes
away from Hampstead Heath. The train takes 13 mins. (13 mins!!!)
The very same Hampstead Heath that sells two-bedroom properties for
£1.5 million. You're also a very short distance away from areas
such as Wanstead to the east (which if you ever had a bit of spare
time on your hands, I would recommend walking across Wanstead Flats
towards Wanstead Park, as it is one of the most underrated parts of
London). Some of our Studio staff have also said that they have gone
to gigs at the Barfly where they have changed at Gospel Oak and gone
to either Camden Road or Kentish Town West, and managed the journey
from door to door in 30 mins or less. I have gone from South
Tottenham over to Crouch End station many times, and I have even made
the barely five-minute journey across to Green Lanes to sample some
of the fantastic Turkish Shops that are over there. It is very hard
to underestimate just how important the new station has been for the
area. If before the transport regeneration, South Tottenham was a 6/10, this
redevelopment of the train station has definitely turned it into a 8/10.
Having
said that, I do think that the area is slightly overpriced. I guess
if you have the money, and had reason to stay in the area, then it
would be worth it, but for me personally, it is an area that is much
more expensive than the rest of Tottenham and is only a bit better
than the average. Maybe I'm being unfair: I mean, as I have said it
is a fantastic part of Tottenham and it has so many things that the
rest of Tottenham does not offer. So if you were looking for
somewhere to rent, and if you maybe didn't mind paying a little bit
more money, then by all means go for it. You are barely a five-minute
journey away from Stoke Newington, which is a great vibrant area full
of live music, restaurants and artistic folk, and only about 15
minutes away, at the most, from Dalston, which seems to be the new
hotspot of the world, and seems to attract hipsters like Rappers
attract Gold. I would say, though, that in consistency with the rest
of Tottenham, it does seem to lack a range of pubs.
(Maybe I should have written a blog called Tottenham: A Tale of
Closed Pubs....) I think that is the one thing that brings the area
down the most. However, if I had to live in South Tottenham, whilst
in 2005 I may have not jumped at the idea, now I would certainly be
happy to do so, as the area has improved that much. In fact at the
time of writing in February 2013 there seems to be a new Sainsbury's
opening literally just down the road, and they seem to be clued up on
which areas are up-and-coming. Who knows, maybe in a few years this
will be the new Dalston?
Best
bits
Rowing
Club
Springfield
Marina
Springfield
Park, especially the tennis courts
New
Overground station
Room
for improvement
High
Prices (although to be fair, if they keep their value,then it is not
too bad)
Lack
of bars (again.........)
No comments:
Post a Comment