The western side of Forest Hill has good transport links. As well as the trains, there are buses including the 176 and 185 buses going to Oxford Street and Victoria (takes about 1 hour) via East Dulwich and Camberwell, and the P4 going to Lewisham (about 20 mins) one way and Brixton (about 25 mins) the other.

The main roads this side of the station are well lit and there is almost always some car and pedestrian traffic, so it feels pretty safe.

The Horniman Museum puts on a lot of free events for adults and kids, and the Gardens are a well kept and popular park with nice views of central London. There's also a triangular patch of grass and trees opposite the Gardens with some swings etc from kids (set for a ?40k revamp in the near future - see elsewhere on this forum) and there's the surprisingly large Sydenham Hill Wood nature reserve (about 30 mins to walk through with a nice pub at the other end) too. And Dulwich Park is also just a few mins away.

You'll know that there are few useful shops in Forest Hill around the station, and a few pubs and restaurants too. East Croydon is also just a 15 minute train ride away and has a couple of fairly large shopping malls and is generally more pleasant and civilised an experience than Oxford Street. East Dulwich is also just up the road and has some trendier shops and bars.

Was renting in the area for a couple of years and after looking all over London for a place to buy ended up deciding that Forest Hill was the best value. I don't really know why prices are so reasonable, other than the perception by north Londoners that anywhere without a tube stop ought to be accompanied by an Ennio Morricone soundtrack. I've not discovered any real catches so far apart from the slightly cruddy station.

Nice place, nice mixture of people, nice...err, place name.