A quick look at the Guardian Online's archive "Let's move to" feature shows this is often a problem. Most of the comments posted contain complaints about the journalist never visiting. On this occasion pretty clear he/she didnt.

I don't think they do visit for the Let's Move To articles - I used to read the Guardian back when paying for "news"papers was a thing and I always understood this small, throwaway article to be a crowd-sourced and internet-sourced thing. It's not meant to be an in-depth review, just a light-touch look at somewhere. I suspect it takes all of half an hour to pull together, and shouldn't be taken as particularly important, accurate or useful, really.

I've posted my 'angry of forest hill' response on the site.!!!

agree. We are just about to move to FH and I can safely say that that article does not reflect the area we fell in love with. A bit disappointing really.

It's not very flattering, is it?

Pretty sure they covered FH about 2 years back and it read almost identically.

alimc Don't let this article put you off. I have lived in the area for over 15 yrs and have opened a shop in the area a yr ago as I love FH so much AND just added to it this weekend. Hope you love it too!

I love living and trading in FH as it is so community based! Do you think I'm right or wrong?

Thanks for the mention nottinghillbilly. Much appreciated.

Tom Dyckhoff, who authored the article, actually lives in South East London, well just about. A little bit of cyber-stalking suggests that he lives in Borough, SE1, close to Borough High Street, and the railway line between London Bridge and Waterloo. Or at least this was his home in 2002.

Borough is a gloomy corner of South London if ever there was one, in the shadow of the Shard, and hardly able to take two steps without finding another railway line crossing over the road. And the area is completely dominated by major road and railway lines, with a major hospital and market in close proximity. A noisier spot in London would be hard to find - possibly Mayfair.

But enough criticism of a sloppy piece of journalism from somebody who is capable of much better analysis. Clearly he isn't giving much time to these weekly articles that he has needed to write for the last few years. I guess it is difficult to find new things to say about places when you are down to the 200th 'place to move to'.

On a more positive note, I got to speak to lots of people at yesterday's food fair and was impressed with how many people in their 20s and 30s do appear to have recently moved to Forest Hill. Others were visiting and planning to move here soon.

Correction: one of the other outstanding. Yet another being St William of York.

I think some are being a little harsh about the article. Have always seen this as a bit of a fun piece, e.g. "... you can commute to all those places you can't afford" is, I think, an attempt at humour while talking up the transport links. All the articles I have seen in this series, where I have known the area, have been sketchy at best on details - the theme continues.

It is generally positive and besides, always better to be looked over than overlooked (thanks Mae West). I think the guardianistas have arrived already BTW.

This reply to the article made me laugh:

"I live in Penge, it's nearby and much better value. Partly thanks to its awful name. I'm so glad most people are shallow."

He/she's got a point. I would hardly call Forest Hill affordable anymore.

Agree with SeeforMiles - the property prices in Forest Hill seem well over-inflated at the momment. Whilst the area has improved over the past 3 years - it doesnt justify price rises of 20% from just last summer! The economy is still fragile so dont understand why the property market has recently gone crazy again. Feels like we're heading towards another boom and bust!

There is probably better value in South East London at the momment.

Yes and it makes it near impossible to trade up to something bigger or for first timers on average incomes to move into an area.

i think word is out about forest hill / hop. people hear about the overground,good schools, still relatively decent house prices, parks, safe neighbourhoods etc..

also a lot of people are migrating from ED, HH etc. as and when the need more space.

i think that can easily explain the price change....

Anyone that quotes this thread to me has a free ice cream on me! Off to bed have a great night all x

The article certainly doesn't reflect our research of the area either. We are moving to FH tomorrow so too late for second thoughts anyway! This forum has been very useful for finding places to investigate so thanks.

Talking about Penge.. my VW Old Skool Camper Van got stolen from outside my house on Rockbourne Rd last week during my refit. A customer told me today they saw one similar in Penge! It was mine! Just had it towed back, not drivable, but at least I got it back. My camping gear is still there, but what a mess, everything is everywhere. Job to do on Monday my day off.

Just wanted to say that we've lived in this area for many years and it's a real pleasure. It's friendly, pleasant and most importantly has many amenities and one often neglected one is the adult education centre just opposite Dalmain School. A really friendly and nice place with an interesting range of quality courses. People can study all sorts of things from Pottery, Cake Decorating, IT and Photography to basic skills in English and Maths. There are even English courses for those whose first language is not English and who want to improve skills or get a qualification whilst working as an au pair for example. Many of the courses are short so you can start a course in English Skills for Life level 2 (GCSE) now and get a qualification in 11 weeks. They also do courses aimed at families; it's been lovely to see mums and dads with their kids of an evening at Brockley Rise.

What I think is interesting about this article is how the town centre looks to others who don't know the place.

Lets work on the basis that the journalist who wrote it lives in say, Blackheath, and spends quite a lot of time driving through Forest Hill on the south circular. He can do the research for his article whilst stuck in traffic.

And if this is what you'd seen. It does look a bit of a mess. Those of us that live here know its got great people/shops/parks/schools/pubs and other stuff but those things aren't obvious to the casual observer.

The town centre visually is all over the place, it's pretty visually incoherent, there are buildings and shopfronts that need a lot of TLC (it's not Blackheath is it). It's something that it would be good to improve further, so after much thought I'm taking this article as some useful constructive criticism that at least doesn't play up to the hype.

One way of trying to improve things would be to work towards an updated planning guidance document that sets out a vision for the town centre, and how this might be achieved. This is something that the Forest Hill Society have been starting to talk about, along with a range of other local people and groups. Maybe 2013 should be the year for it?

I am shocked about that article. I don`t know what to say... I`ve heard a lot of great thing about that place...