Hi Everyone,

My girlfriend and I are considering putting in an offer on a house in East Dulwich. It's position, whilst officially Dulwich is actually closer to Forest Hill Station. We very much like east Dulwich but no very little about Forest Hill...

So a few questions, which will really help with our decision..

What is Forest Hill like to live? is it a safe place? Are there areas to be avoided ?
Are there nice restaurants and bars? (I stumbled across Bar equal? on line)
Is there a 'high street' of some description? with your 'normal' high street shops?
What are the connnections like into central london? Assume best route is into london bridge? (I work near cannon street)

Thanks in advance!!

D

To answer your first question last, connections to central London are amazing, via either trains to London Bridge or via the Overground. With both routes running through FH station, there are trains every few minutes.

There is a vibrant but small 'high street' comprising the end of London Road and Dartmouth Road as far as Forest Hill Library and the new pools. There are a few 'normal' shops - Sainsburys, WH Smiths, Boots, but there are many more independent shops, including one of the best butchers in London (The Butchery), retro sweet shop / ice cream parlour Sugar Mountain, award-winning card shop B cards, boutiques like Bunka and Marie's Boutique and many others.

Places to eat and drink (among others):
Canvas and Cream
The Teapot
St David Coffee Shop
Sylvan Post
The Montage
The Hill (formerly Question bar)
The Dartmouth Arms

Is it safe? Absolutely. You may read a few posts on here about mugging and burglaries, but remember that no one ever posts to say that yet another day has gone by when they haven't been a victim of a crime!

Have a look at this thread here, which asked similar questions and got lots of interesting answers:
http://www.se23.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=8659

Come and see for yourself - Forest Hill is a lovely place to live and you won't regret it.

If you are positioned half way between East Dulwich and Forest Hill then I'm sure you will enjoy both town centres. Just because you are a bit closer to Forest Hill station will not prevent you traveling the extra 5 minutes into Lordship Lane for a drink if you choose to. But there is plenty going on in Forest Hill as well as in Honor Oak and Peckham which are also in easy reach of Far East Dulwich.

There is little to choose between East Dulwich and Forest Hill for access to London Bridge, except that when there is any problem with the Southern trains we can head down to the Jubilee line and get home via the East London Line (in about the same time it takes to travel directly). That degree of flexibility is very useful. Of course if you are not significantly further from East Dulwich station then you might choose to use this line instead, offering you a third option.

For the avoidance of confusion, when Michael says 'the East London Line' he means the Overground.

Good luck with your offer for this house in the twilight zone between East Dulwich and Forest Hill, new2foresthill, if you consider putting it in.

Lovely posts rshdunlop and Michael.

And especially for linking, rshdunlop, to Nomadic’s brilliantly composed thread asking “Where did you live before you came to SE23?”.

Nomadic’s thoughtful questions have generated more Views (5,347) and Replies (68) in two weeks than any other thread that I can remember on SE23.com. Nomadic must work in marketing. I’m pretty sure of it.

Oh, new2foresthill, it kinda, sorta sounds like you have not been to the Forest Hill high street with its fine collection of ‘normal’ (and ‘abnormal’!) high street shops.

Why don’t you jump on the train after work today at Cannon Street and join us? Have a little sniff around, grab a bite to eat, a bevvie and soak up some of SE23’s atmosphere. See rshdunlop’s fine list above.

I know that it is a little bit damp here in The City (I’m lurking on Gracechurch Street at the mo’) yet Forest Hill is always “beautiful one day, perfect the next”.

(BTW, I’m sure we can be cheeky and grab that slogan since the State of Queensland have ditched it a few years ago. If not, does anyone know a good lawyer?)

For the avoidance of confusion I talk about the ELL since 'overground' includes services to Barking, Watford, Clapham Junction, Olympia, Stratford, and Euston.

I also find that Overground is too easily confused with services franchised by the DfT rather than TfL. Southern Railway services (soon to become part of East Coast and Thameslink franchise) travel over-ground.

My view is that we should reject the name Overground for our direct services to Shoreditch, Dalston, and Islington!

Fair enough, but to someone new to the area who may not have ever known that the East London Line existed, it might be confusing.

For the avoidance of confusion I talk about the ELL since 'overground' includes services to Barking, Watford, Clapham Junction, Olympia, Stratford, and Euston.


- True enough, although it's London Overground of course.


I also find that Overground is too easily confused with services franchised by the DfT rather than TfL.


- Happens a lot - above ground getting confused with Overground.

Southern Railway services (soon to become part of East Coast and Thameslink franchise) travel over-ground.


- Nope, Thameslink and Southern and parts of Southeastern will be part of one franchise. East Coast will remain separate.


My view is that we should reject the name Overground for our direct services to Shoreditch, Dalston, and Islington!

- As these trains are announced as London Overground, labelled London Overground and shown on maps as London Overground...that might be a rather forlorn notion.

Forest Hill is very safe. My wife often walks the mile from the station to our house late at night and I don't ever recall feeling threatened.
Of course it is still London so crime does happen but not to any great extent.

Thank you all for your responses! It's been very helpful!

another question, does anyone out there have an aquarium? I have a fairly large aquarium, are there any aquatic shops in the area?

I live outside of london at the moment and normally a trip just outside the town centre to a local garden centre that has a maidenhead aquatics for my fishy supplies..

Thanks!!!

There's an aquatic shop in Crystal Palace, not far away.

Whites pet shop in Sydenham, 5 minutes drive.

And if these aren't enough there is a new Pets R Us down at Bell Green on the other side of Forest Hill.

Thanks everyone !

Not that this is going to help new2foresthill at all, but I agree the old East London Line has been given a ridiculous name. How London Underground could have called it the Overground line defeats me, given that Network Rail (or whoever) runs what is really the overground train network.

Now that the London Overground line is all connected up (with Clapham Junction, Highbury & Islington, then on to Willesden Junction) I think it should be re-renamed as (wait for it) - the London Orbital Line - or LOL !!!!!

(Well, it makes a change from The Womble Line - "Underground, Overground...")

However, if new2foresthill is still reading, I do have to say that, whatever you call it, it's a great line and a great service. The number of places you can now reach from Forest Hill with no more than one change of train is really quite extraordinary. It makes getting around London so much easier.

When I've been visiting the property I've come in on the national rail train from london bridge. Is the tfl overground from the same station?

D

The TfL line (we usually call it the Orange train) runs through to New Cross Gate along the National Rail tracks, then up to and beyond Canada Water. From CW you can pick up the Jubilee Line eastbound to Canary Wharf and Stratford (great for the Olympics and Westfield Stratford) or westbound to London Bridge, Waterloo, Westminster, Bond St etc. Or you can stay on the Overgound line to Shoreditch or Highbury & Islington.

Here's a map of the Overground line.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/l...rk-map.pdf

There's a large pet shop in Lewisham hight street, before the main shopping area.

Very large pet shop opens in Bell Green today, Pets At Home. Right by the new B&Q and the Sainsburys.

Phoebe's Garden Centre in Catford area (Penerley Road, just south of the one-way system) has aquatic supplies, as I recall (including actual fish) - for aquariums, I think, and certainly for garden ponds.