I do think it was (for London) very cheap for what you got compared to other parts of London for a long while. When we bought our 3 bed 30s house 3 years ago our family thought us to be mad paying what we did (and us too being honest) but that same amount of cash only got us a 1 bed flat in 80% of the places we'd looked. Now similar houses are going for 2/3s of that again.

I hope it doesn't continue at this pace though. It's been so refreshing living somewhere in London which is a healthy mix of ages, interests and backgrounds. I lived SW for years and found whilst most pubs did lovely food, the place was sterile, transitional and fairly lonely being so renter heavy or made up of posh roads with gated houses. I think we're years from that here (helped partly by the great arts scene and links to other trendy parts of London on the Overground) but my walk to work this week went past 8 or so houses currently being gutted, carved into flats or having a basement put in. People are free to do whatever they wish obviously and London's always in flux, but I'd hate to see FH turn into another soulless part of the capital.

A few neighbours down my road who have lived here for 40 years are cashing in and going whilst some people I know who were about £10k off a deposit in FH now can't afford much of note as far away as Sidcup, meaning whole families could be forced to move in the future. I know it's all about supply and demand, but it just seems a shame that this spike could have that effect.

The shops have generally improved tenfold in my time here but we've seen a great jerk chicken family business go where the butchers now is and a launderette close. Plenty of people around here need those kind of places just as much as they do another coffee shop; they're what makes FH be such a great place to currently be, that mix of the useful, entrepreneurial and posh. The local council seem good here (see the fight to save Lewisham Hospital and the pool redevelopment), FH Society do sterling work and things like the Sydenham Arts Festival are great so I reckon we're in same hands I just don't think 'gentrification' and a decent gastro pub or two should come at the expense of 1000s of families who have lived here for 20+ years.