(posted 7495 days ago)Times
October 19, 2003London: On the frontline in SW9
If you can brave the high crime rate and squatters as neighbours, Stockwell is a fine place to raise a family, says Peter ConradiThe two strapping young men who called recently at our home in Stockwell, south London, came straight to the point. “Would you mind if we squatted next door?” asked the taller one, with bulging biceps, flowing blond hair and a light South African accent. “We could do it up for you.” My wife contemplated the boarded-up front door a few steps away. It was an appealing offer — and not only, she has since assured me, because of the Tarzan-like physique of our prospective new neighbour.
Several months ago, next-door’s owners, the curiously named Ekarro Housing Co-operative, moved out the tenants for an imminent refurbishment. No builder has yet set foot in the place, leaving an eyesore that spoils the road and has a depressive effect on property values.
In the end, however, caution got the better of her. “I’m sorry, but I’ll have to ask my husband when he gets home,” she told Tarzan primly — but took his mobile number just in case.
Stranger things have happened in our five years spent clinging to the edge of the Stockwell Park conservation area. You don’t have to be a pioneer to live in SW9, but an appreciation of the quirkier side of life certainly helps. You also need a willingness to put up with one of the highest crime rates in London: Lambeth leads the Met’s league table on rape and grievous bodily harm, although it manages “only” third place in the murder stakes.
Sandwiched between Kennington to the north and Clapham and Brixton to the south, Stockwell is easily overlooked. The designer bars, organic butchers and other trappings of gentrification have yet to arrive here. This is still firmly part of London’s Costcutter and takeaway- fried-chicken belt.
But who needs Starbucks or Coffee Republic when you could go instead to one of the Portuguese bars and cafes along the Stockwell and South Lambeth Roads? With a Portuguese satellite channel blaring out in one corner, and an old man making a glass of vinho verde last all afternoon in the other, you might almost think you were in Lisbon or Porto.
Anyway, central London is only 10 minutes away on the Tube, there is a dense network of buses and, if you are feeling politically incorrect, you could easily drive. Apart from its central location, Stockwell’s other main attraction is the housing stock in the gaps between the council estates; either side of the A3 are two leafy conservation areas — one, to the east, centred on Stockwell Park Road, and the other, to the west, on Lansdowne Gardens, a unique circle of 16 Grade II-listed houses.
To the north lie Durand Gardens and the glorious, if faded, Albert Square. This is home to the actress Joanna Lumley, Stockwell’s most famous resident — apart from Van Gogh, that is, who lived from 1873-74 in Hackford Road. (The West End play should really have been called Vincent in Stockwell, not Vincent in Brixton.) These roads are lined with elegant, early-Victorian, flat-fronted houses, most with three to four floors, off-street parking and 70ft-80ft gardens. Bargains these days are few and far between, however.
Expect to be pay upwards of £650,000 for a four- to five-bedroom house — although that is still a good £150,000 to £200,00 below the equivalent in Clapham. The better roads cost more, of course: a double-fronted six-bedroom house in Lansdowne Gardens is being sold for £995,000, while a five/six-bedroom semi-detached in Stockwell Park Crescent is on the market for £1.2m. For that you get 3,776sq ft of floorspace, an 85ft garden and more bathrooms than you could ever use.
Jeremy Payne, owner of the Battersea-based estate agency Woodland Payne, says buyers with children like the lower ground floors — which provide a kitchen and family room away from the formal reception areas — and prices 30% below those in Clapham Old Town.
“The local secondary schools are pretty diabolical and people are a bit concerned about the estates, but on the plus side you get a lot of house, nice neighbours and a decent garden, as opposed to a patch in Battersea,” he says. “There are people who have been there for 15 to 20 years.”
Such loyalty to the area helps create what, in London terms, is an unusual sense of community. The Stockwell Park Conservation Area boasts an active residents’ association that organises street parties, concerts and an annual festival.
There is also the curious annual phenomenon of the Revolving Dinner Party — when as many as 100 people gather for drinks in the local church hall before setting off for starters in one house, main course in a second and pudding in a third. All of this is, of course, conducted in fancy dress.
But be careful as you walk home afterwards. The high crime rate is more than just statistics: yellow police boards announcing a serious assault — or worse — are a frequent addition to the street furniture.
My own children had hours of entertainment one evening watching a police raid on a crack house opposite. But it was not so amusing when a gang of local youths tried to snatch the wallet out of my hand on the doorstep and then tried to chase me through my own front door. The surrounding estates provided the perfect background for them to melt away into — as I discovered when the police took me on a tour to try to identify the perpetrators.
Which, in a roundabout way, brings us back to the squatters. As I left home one morning last week, I noticed the board blocking off the entrance to next-door had been removed and the front window broken. On it was a printed notice announcing the house had been legitimately squatted and warning that anybody trying to force them out risked a £5,000 fine or even jail.
Quivering with excitement, my wife rang Tarzan’s mobile, hoping to lure him out of the house. Her disappointment was immediate. “We thought you weren’t keen, and found a squat in north London instead,” he said. Our new neighbours have yet to introduce themselves.