Our neighbourhood is one of the best places to live – newcomers come for the culture but then MOAN about it
HOMEOWNERS celebrating being in one of London’s “best” places to live say too many newcomers are now moaning about the place.
Nunhead in south London has been hailed as a secret delight by people who have lived in the neighbourhood for years.
But they say a new influx of younger and trendier arrivals threatens to damage community spirit.
The district was named one of the best places to live by the Times newspaper two years ago.
Young professionals and families finding house prices too high elsewhere in the capital have now been descending on Nunhead.
The neighbourhood had long been viewed as less fashionable than surrounding suburbs such as Dulwich and, more lately, Peckham Rye.
Yet recent gentrification has raised concerns among long-standing Nunhead residents that they will see not only property prices soaring but the local atmosphere changing.
Among popular local attractions is the Nunhead Gardener, offering a profusion of flowers when stepping out of the main railway station.
Across the road is 52-acre Nunhead Cemetery, one of the capital’s so-called “Magnificent Seven” cemeteries.
Others include Highgate in north London, with Wham! singer George Michael‘s grave and a Karl Marx bust.
There is also Kensal Green in west London which has a plinth for Queen singer Freddie Mercury following his cremation.
Nunhead’s neighbour Peckham was long associated with Sir David Jason‘s Del Boy character, in BBC sitcom Only Fools And Horses.
That area has become more popular among artists and hipsters in recent years and featured in acclaimed recent romcom Rye Lane.
Nunhead has been dubbed Peckham’s “sensible sister” – yet local enthusiasts are now cautiously singing its praises, MyLondon reports.
Yet they also fear the unique appeal of what has been dubbed one of the city’s “last remaining normal high streets” is at risk of being lost.
Jacqui Shimidzu, who has lived in Nunhead for 17 years and runs Hill Station Cafe, has noticed the area becoming “a bit more gentrified”.
She told how local homes used to be “squatters’ houses” before “all the cool, artsy people moved in” – with richer newcomers following.
And Jacqui, 57, told how the new arrivals “move into the area and complain about the noise”, adding: “It’s frustrating – people buy these nice places for the culture then complain about the culture.”
She described living in Nunhead as “beautiful”, with “one of the last remaining normal high streets down here”, but fears retail chains moving in could “kill off smaller shops”.
Another local trader, 57-year-old butcher Mike, raised concerns about younger people moving in and “trying to revamp the area and make it posh” – but warned: “You can’t make Nunhead posh.”
Yet a younger influx has been welcomed by some, with bartender Marie at Nunhead pub Skehans saying: “You get a lot of students here, which is good for trade – they love spending their money.”
Former students at nearby Goldsmiths, University of London, include Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Alex James who first teamed up there to form future chart-topping Britpop band Blur.
“Hipsters” from London have also just been blamed for helping double property prices in a picturesque seaside town – accused of threatening to wreck Westgate-on-Sea on the Kent coast.
Other residents who fear being priced out of their seaside town include people in Devon resort Sidmouth, which has topped polls rating the UK‘s prettiest destinations.
Complaints about tourists and second home-buyers have also been made by people in Bamburgh, on the Northumberland coast.
More resorts where residents fear being pushed out by new arrivals include Newquay, Falmouth and Padstow in Cornwall and Newport in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
Similar concerns have been raised in Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk, Robin Hood’s Bay in North Yorkshire and The Witterings in West Sussex.