Anyone from Croydon?

I have finally signed my contract with the Borough of Croydon as a social worker and set to start May 11th.

Are there any social workers out there in Croydon or surrounding areas?

I am looking for housing on craigslist and I feel like I might be getting jipped. People have responded and want money upfront before I sign a housing contract and I'm a little skeptical.

Hope everyone is doing well!!!!

Have a look on gumtree too, and with local letting agents.  But absolutely don't give anything without signing a contract, and make sure that letting agents or landlords are signed up to a deposit protection scheme.

Vicky

Unless it is an absolute requirement to live within the borough, you might want to consider that Croydon is incredibly well blessed with transport(ation) links. It is a major rail hub, the trams run to & from Wimbledon and Beckenham, an enormous part of Greater London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex is within commuting distance, (even Brighton if you are paid enough to afford the season ticket!) and the East London Line (formerly part of the Underground) is being reborn and extended there in 2010 which will bring even more places within reach. Many people actually do a counter-flow commute, that is they travel out from London in the morning peak and back again in the evenings.

I say "from London to Croydon" because I am old enough to remember when Croydon was not part of London - it was a county borough of Surrey until 1965 - and in many ways it resembles a big town near London more than a traditional London borough.

No it is not a requirement to live in the Borough, and they actually stated if we could, to live in another Borough to prevent running into any clients! I think I'm looking at Croydon first because its the easiest, but I will definitely expand my search to the other Boroughs just mentioned. Are there any Boroughs I should definitely stay away from??

We had a house in Upper Norwood (up Crystal Palace way), which is technically part of the Borough of Croydon. We passed through there a lot on our way to nicer places. Let's just say it's...not the quaintest bit of Britain, m'kay?

So your basically saying stay away from Upper Norwood? Is Central London nice ? I found   a 3 bedroom house for 300 pounds a month- sort of house sitting for a man. It sounds like a great deal!!

Oh, no...Upper Norwood wasn't bad. We were near a lovely park. The parts of Croydon itself I'm familiar with are grim, but there are nice streets and less nice streets all over London. If you're an urban person, you may be happier in the city. But, as contrex pointed out, there are some very lovely, leafy places out from town, within commuting distance of work.

I guess the thing is -- if you can, to get a look at where you're going before you get there. Or, if you can't, don't lock yourself into a long-term commitment before you have to.

I would second everything Stoatula has said. You have to remember that London is in many ways a collection of towns. Within each suburb you will find nice and not so nice areas. I was born & brought up in a part of Lambeth called Herne Hill. We lived on Norwood Road opposite a big park so the front view was very leafy. However not far away were some very cramped streets. Personally if I worked in Croydon and leaned towards living out of the borough I would probably be considering Sutton & Merton or Bromley but I don't know what kind of area that you (elenas310) would rank as "to avoid". High crime? Stay away from Brixton/Peckham/Lewisham I suppose. Ugly buildings? Well, again, depends what you call ugly. I would consider some leafy suburbs like Carshalton or Purley to be deadly dull but others would call them nice and quiet. My sister commutes from Redhill to central Croydon. Croydon is on the main line from London to Brighton and the trains go 90 mph so a lot of places are within 30 mins commute time.

I think this is why I HATE moving! LOL im so lazy. Are there any recommendations on agencies that can do all this work for me? Maybe any retired people or bored people in London that feel like taking up a hobby and just telling me where to live and Ill live there. LOL ok sorry if thats not realistic.

I've been on craigslist and some websites for the past hour looking at places. Some are SO beautiful, some are SO ugly. Its such a tease when I see a low cost and realize they mean PW.

Have you ever been to Croydon? If not, I definitely wouldn't recommend living there without seeing it first. It is a very commutable location though with lots of options for you.

Where do you live now?

A bit late to the party here, but figured I'd chime in.

I've lived in a few bits of Croydon. Stay away from New Addington, West Croydon, etc.

Postcode CR2 is generally very nice. That's South Croydon, and most bits are equally accessible to South Croydon/East Croydon stations so you have your pick. I used to prefer East Croydon, and so got the tram to there instead of walking to South Croydon station. We'll be moving back to CR2 when we move (provided we find nothing that we really like in Blackheath, at any rate). I know the area quite well and can vouch for niceness.

Postcode CR0 is hit or miss. There are some nice bits and some not so nice ones. That depends on the street. I would live in that postcode again, but in the bit around where we used to live on Clyde Road. The area there is pretty, with nice conversion flats and such, but if you go over Addiscombe Road it starts getting less nice-ish.

I use rightmove.co.uk to look at properties. If you look and see something that you like, let me know the postcode and I can tell you if that's a scary or a non-scary bit!

That is so sweet of you! Thanks so much. My job is in Central Croydon [CR0]. I've been getting conflicting opinions about Croydon. Some say its a quaint little town and the people are nice, some say the its not that great. Im not too worried, its like that everything and seeing that I'm a social worker I've seen and heard it all. I will defnitely take up that offer!

I live in West Norwood, which has a train into West Croydon station.  It's quite nice and residential - my husband's a huge stickler for 'safe' areas, so I am confident that it's perfectly fine around here .

Craigslist isn't very popular in the UK, so you're not going to find a wide selection of properties.  For private landlords, look at Gumtree.  For agencies, check out rightmove.co.uk or findaproperty.com

If I were working in Croydon I'd live in Wimbledon, and if I were new to the UK or the area I'd consider a house share.


Vicky

If I were working in Croydon I'd live in Wimbledon, and if I were new to the UK or the area I'd consider a house share.


Vicky

A houseshare is equivilant to US term of roomate?