West Ham, East Ham, Plaistow (Middle Ham?)

Hello,
Does anyone live in these areas, or has any comments about it?
Cheaper but rough on the edges, but safe enough?
Fair commute to Canary Wharf?  Further from city center?
I would really appreciate to hear from anyone who is familiar...

...and if you're not, maybe you can comment on Islington, same questions

many thanks, not just one

I don't think I'd live in East or West Ham.  I spent a lot of time in East Ham (for shopping and restaurants) and I wouldn't call it very safe.  I'm sure there are some parts that are alright but personally I wouldn't do it. 

It's a fair commute to Canary Wharf and further to the city center. 

Islington I think is safer (although that's just my opinion).

This wont be much help, probably, because it was like 9 years ago... I lived near Plaistow tube, and worked in East Ham.
For what it's worth, I hated both places... they were dirty.  I was occasionally followed home from the tube by weird men who didn't understand the meaning of the word 'NO', but did eventually understand the meaning of the phrase 'FCK OFF' when accompanied by my then-husband wielding a claw hammer!

My neighbour's teenage children shot at my windows with pellet-guns because i asked them to not sit on my wall and not to put lit fags into my wheelie bin.   Other neighbours used to put all their kitchen waste scraps... cooked food, vegetable peelings, etc into the gutter 'for the birds' and didnt seem to understand or care when i told them it would also bring rats.

But... maybe it's changed since then?

But... maybe it's changed since then?

Um, not too much, sadly. 

great    thanks for your comments...
well, sorry to ask about those three nearby areas, I wasnt quite sure which of the three I was looking at, but now I know it is Plaistow, or maybe according to Google its Newham, a bit south of the Plaistow tube station.
The 115 bus (or?) seems to go almost straight to Canary Wharf down Barking(?) St.

Well, if it's that bad, that explains why there's a very nice 2BR very very cheap/decent rent.
Is it much less unsafe during the day than at night?
I know you cant go by this, but the google map shows very nice streets/houses, green areas, and the photos from outside the place look nice, and the cars parked on the street look even nicer, and it looks like a small bunch of long and plain residential blocks...
As long as it is not unsafe in terms of street violence.  Weird men bothering is bad...

Anyways, this would be a place for a couple months... can it be that bad?
It looks alright.   

Unless it's your only option, I'd try to find something more central.  Or at the very least Angel/Islington.

That 115 bus takes AGES to get to Canary Wharf.  I've done it too many times!

Sorry, I am thinking of another bus...does the 115 actually go to Canary Wharf?  I didn't think it did, but maybe it's changed.

thanks for your help and advice...

so far, yes, only readily available option...
I still have some time to think/look, but I rather use that time for other things...
I've commuted 1hr+ before in NYC, so two-three months of crappy commute would be fine.

The bad thing is that we'll also be traveling all over London looking for permanent places, so this is not a good central location to have a base.  
But we've also sorta decided not to live central... to get more space and be further out...

As long as it is not rougher/unsafer than Bushwick/Brooklyn NY ...
I just dont want to get super shocked

Have you done the bus to commute to work, or for other things?  I'm sure they are less punctual and reliable than the tube.  Same as in NYC, the bus can take 5 times longer, some buses will travel a block every ten minutes

I found a place in Islington, but its only for a month, I prefer something for 2-3mos. and take a little more time to look...  as we have no clue yet, and job search will be priority number 1 and housing number 2....

The bad thing about such a big and nice place (on the inside) is that we may not be there that much  So I can see how a supersmall centrally located place would be better...
 

I did not take the bus to commute to work but I would think the Tube would be more reliable.  Especially with the traffic in London.  It's a nightmare at times.  I agree that being that far out from the center of London will make things difficult as far as getting around.  Plus you don't have a lot of options out there, with only the District line and some buses.  It really shouldn't take you much longer than a month to find a place in London.  There are lots of nice places all over the city.  We took about a week to find our flat and we saw places all over South, East, and Northeast London.

thank you geeta, so much

I agree with everything you've mentioned, thanks for the advice...

the only reason why I would prefer to take longer before finding a place is because I would prefer/hope to secure a job (either temp or perm) before securing a permanent place to live because that way I would know my budget better.   I know either way I will have to put down six month's rent, but maybe after living there three months and with a job, it may be easier to work with letting agents or landlords, than being fresh off the boat with no job and no prior residence...   
I want to take your advice, but the option in front of us right now is to just suck it up for a couple months, though it doesnt really seem that bad...  but wait till I tell you about it next month    then you can tell me 'told you so'   
unles something else comes up in a day or two 

thank you again for your help !

I'd definitely steer clear of the Hams/Plaistow. Islington is ok, has decent restaurants and good nightlife but has its fair share of crime. We lived there for 2 years and I remember a few incidents involving packs of feral teenagers, plus one night the glass on the main door to our building was smashed in. I am not sure how you'd commute to Canary Wharf from there either, it's probably do-able but not a direct tube ride.

If you're going to be working in Canary Wharf I'd look around places that are on the Jubilee line, like Swiss Cottage, West Hampstead, Finchley Rd, even Kilburn.  They are not close to Canary Wharf but only about 20-30 mins by tube.

Definitely agree with Britwife - places on the Jubilee line are great for Canary Wharf.  But it sounds like you're not sure where you're going to be working yet?

Hiya NYStacey,

I'm pretty much in agreement with comments so far - my mum's bro and family live in East Ham, and I've been prodding them for ages to try and find somewhere nicer and a little further out !

As we all know, every area has it's bad points and good ones, East Ham, to me has more negatives than positives overall, I don't really know West Ham and the Plaistow areas.

If you're a tough cookie and can live it out a few months whilst looking for a better place then go for it to save some dosh, else, yep, definitley go for the advice on lookkng along the Jubilee line. I was working in Canary Wharf for a little while and Door to Cabot Sq for me took 90 minutes from Slough! - So places like Finchley area are much more recommendable (as I think I've mentioned before, family member had a fantastic 1 bed flat for rent a few weeks back and it litereally got snapped up for rent in no time!)

Of course compared to the East London areas, you'll probably need to check your purse depth when it comes to renting in these areas!

Hope this helps a bit !  Cheers! DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Hi DTM !!!
Thanks for the input Dennis..
Actually, I guess my initial area description was too big/wide...


The post code E13 0AS for example gives me an acorn classification of 56!
But the post code E13 9LX has an acorn classification of 18... and they're just a few blocks away

I think I'm looking for at Newham, a tad north of the hospital, and google has street views of that area, so I've been 'walking around' the are on the google maps...  and it only looks a teeny weeny bit rough...  the small but main streets are just a bit rough, but the residential streets look very ok.   And all the cars parked there, or on the road on the main street look a bit fancy to me.   Is this a bit different than East Ham, I suppose?

I wont be walking alone most of the time, and definitely not at night.
It looks like an area where you almost need a car, as the Tesco and Sainsbury's are pretty far walking distance, although I've hear they deliver for a hefty fee of ~20GBP?

I'm not a tough cookie, I promise, but the area and the apartment look much nicer and less rough than the east village in manhattan...  although it does have the outer borough's feel...  I think I will be ok, just how do I find the nearest police station or phone #? 
I'm a little scared now     but no choice  :\\\'(

nice ....   how about E13 9LX?

is it true that a six letter/number post code covers a very small tiny area, like 15 households?  ok, maybe a little bit more.... ?