When you start looking for a house in London as a first-buyer
who hasn’t just won the lottery, there aren’t many options you can choose from. If you’d
like to buy a house under £300.000, the only way is east, or south. South is
badly connected and often quite rough, so east looks like the most viable
option.
Before we realised this, we tried
looking in Walthamstow (before it was cool), and as we got priced out,
we tried Leyton and Leytonstone. Both were more expensive than we could afford
and buying there would have meant a lot of compromising (e.g. we could only afford
houses in terrible condition and miles away from the station). For this reason,
we turned our attention to Plaistow. Not happily, I must admit, and with a lot
of worries. Let's be honest, not many people would fall in love with Plaistow at first sight.
The first impressions aren’t great,
as Plaistow High Street is a bit shabby and bleak and doesn’t have much going
for it. However, after living here for a while I’m now really glad we bought in
Plaistow.
Here are my 5 reasons why:
1. Transport
The most amazing
thing about Plaistow is how well connected it is and how close to central
London and other places. Within half an hour, you can get to Oxford
Circus, Euston or Westminster. Stratford is 10 minutes away, Hackney is 15. There’s
the Hammersmith&City Line with its air-conditioned spacious carriages, and
the District Line, with the quick option to change at West Ham for the Jubilee
Line or Mile End for the Central Line. The tube station in Plaistow is reasonably
nice and never too busy.
2. Things
that are nearby
Until recently, the
section “Places of interest” on Wikipedia for Plaistow had been empty (then it
got removed). This looks like a bad thing, but actually, when you live there, it can be an advantage. Plaistow is a really
quiet residential area with not much happening there, which also means there’s not
much BAD happening either. It might have a reputation for being a bit dodgy, but
it really isn’t, and the image probably comes from the nearby areas like
Stratford and Upton Park/West Ham. However, having these places in the vicinity
is a great asset – Stratford has amazing transport links, all the shops you can
imagine, two cinemas, lots of restaurants, a bus station with buses from Stansted
airport, the Olympic swimming pool, Queen Elizabeth Park, and so on and so
forth. Upton Park has a nice big market with food stalls right next to the tube
station, and East Ham has a decent high street, a lovely market hall and a
LIDL. You don’t really want the crowds and the trouble that these amenities
attract where you live, but it's nice to have them nearby.
A cycleway going
from Plaistow all the way to Victoria Park in Hackney – what a wonderful thing to
have! Even more for people like me who are scared to cycle on the roads.
4. The
Black Lion Pub
This pub is just
brilliant – pubs like The Back Lion are becoming very rare in London. It’s a
proper old men’s pub, with great cheap food and a lot of atmosphere. It dates
back to the 18th century, and doesn’t seem to be struggling to find
its loyal customers even nowadays, unlike so many pubs that you can see boarded up around
east London. It has a beer garden and there’s also an oyster bar attached to
it!
5. Parks
There’s Plaistow
Park, your average park with a nice enough area for kids, but the real gem is West
Ham Park, just a 10 minute walk from Plaistow, which is big and beautiful. If that wasn’t enough for you, there’s also the
Memorial Recreational Ground with games area, play area and a rugby field.
Last but not least, moving
to Plaistow means you get a lot of fun explaining to other people how to pronounce it!
(It’s plaah-stow. No, no, not play-stow.)
