Mick Mac

I have always found the food in the Bishop very good - although don't look much past their very good burger most times. I recall going to Chopsticks one NYD afternoon so it should be open too. Not really a pub I guess but serves alcohol.

Sorry Administrator - got carried away there - it was late at night.

I have a property on Heber Road and Heber Road is on your original list of roads, but my property is at the Lordship Lane end of Heber so I'm hoping it is not directly affected or most at risk.

Tom - can I add my thanks to those who have already thanked you for bringing this to our attention. When you refer to making a claim - is this a claim being made in advance of any damage? or have you already experienced damage? or is this some sort of advance action that is best taken up now rather than later? Thanks.

Once upon a time, a distant relative of mine lived in a little village in Ireland and they were so poor they could not afford a tree (literally). The local village square had a huge tree that fell down a few days before Christmas and it was just left there. Seeing an opportunity for the family to have a tree, his mother sent the oldest son down early on Christmas morning to cut the top off the tree and he dragged it back to the house so the family could have a tree for christmas. Happy story. Much to the family's embarrassment, on Christmas morning the Village tree had been restored to the upright position, noticably missing the top quarter and the missing top was the talk of the town. The mother and children had to sit quietly for the duration of Christmas whilst neighbours and relatives visited their house and discussed the terrible act of the stolen tree top, which unbeknown to them was sitting in the room with them, nicely decorated. Theres no such thing as a free christmas tree Bigbadwolf, the guilt of your petty misdemenour will stay with you forever and you are reminded of your disloyal act each subsequent Christmas, a bit like Joseph's more attractive brother.

Caron Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I keep having a look at Rightmove and the house > prices seem to be pretty similar to what they were > last summer, strangely. However, they're not > selling, as far as I can see. I think people are > simply not getting mortgages at the moment. I > bought somewhere two years ago with a 15% deposit > and there were over 800 mortgages on offer. When > I remortgaged a couple of months ago, a) the > equity had vanished so I no longer had a 15% > "deposit" and b) even when I put in more cash to > reinstate a "deposit" there were only two, yes two > mortgages available to me. Yes its tough Caron - you did not buy at the worst time, early 2007 might have been worse, but its very unfortunate for those in your position. What I don't understand is why so many people took out mortgages with 2 year fixes etc expecting to be able to switch in two years time to something similar when there was no guarantee that something similar would be available. If people had taken out more convential mortgages which have the same terms for the full mortgage term the remortgaging after 2 years would not have been necessary. 2 years ago good offers were available for full term mortgages linked to the base rate but people did not seem to be able to see past the more "attractive" initial incentive rate mortgages. People have known for some years that standard variable rates were to be avoided as they are at the manipulation of the banks but most of the better offers switch to SVR after the "incentive" term. We can now see that the best deals were those linked to the base rate for the full term of the mortgage - if you remortgage again pick the best mortgage linked to the base rate, sometimes these have a substantial up front fee but it can be worth it as if you get into a cycle of remortgaging every 2 years you will pay much more in fees over time and the uncertainty of what you will be paying in the long run will always be there together with the stress of having to remortgage from time to time.

Made a point of going to the Magnolia on Saturday night for a drink with my wife. It was actually very nice. It was well set out, clean and nicely decorated. It was perhaps a bit too nice, but suits someone coming out for a quiet drink and a chat. There was probably a max of 25 people in there and were either couples or small groups of females who seemed to be having a nice enough time but I felt it might struggle to make much of a profit as noone there seeemd to be visiting the bar very often, more just passing time with a drink.

Yes, the interest rate cuts have benefitted massively those people who had mortgages linked to the BOE base rate. Those people will see their mortgage payments significantly reduced in Nov / Dec - which is very valuable money if you have a family to support and if payrises are unlikely this year. I don't think it will increase consumer spending significantly but will take some pressure off family finances.

Josh - You have just described the sub prime mortgage lending, which as I said, were the abormal economic circumstances that led to the crisis. The sub prime issue, when widely defined, includes the original reckless lending of US (and other) banks which led to higher house prices rather than simply the losses incurred by banks as a result of investing in products which included sub prime debt. I think we agree that the sub prime issue both originally fuelled house prices (banks' irresponsible lending) and then brought about a crash (sub prime losses hit banks balance sheets and banks rapidly adjust their lending criteria) which results in more expensive mortgages and house price crash.

Gosh - 60-70% lard - If that is the case we will all be in nagative equity and very glum indeed. i hope you are not right. The economic circumstances needed for such a fall would be beyond my imagination but would probably include mass unemployment, deflation and goodness knows what else. I'm not sure the house prices had actually peaked had we continued to experience "normal" circumstances. What took us outside normal economic circumstances was the sub prime positions of the banks and the subsequent increase in the cost of borrowing which made the monthly cost of repaying a mortgage unaffordable, however now with rates in decline houses would once again be affordable (albeit expensive) if we had normal mortgage lending by the banks, which we don't have [one post stated a first time mortgage buyer was paying > 6% which he said was the best rate available despite a base rate of 3%]. However this is not to say that the bounce will happen anytime soon, people are not going to start buying in what they understand to be a falling market and the general feeling of job insecurity that most of us are feeling may prevent even the most bullish from buying at the moment. Therefore we will have to wait until the banking crises and job losses in the financial sector bottom out before we get people thinking positively again and at that point if mortgage rates are still low some people will start buying and prices will begin to rise slowly and I believe will rise above 2007 peaks before too long. Noone knows how long the banking crisis/recession will last so its impossible to predict when the property pick up will happen but I still think now is a good time to buy if you are intending to retain a property in the medium to long term (and you are confident you job is secure???) Everything happens in cycles. Buy on the way down, don't wait for the bottom or you will miss it and find yourself buying on the way up, then its a sellers market and sealed bids, gazumping etc will return. In a buyers market huge discounts can be secured. I guess its a big financial committment for anyone and although its very interesting to discuss the topic i do feel for anyone who has to make a real financial decision and in the "real world" it must be a very difficult decision as regards when to buy.

I think I'll miss the old Mag more acutely in 2009, come the six nations and the Lions tour. I think one or more of the owners were Oz/Kiwi and thats why they liked to show the rugby, its a very sad loss for rugby fans (and cricket too based upon other posts) there are plenty of places to see footie but there was nothing to compare with a winter afternoon in the mag watching back to back 6 nations games - there was a real international (home nations and ireland) flavour about the place and a good friendly rivalry. I used to have no bother at all dragging friends over from their areas to east dulwich as it was such a good venue and we'd try Inside 72 later in the evening. I'll have to tell them next year that both pubs are gone. I understand that IST was perhaps a small enterprise and perhaps they got a good offer or perhaps were forced out by a lease increase, but the Mag seemed to be a large successful operation and I'm unsure what might have caused them to move on. Does anyone know what happened? thanks.

How about an "EDonian" or if you have moved on, an "Old EDonian". You might be able to refer to this on your cv and if you make an appropriate typo, could find yourself in line for a top job. PS: I'm new to this but why do people reply to Brendan as Brenda, I've seen that on a couple of posts, is it a nickname/in joke/typo?

In that case we are back to early 2006 prices for east dulwich - I was looking at 3/4 beds then and they were 450-475. I don't think however we will go much lower. I'm old enough to remember the early 1990s crash and I think that crash was exceptional. I think this one will be slow for a year or two but if you need a house now, buy it now and you will be well placed when things pick up. I don't think we will see a repeat of the 6-7 year slump of the 1990s. I think you could do a lot worse than buying in ed also.

Is this a table of London job losses?

I understand the link between this job loss table and the current topic - but I have to say the table is rather worrying in its own right especially if you work in the financial sector.

I used to like the Magdela for watching sports, especially the Six Nations when it always showed all of the games, no matter who was playing, or as a stop off for a beer on the way down LL. I've seen a lot of posts in favour of magnolia, but have not been tempted to go in there myself and although I'm sure it has its plus points, it seems a bit quiet. I think most of the improvements to ED pubs have been for the better over the years but this and Inside 72 were better as they were. Inside 72 was not for everyone and it was not a bar I would go to regularly but it was different and the new bar just seems characterless. It seems a shame that all bars go "upmarket" but some have less charachter.

Thats 15-20% off current asking prices - which are already 15% lower than last year (apparently). I did say long term bargain.

Its extremely sad - pupils at Goodrich received a note regarding this little girls death - I think she may have been at the school nursery. I have a 3 year old daughter myself and its amazing how much they can add to your life in such a short time and I could not imagine what it would be like to lose her. Its incredibly sad for the family.

I think now is a good time to buy in east dulwich - I think in the long term its on the rise as a semi desirable area. lots of propoerty is on the market and if I were buying now I'd view lots, get a shortlist of 5-10 and offer 15-20% below the asking price and see if any of the shortlist are ready to sell, you could get a long term bargain if you are willing to stay put and treat it as a home for a while, whilst ED hopefully cointinues to improve. I've been here for 7 years and have seen it diversify / improve a lot - although i'm beginning to feel a bit old in some of the pubs! More buyers may come onto the market in the new year as mortgage rates continue to fall - some people have safe jobs and they may begin to see it as a buying opportunity, with falling mortgage rates and falling prices, so I don't think there will be a shortage of buyers for more than 12 months. I'd suggest buying now, discounting enough to ensure you have already covered 2009 price falls. Good luck if you are buying.(tu)

Why not ask your friend to prove his 250k salary by purchasing a house in east dulwich. Then, like the rest of us the mortgage may prevent him venturing to the butchers/deli for any further poor treatment.