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maxxi Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> There are clearly defined

> communities/areas/vibrant-neighbourhoods in London

> like (as Louisa says) Peckham and Brixton and even

> (for the well heeled blower) Dulwich V. The areas

> in-between are featureless, bland places like ED.

> Suburbs that fill in the gaps.

>

> People blow in to these gaps, like motes caught on

> the wind, for proximity to 'proper' areas - like

> timid flies landing on the ankle of a carcass

> rather than on its split and bloated gut.

>

> ED is a 'gap'for the urban timid or the

> aspirationally challenged. Most people in ED,

> therefore, will tell friends/family who don't know

> London that they live in the Peckham or Brixton

> 'area' (under 35) or Dulwich (over 35 or still

> pretending to be under 35).

>

> Most (if not all) of the above is bollocks.



Haha, when I went to uni people would ask what part of London I was from. I'd say "have you heard of Dulwich?". They would look at me with a blank expression, and I would sigh and say "have you heard of Peckham" and their faces would light up and they'd say "Del Boy!". And I would die a little inside and say "yeah, near there".

hpsaucey Wrote:

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> That's me then - a Palmer's Green blow out when my

> parents could't afford to live there any more in

> the 1970s and a 2001 blow in south of the river..

> MY kids will I suppose have to be blow outs for

> the same reason in years to come!


Very similar story here... parents from very near that area. But not sure it was a case of "can't afford" to live there, more the desire for somewhere more green/clean/safe/family-friendly (or what passed for family-friendly in the 70s).

rahrahrah Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The other thing about 'home counties blow-ins' is

> that many of their parents actually 'blew out' of

> inner London back in the 60s / 70s. It would be

> more accurate to call their children 'blow backs',

> or 'inner London returners'. Or better still, not

> to label and judge them at all, but accept that

> London is a dynamic city with constantly shifting

> populations.


Exactly. My working-class parents were born in East London and when they got married they couldn't afford to buy in London, even in the late sixties, so they moved out to SE Essex. If I still lived in my home town in Essex doing my job I'd be on the train into Liverpool St every day, there aren't any companies in Essex I could work for.

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