Thursday 29 March 2007

It's safe. Innit?

It seems the subject of safety in Plumsteadshire has cropped up, and not before long neither!!

A few lovely listeners have brought this up in the previous thread [I think that's the technical terminology - ed.] and I know which side of the fence I stand on; many thanks to Sibonetic for coming up with some serious crime stats.

I moved from Brockley to Plumstead Common and have never looked back. For me, Brockley was a fairly scary place. I never relished walking home from the train station at night and there was a very grizzly looking place called the Alpha Club, the sort of place where all music and chatter stops once a stranger walks through the door. I only got burgled once, and that was quite enough.

My friends thought I was mad when I told them where I was moving to, but ho ho ho, who's got the last laugh now.

I don't want to tempt fate, but I definitely feel safe walking around the Shire. I even feel safe waiting at bus stops in Woolwich!!!! Did I say Woolwich???? Yessirrrreee I did.

My journey home from work takes on a series of stress/anxiety levels.
1 - 10. (1 - being calm as a lake on a nice hot summer's evening. 10 being as stressed as a London commuter on stinking hot summer's evening)

Inner London - 7
Camberwell - 9
Peckham - 9
New Cross - 7
Deptford - 8
Blackheath - 2
Royal Standard - 3
Charlton - 6 (cars parked along the village and blocking up the road)
Plumstead Common Road - 4 (traffic jams on long hill leading up to Roy's Store)
Plumstead Common - 2

22 comments:

Brockley Nick said...

You are joking right? Neither place has ever felt unsafe to me, but Plumstead is a far more isolated / menacing place if you want to compare the two.

Anonymous said...

plumstead common OR plumstead? there's a diffrence.

Doctor Pangloss said...

Sorry Brockley Nick, I'm not joking at all. I can only go on my personal experience.

I've just looked at your blog. Great stuff, I'll have to keep up with the latest in Brockley.

BTW, I've noticed Homeview have closed down. The best video shop ever.

Anonymous said...

There may be a difference between the PC and P but at the end of the day they share the same transport links and are only separated by a short 5 minute walk up a hill. They will both be associated with each other. It's no good feeling safe aroudn the Common, you can't spend your whole time there.
Not sure Plumstead is more isolated than Brockley both are pretty grim tho

sibonetic said...

Sorry to harp on about crime rates but Brockley is a far more dangerous place than Plumstead, either around the Common or down by the High Street.

These figures are the latest stats. for the 12 months to Feb 2007 for Brockley ward and Plumstead Ward.

Plumstead Ward btw includes both the Common and the High Street.

The only part of Plumstead not included in these figures is the extreme Western end which is in Glyndon, but I have not included these figures (not that they are particularly bad)because they contain parts of Thamesmead and Woolwich.

Rate per 1000 of the population.

Burglary

Brockley 19.2
Plumstead 8.4

Robbery

Brockley 14.4
Plumstead 4.9

So you are two and a half times more likely to be burgled in Brockey and three times more likely to be mugged, I know where I prefer to be!

As for this the Common is lovely lets all look down on / be fearful of the High Street stuff (I live by the Common myself) is a load of nonsense.

The High Street is scruffy, it probably has more poor people, it has more people who are not White, I expect there is a higher % of chavs, but, by London standards, it is not a dangerous area, an unsafe area, a high crime area.

We should be celebrating the fact that we a lucky to live in such a peaceful part of London, whether by the Common or down near the High Street, and putting some pressure on to Council to improve the environment.

sibonetic said...

Didn't want to waffle on too much on here so done my own thoughts http://sibonetic.blogspot.com/2007/03/plumstead-common-or-high-street-in.html Have a look if interested,
Simon

sibonetic said...

Woolwich Common figures a bit higher but not massively so
Burglary 9.8
Robbery 7.7
Simon

Brockley Nick said...

Hi Pangloss

Thanks for your comments about the blog - we should set up an SE London network!

Homeview fell victim to the internet and it's now threatened with being replaced by a betting shop - there's a campaign against it.

As for the crime rates, interesting (although burglary rates don't bear much relation to how one feels walking around). I don't think either area is particularly dangerous, but I guess it's about perception and I still think Plumstead feels lonelier late at night - fewer people around. Anyway, no offence to Plumstead - I used to live in Charlton, so am in no position to talk...

Anonymous said...

Do I notice a touch of snobbery in the land of Plumsteadshire?

Pangloss, you should try having a light ale in either The Prince Albert or The Wo'd a Thought It. I'm quite confident that you would feel suitably uncomfortable in either of the said establishments.

Go on, try it sometime.

You really neeed to remove those blinkers!

BrockleyBiker said...

There are some lovely parts of Peckham.

Anonymous said...

There ARE some lovely parts of Peckham, but even they fall prey to rampaging gangs of feral kids like the Peckham Boys between midnight and 6am. I lived in Peckham for 8 years and grew sick of the muggings stabbings burglaries etc. The same goes for Camberwell [lived there for 3 years] despite the fact that there are some 'very nice roads and houses'.
Brockley certainly feels more dangerous than PC to me, and I lived there for 2 years as well. Three times the number of robberies [presumably street robberies if they are not burglaries] per head of the population says it all really.
Try comparing the number of yellow police witness appeal boards you see about. I never went a day in Peckham without passing at least one.

Anonymous said...

Is it just me that finds the first word verification here ALWAYS fails, despite being accurate?

Anonymous said...

...came to Plumstead for the first time today on a reccy for a house that's larger than a small box and doesn't cost the earth. We loved it. I saw children playing in the street and an ice-cream van playing tinkly tunes - I haven't seen either of these phenomena for years and definitely not in Pimlico!
SO, we are on the look out for a new home on your turf - can i ask, is the common a better bet than anywhere else and how do you find travelling into C.London on a daily basis?

AJWInBlack said...

As with anywhere there are good points and bad points. You can find out a lot more by looking here:


http://plumsteadcommon.proboards106.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1173191262

Unknown said...

I've always felt OK in Plumstead and Woolwich and I'm not naive enough to believe there isn't nasty stuff happening but I saw this account of an attack in Powis Street in the News Shopper and almost thought it was 1st of April...

‘Defenceless’ victim hurt in knife attack

If you made this up no-one would believe you.

Anonymous said...

Hi Plum Pudding - I used to live in Clapham and travel into the City and find my journey takes less time on the train than it did the Northern Line. I get the 8.17am and always get a seat (although alas not a metro), a much better journey tho and my only gripe is that the trains back from cannon street do not run a direct journey between the 5.48 and the 7.04 which seems daft seeing as most places finish work at 6pm nowadays and you have to either hang around or change.
I am still not that sure about Plumstead I like the house, the size of it, our street and our neighbours (we are on the common)but miss having a cafe or local restaurant to wander to and feel slightly angry when i drive past the parade of estate agents and shops by the Star and see some of them empty which could offer up so much potential (perhaps they need a note through their letter boxes to persuade them of the potential). I get the boat back occasionally as well to Woolwich Arsenal which is a lovely commute and then get a bus up to the Common. Plumstead train station would benefit from opening up a key cutting, shoe-reheeling, dry cleaners as well. I think the middle classes/educated masses are moving to the area as for under £250k you can get a large 3 bed house with nice sized garden and it makes far more sense than living in a flat, but the area has been slow to respond to this influx.
Also I dont seem to see any new builds around Plumstead at all although there looks to be potential near to the station entrance by that hideous yellow building working mens club thing.

Anonymous said...

that pub next to the yellow building always smells of gas, god knows how it has not gone up in flames with the smokers inside it.
Are you taking the piss about it being luxury or is it going to be another council block?
(hard to read over t'internet)

sibonetic said...

The Planned Block is 20 storeys high, so about the same as the 'River Heights' block near by.

The current situation is that the development was approved by the GLA, but rejected by Greenwich Council. The decision has now gone to appeal. If you copy and paste this into your browser it brings up the minutes of the planning committee meeting on 6th Dec 06 when it was discussed.

http://www.greenwich.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/63ADE636-BBD5-4CB2-8B5E-3D65A8E04AA1/0/20060612WTMinutes.pdf

You can see there that they will not be 'luxury flats' as a large % will be 'starter homes' (1 and 2 bed flats) which is developers lingo for small buy-to-let properties.
In fact there is some concern that a good proportion of the buy-to-let properties will end up being rented by people on Housing Benefit.

So it is a private development that could end up as a day facto council block.

sibonetic said...

Found out a lot more detail here, GLA site much more open and accessible than Greenwich Council

http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/planning_decisions/strategic_dev/2006/20060830/elm_grove_house_plumstead_report.pdf

It seems the promoter is a housing association and it will be at least 50% 'affordable' housing.

Anonymous said...

sounds exciting lets hope it all goes ahead and the ground floor commercial space houses a nice restaurant and/or shop
i think the old building as you drive down towards thamesmead on the right (adjacent to the business estate where the tip is) would make a nice refurbishment similar to the royal arsenal area

sibonetic said...

If anyone wants more info on this scheme, I have written up my thoughts on my Blogg
http://sibonetic.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

I've lived in Brockley for a couple of years now and feel perfectly safe. However I used to live in Islington and Upper St and Essex Rd had their moments. Someone mentioned kids playing in the street and ice cream vans - get them along Manor Ave, SE4 all the time!