Stroud Green is the mothership, maybe not!

kreuzkav · April 2012

I know I come with baggage on here. However, I'd like to pose a question as above. Is Stroud Green a great place to live in? Please don't recommend me to use the search button. It's boring. As Deleuze and Guattari said 'repetition and difference' and we may progress. I feel stroud Green had taken a step backward with the recession. Cheap and not so cheap chain shops/cafes/restaurant Mexicali, chippy, Boulangeri Bon Matin etc. Lots more gormless posh knobs with daddies money wandering round in their braying tones. Is it safer? Has it more character? My view is it is becoming blander and blander. In the 90s it was a bit more full of characters.

miss annie · April 2012

<p>Well, I guess it all depends on what you want from where you live. I think it's a really good place to live.</p><p>I've lived in North London for over twenty years including stints in Camden, Kentish Town, Holloway and Highgate and SG is the first place I've found that has a real sense of community. It's nice to walk down the road and see the same faces, pass the time of day with the shopkeepers and see successful new places popping up - Ash's Greengrocers, Season, Mexicali, Cherished etc.</p><p>The mix of shops and restaurants caters for pretty much every taste and if you want more choice a bus to Crouch End/Holloway/Dalston takes less than twenty minutes. </p><p>There are plenty of characters of all types if you make an effort to get to know people. The thing is with your neighbourhood, as with the rest of life you get back what you put in. If you make an effort to get involved in the things that go on and put a bit into the community you get a lot back.</p>

checkski · April 2012

Well I never! I agree with every word of that, Miss Cara. Kreukav's obsession with 'posh knobs' seems to mean that he doesn't notice anybody else. I first lived in the area 40 years ago, and can assure him that Stroud Green is indubitably more diverse now than then. I am pleased that the mix includes people I don't like much - it would be less of a mix if it didn't.

miss annie · April 2012

miss annie, checkski ;-)

lucyabcde · April 2012

Well I don't know what it used to be like as I've only just moved here, but it seems like a great place. And as a top tip, I can recommend walking home late at night as a good time if you want to encounter 'real characters' (aka loons). All the posh knobs seem to be safely tucked up in bed by then. <br>

checkski · April 2012

So sorry, Miss Annie. I could have sworn it was Miss C. I didn't think I'd reached my 7th age yet - sans teeth, sans eyes, sans everything, or whatever it was the Bard so cruelly said - but it can't be far off!

kreuzkav · April 2012

It is a great place, just like to create a debate by being polemical at times. Checkski, very interesting comments about the progression of SG over the last 40 years. I think tolerance extends to posh types too.<div><br></div><div>@ Miss Annie. I'm involved in the community on many projects and know many people round the area. I'm no hermit and have cooking sessions round my place and other places on a weekly basis.</div>

odd stewart · April 2012

I fucking love it.<br>

kreuzkav · April 2012

@ Stewart. Interesting comment!

Arkady · April 2012

What community activities are you involved in, Kreuzkav?<br>

kreuzkav · April 2012

@ Arky. Long time. Is your question some type of test? I prefer to keep my activities private but one of the community activities is to do with housing.

kreuzkav · April 2012

It was a bit of a mischievous question but we can debate the changes in Stroud Green. I think it's a great place. I was just wondering if people have noticed both positive and negative changes. It's probably a question that can be better answered by long term residents like Checkski who have noticed many changes over the decades. I agree with Miss Annie, this is the best place in london I've lived in. Additions like the Fruit and Veg shop and Vagabond are a plus. I also think that Seasons, though I have never been, adds variety to the place. I like Chippy too, though I'm trying to lose a few kgs so have only been a couple of times.<div><br></div><div><br></div>

granville · April 2012

Stroud Green is a great place (as is this website). <br><br>@kreuzkav: What I do find *tedious* is your constant online ‘chip on shoulder’ comments such as,<br><br> “Lots more gormless posh knobs with daddies money wandering round in their braying tones”.<br><br>Can you just drop it please?<br>

kreuzkav · April 2012

@ Granville. Sorry about the tedious comment. I do regret making it. Posted on Friday evening after a few drinks. Generally don't drink that much or post in that state now. I was being cheeky and thought it was funny at the time. Any area that starts to be gentrified gets an increase of .... and it's only natural. Look at Stoke Newington. Brick Lane and Broadway Market in South Hackney.<div><br><div><span style="font-size: 10pt; ">On a serious note I'm interested in how areas change. And change is part of life. I guess I have fond memories of SG in the late 90s. Lots of quirky places were and still are here like Cats, Jai Krishna ... The Faltering Fullback was better before they put that platform terrace thing out the back. However, we do have nice new places like Petek, Vagabond... Just fear that SG in the last few years has become a little bit too brash with a lot of new places opening and may turn into a strip like Old Street and the nice hidden mellow nature of SG will go. It seemed to be less commercial then. Maybe it's a case of rose-tinted glasses? </span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: 10pt; "><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 10pt; ">Another thing that came up in this post. A lot of people know each other in SG and it has always had a community vibe. People are involved on many projects who probably never have visited this site. The site is amazing and is a great talking shop, and for many has been a way to get to know people and get involved in projects. But life goes on here irrespective of it too. Again, great work Andy and David, but there are other networks too. And of course SG.org is an amazing one too.</span></div>

vetski · April 2012

I love living here, and don't plan to leave until the undertakers remove my body! Wouldn't mind losing the Disgustie Chicken, though.

ChangN4N6 · April 2012

It's notTHAT good round here, with or without the posh bits and chippy's. I prefer N6 really but can't afford it nomore. Sun and Moon Cafe is good and needs more support ppl. Chang

odd stewart · April 2012

N6 is dead inside. Where I was anyway. I was up I highgate for 5 years. It's very green welly, range rover and snooty. Pretty village sure, but boring as fuck. <br><br>SG is the best place I've lived, but I do like the energy and life of Stoke Newington and we would have bought there if we could have got the spave we wanted. <br><br>

krappyrubsnif · April 2012

I know of at least two SG neighbours who were forced to temporarily move out - because of house renovations / underpinning, that sort of thing. One had to go to Crouch End for six weeks, another to Muswell Hill. They both hated it - snooty neighbours, no vibrancy, uniformity, the dead hand of middle class aspiration fulfilled. They both couldn't wait to move back. It's the *mix* that does it for me.<br>

Fstrthnthspdflght · April 2012

Have lived here a long time & seen lots of changes - most good - some not so good (for me) - but all adding to the variety of life in Stroud Green. At the moment my greatest wish is that someone - the council or some wonderfully rich person would overhaul the bridge entrance to Finsbury Park so that all of us vertically challenged and very young people could see the trains as we walk over the bridge. A transparent panel or two would be great. There used to be a lovely viewing platform where we took our daughter & friends to watch the trains go by. Sadly it seemed to run into disrepair and was eventually taken down. There's always someone with a little one wanting to see the trains & it's a shame we haven't made it easy. Anyone else agree?

Ian · April 2012

We were saying the same thing leaving the park last week. They should make it perspex across the bridge, seems a great shame you can't see the trains and the view to the south including the ground. <br>

dion · April 2012

If you get someone to lift you up and wave madly at the intercity trains, often the driver will blow his horn and wave back. This is excellent fun. It is harder with the local trains. The drivers aren't as impressed.

Ali · April 2012

<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt"><FONT face=Calibri size=3>Talking about the Fried Chicken shop I noticed at the weekend that takeaway Fried Chicken has gone mainstream as it has been added to the bundle of goods in the RPI index !<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>iPads have also been added </FONT></P>

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Stroud Green is the mothership, maybe not!

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