Walthamstow vs Crystal Palace: buyers on opposing sides of London’s north-south divide
Eighteen miles and the river Thames separate the two neighbourhoods but both vie for a similar breed of buyer in the capital, and they are driving prices up
On a clear day in Crystal Palace, south London, it’s just possible to see beyond the Shard and the skyscrapers of the City to the forests surrounding another former village, Walthamstow, in the capital’s north-east. These two communities, 18 miles apart, are currently among London’s most on-the-up neighbourhoods, with house prices growing more than 45 per cent in the past decade and more than 100 per cent since 2008, according to research by Hamptons. Data from Savills suggests that Walthamstow has seen the biggest jumps in the UK, with prices now more than seven times higher than they were in 2000.
Crystal Palace, which sits on the borders of five south London boroughs and is named after Joseph Paxton’s Great Exhibition building relocated there in 1854 (now long gone after it burnt down in 1936), has a faded historic grandeur. It still bears the landscaped park around the former palace, which includes a 19th-century maze, Italianate garden and trail of life-sized dinosaurs, and is currently undergoing a multimillion regeneration programme.
Walthamstow has more ancient bones — dotted among the Victorian streets are remnants of the village recorded in the Domesday Book as Wilcumestowe (“place of welcome”). St Mary’s church dates from the 12th century and opposite it, the 15th-century, timber-framed Ancient House is the oldest residential building in London. In the borough of Waltham Forest, the area is a scrubbed-up former dormitory for 19th-century railway workers that became a haven for artists and creatives. Now, thanks in part to receiving £17.2mn “levelling-up” funding in 2023 to regenerate the high street, it’s being mainlined by those on higher incomes. According to Neil Collins, founder of local estate agency Estates East, City workers like the way they can be at their desks in 20 minutes, and there are enough amenities and attractions to stay local on the weekends.
On paper, the lifestyle the two enclaves offer is similar: parks, independent cafés and boutiques, period houses that are more affordable than in other gentrified areas and — crucially — a commute to the City that’s less than 30 minutes. Gail’s Bakery — the litmus test of gentrification in the UK — has found its way to both: Walthamstow’s branch of the upmarket coffee and bakery chain opened last October, while Crystal Palace’s opens later this year.
In both areas residents petitioned hard against its arrival. Dave Telford, who works in tech and has lived in Crystal Palace since 2014, says locals are so resistant to high-street brands that the coffee chain Costa never reopened after the pandemic; yet Walthamstow’s Gail’s was rammed with people on laptops when I visited. Local estate agents describe similar buyers in both places: for apartments, it’s single City workers; for houses, couples in their thirties with a child or two and jobs in central London.
But though buyers in both areas might dress similarly — slip dresses and Birkenstocks for her and Drake’s washable suits and New Balance trainers for him — and work in tech, finance or podcasting, London’s north-south divide ensures that the two areas are perceived differently by potential buyers. Telford and his wife could have chosen any area in London but associated south London with space. They were drawn to Crystal Palace’s large houses and wide streets and the views over the City and out into the countryside.
“You can walk with your elbows out in south London. We looked as far north as Kilburn and even considered Walthamstow but the type of private space you get here is very different,” he says. They moved with their son, now 10, from a studio in Balham, south-west London, to a semi-detached house with a large garden that isn’t overlooked by neighbours. “There are a lot of benefits to living here,” he says.
Meanwhile, lawyer Arielle Bardzell was in search of a quiet and friendly village-like community when she bought a three-bedroom cottage in Walthamstow. She had friends living in Clapham, south London, but regarded north as calmer. Originally from New York, she likens Walthamstow Village to small-town America; she knows everyone on her street. “Walthamstow is quieter than south of the river,” she says. “I feel safe walking home on my own. It might have seemed weird for someone single in their thirties to move to an area populated by young families but it’s welcoming here — I now have a large group of friends.”
A premium is paid for a cottage in Walthamstow, though; there’s a significant price discrepancy between the two areas. The average price for a property in Walthamstow is £582,332, compared with £477,135 in Crystal Palace, according to property website Rightmove, even though the buildings tend to be taller and wider with longer gardens in the latter. According to Alicia Getley of estate agency Pedder, Crystal Palace prices for spacious one-bedroom apartments on a desirable street such as Thicket Road or Auckland Road start at £300,000, while three-bedroom houses cost from £700,000. On Fox Hill and Belvedere Road, which some describe as “the Mayfair of Crystal Palace”, a five-bedroom house will cost around £2mn. However, there are outliers: a five-bedroom house on Tudor Street, fully renovated with a landscaped 81ft garden, appeared on the market this spring for £5mn. The property starred in the Netflix series Black Doves — ironically, as an MP’s house in north London.
If TV viewers had seen the steepness of the surrounding streets, they’d have smelled a rat immediately. Crystal Palace is one of the most elevated areas in London; even some ground-floor apartments have panoramic views of the City. In the Victorian era, wealthy Londoners moved here because it was high and thus out of the smog. “Depending on which aspect you’re looking at, you can look out to the countryside or if you want to feel more connected to the city you can turn around and look down Gipsy Hill the the iconic skyline,” Telford says.
The area has a village feel, which is another draw. Local life revolves around — and out from — the Triangle, says Telford. “You live on the spokes of the wheel” — three connected high streets, which include the independent bookshop Crow on the Hill, chocolatiers Blowing Dandelions and Chatsworth Bakehouse, where sandwiches sell out at lunchtime. There’s an Everyman Cinema and several art galleries. A sustainable dog shop is about to open; dogs are another reason buyers are drawn to Crystal Palace, Telford says. Dulwich Park, Sydenham Hill Wood and South Norwood Lake are all on the doorstep, as well as Beckenham Place Park.
Up in Walthamstow Village, on the pedestrianised section of Orford Road, “Everything you need is in walking distance — it’s family friendly but cool,” Bardzell says. Eat 17 is a deli-style supermarket with an artisan coffee shop and restaurant, The Good Egg. There are independent clothing and homewares shops including Pavement and the W Store, and Word, for babies. There’s also a grocer, wine shop and butcher.
Janna Walker, who owns Pavement, lived with her husband and son in Brixton before buying a house here. “It felt exciting: there’s a real push for independent shops that are locally owned and operated.” Orford Road is the most popular address for young families, according to Collins, as well as the streets nearby and running off it, such as Church Lane and Beulah Road, where some of the Victorian cottages have been extended into five-bedroom homes.
There are also a number of Georgian terraces and villas, including, notably, William Morris’s Grade II*-listed former home, in a corner of Lloyd Park, a museum devoted to the Arts and Crafts movement. Unlike Crystal Palace, however, grand family houses with large gardens are hard to come by — there’s currently nothing of that description on the market — the record sold price for the area is £2.2mn, according to Collins. More widely available but equally coveted are the apartments and maisonettes on the Warner Estate, built between 1880 and 1914 to resemble two-storey terrace houses with front and back gardens, which sell for £500,000-£600,000, and cottages around up-and-coming Wood Street and Blackhorse Road.
Walker, who lives between the Village and Wood Street, often spends Saturday afternoons at Ravenswood, a collection of breweries and bars in a former industrial estate, or hangs out at family-friendly The Castle pub, where children draw on the pavement in chalk. On the cultural front, there’s the Forest Cinema and the new 1,000-seat Soho Theatre, and for a wilderness escape there’s the Wetlands — Europe’s largest urban wetlands — and Epping Forest. “I do more activities now than I did as a teenager,” she says. “I start the day jogging through the wetlands and at weekends I do pottery, yoga, ballet and horseriding, without leaving the area.”
Buyers in Walthamstow tend to be living north of the river already, according to Collins; many grew up in areas such as Highgate and Hampstead, which they are now priced out of. The same but for south of the river is true in Crystal Palace; many of Getley’s applicants have been renting in Clapham, Battersea or Dulwich before looking to buy in Crystal Palace. Those upsizing to a large family house often come across from East Dulwich or Herne Hill and will be looking to tap into Sydenham and Dulwich’s renowned private schools: Sydenham High, Alleyn’s, Dulwich College and JAGS are all accessible from Crystal Palace. Telford’s son is at an outstanding-rated primary school and will next year move to one of the area’s secondary schools; he would be happy with any of them, he says.
In Walthamstow, there’s a new private nursery school, N Family Club, and Forest School, a private day school from reception to 18, is nearby. There are well-rated primary schools in the area, such as St Mary’s C of E, Henry Maynard and Greenleaf, and — particularly for girls — secondary schools, too. Walthamstow School for Girls and Eden Girls’ School, Waltham Forest are both rated outstanding by Ofsted.
The shared drawback is when friends live on the other side of the river. Bardzell and Telford do find themselves traipsing across London to see some friends; neither has any regrets, though, when they arrive back at their front door. “Half my friends are south-west and half north-east and we fight over who hosts book club,” says Bardzell. “But when I get back to Walthamstow, it feels like home.”
