Advice needed - Is Croydon safe?

[adampbooth]

Hey Guys,
I'm just looking for a bit of advice from those of you that live down London way...

My wife has been asked to go and work in Croydon for a couple of weeks and i just wondered if it was a safe place for her to be alone?

Its all expenses paid etc but the crime stats and online reviews are putting me off so any advice from people who live in or around the area or have been to Croydon would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks everyone!

 

[spoons]

It's a town in Britain not a South American drug cartel

Good bits bad bits much like anywhere and a good tram link

 

[Darth Bobby]

Depends which part. Some of it's really nice, some awful. People keep saying its on the up and the place to buy property. To visit and commute to I'd say it's fine. But just like lots of London, I wouldn't hang around there at night. The transport links are really good. Ronnie Corbett lived there for many years. David Bowie hated it.

 

[Lom]

Spent much of my life in the area going there for footy, shopping and drunken nights out; never had a single problem...

 

[adampbooth]

Haha thanks guys. there's so much stuff on the Web it just makes you paranoid!

 

[indianawars]

Croydon wasn't my cup of tea, but perhaps you should try spending a weekend there first at a hotel - Might give you a better idea if you could see yourselves living there.

 

[yoda]

I have never been myself but i personally I wouldn't worry about things like that if I was staying anywhere. I have stayed in a good few dodgy places and never had any bother. I understand though that's it's your wife and for a woman it could sound scary for her and you hearing horror stories from people who had bad experiences. Check out the hotel and the taxi services reputation and that might help you. It's like anywhere in the world crime can happen. If it's for only a few weeks and paid for get her to insist on a good hotel with reliable service and stay in busy places if on her own that might help ease your mind.
Maybe let her make up her own mind because as they say " always listen to you gut feeling " it's never far wrong.

 

[x-pack]

I just re-read this. For two weeks working away its highly unlikely that anything bad will befall your other half no matter where it is in the UK ...maybe except for Wigan :lol:

Its just the usual common sense stuff in the rule book of 'not becoming a victim of crime' to adhere to really. If she's walking round with gold chains on, mobile phone out, and wads of cash sticking out from pockets then the odds of being targeted by crims (or the police) will be significantly higher :wink:

 

[Mr-shifter]

There are a list of places I can give you in and around Croydon/upper Norwood/crystal palace where we (the electricity board) are not supposed to go without police escort. They are all tower blocks in estates and usually have a drug dealer or two living there, hence the issue.

I can also give you the name of a couple of roads on the outskirts of Croydon and Croydon old village where you will struggle to find a house that costs less than a million quid.

There are a lot of places like that on the outskirts of London.

 

[edd_jedi]

It's a town in Britain not a South American drug cartel

:lol:

Spoons is right, London has a bad rep but there are far more dangerous parts of Manchester, Liverpool etc. I would be more afraid to walk alone at night through parts of Poole where I grew up than anywhere in London. You need to apply common sense everywhere, not just the capital. If it's for work I'm sure they will put her in a hotel and not on a council estate!

Like most bad things that happen in life, being the victim of crime is 50% bad luck and 50% stupidity. For example I always see people walking around at night on their own with a £700 phone in their hand. There are really simple things you can do to minimise risk.

 

[SAVORY100]

I can't stop laughing at this.. I'm sorry to the OP, but seriously what kind of question is that!

There can be only a handful of truly dangerous places you can find yourself in across the UK, sure there are dodgy areas, places you might not want to be alone at night as a woman, but you know what in my experience even some of those are not all they are made out to be.

I run through the 'dodgy' parts of Swindon when out training, never been accosted or abused in fact quite the opposite, they are usually more friendly than the 'nicer' parts, a lot more "good morning"'s thrown and more people actually out on the streets rather than sitting in their secure locked boxes of homes worrying and hiding from the world around them...

 

[yoda]

I normally found in dodgy spots the people around you are ok. I think they are actually as weary of you also because they don't know who the **** you are either.
The sister inlaw backpacked through Columbia and it was fine she said. Yes if you want trouble you'll get it and I think it's like life you could have a small bit of bad luck. But that could happen at your own doorstep.
I remember meeting a guy from Tipperary (are you on here Tom ) while a was in Laos. There was a bus journey which was regularly robbed and some had been shot dead and then robbed up in the mountains. We decided to travel by local transport because we figured it would be safer. The idea was the bandits wouldn't bother with our bus because they would have felt no money would have been on it.
It was actually fine we had 2 armed guards with AK47s one sitting beside me which the driver had paid to protect his passengers with there food they had bought. The backpacker buses never had that from speaking to other travellers.
Thinking back now I also met this crazy ****er from Holland I think. He was always out of it he really was a crazy bastard. He told me he swam over a river from Laos into Burma with no Visa! What he then told me he witnessed their is shocking involving children.

 

[robpmarsh]

Best advice from a South Londoner i can give is 'keep your head down and avoid eye contact' and 'don't go out on your own after 10pm unless necessary'

I grew up in Peckham but these can be used anywhere in London really. Common sense at the end of the day keeps you safe.

 

[adampbooth]

Thanks everyone for the advice etc. My wife has been down there on her own for two weeks now and has been absolutely fine. She comes back home tomorrow!