'London's coolest place to live is our home - we're holding off gentrification'

Penge has been crowned the 'coolest neighbourhood in London' by the Sunday Times, so we went to meet the people who call it home to find out why this suburb has beaten so-called trendier North and East London spots like Leyton or Walthamstow to be the best place to live.

The South East suburb, which sits between Crystal Palace and Beckenham, has scores of giant street art murals spread across shop shutters, residential walls and dark alleys. In this peculiar setting, the people seem just as vibrant.

Community is a word that every Penge resident mentions when talking about why they love the place. Local businesses are propped up by the spirit in the area, but some did report encroachments of the ever-growing cloud of gentrification that is the Big Smoke - it is being held back for now.

For Alicia Tammejoe, who just moved here from Coventry and works in a café on the High Street, the relative absence of gentrification in Penge is just what she needed. "I think it's great; it's much better from where I came from," she said, adding, "I don't know if this is the right thing to say, but where I'm from is a little bit rough, and this still has got that grittiness to it; it's not super gentrified."

She moved to the area because some of her friends moved nearby to West Norwood. Having looked in Crystal Palace and found it was too expensive, she found Penge was slightly cheaper and a great fit. She added: "There's still stuff going on but there's a real community vibe to it which is what we wanted.

"Since I've moved here, I've noticed there are more things to do, places to see or people to meet. Loads of people have come into the café asking if I wanted to be a part of something like Penge Fest."

On cue, a customer launches into a description of what Penge Fest is - packed with steel drums, food stalls and music. It will happen on Saturday, June 7.

Just down the road is the Murray Bros Butchers, run by brothers Alan and Dean Murray and their so-called 'adopted brother' Scott Ryan. Alan did not take so kindly to the street art, joking about "random artists graffitiing... stupid paintings of pigeons", but he admitted that he loves Penge.

He added: "On the other side of the coin we've worked in the area over 25 years. Our initial investment is the high street, nothing more outside of that. If we're being honest though it's actually declined slightly over the years." There were shops closed down outside.

"I would say the main feedback you'll get from whoever you speak to on the high street will be about the community," Alan said. "They're very good people out there, they're very, very community-focused - anything they can do to support the local area and local businesses, they do it tenfold."

Scott and Dean echoed their love for the "massive community spirit". Dean backed up what Alan had said about the decline of the high street, which is now so common across all parts of the UK.

Dean said: "You find closed shops everywhere, and the shops that are open are all the same - men's hairdressers, nail bars, coffee shops, money laundering, more coffee, money laundering. It's a bit like that at the moment, but it's still a good place to have a business."

He added: "It can be quite cool, but it's a hard one. Yesterday, there were police flying around because someone potentially got stabbed on Maple Road. But it can be cool because people like graffiti and that.

"But to be honest with you, there are a lot cooler places. If I had money, you wouldn't mind moving round here, but it's still a lot of hard work." Despite this, Dean said: "Penge has had such bad press for such a long time, it's nice to get something positive."

Owen Parker is another long-standing Pengian, living and working in the area for the last 14 years. He and his dad started the Alexandra Nurseries on Parish Lane, a unique garden centre and café, after his family bought the once-derelict plot and renovated it in 2012.

When asked if he agreed that it was the 'coolest neighbourhood in London', he said: "Yeah, cool is kind of relative, isn't it, but it's really nice. Cool is a way of selling the area but it's a community, really.

"It's a really nice area; it's a lovely place to live. The artwork is a big feature; people come to see that. It's a weird thing because that's more of a worldwide community because it spreads through the internet and things like that."

He too agreed there "always has been" a threat of gentrification in the area but maintained "My family and I still own it [the Nursery] and have no interest in it being not family-owned or developed."

The garden centre, which was once part of the Victorian Alexandra housing estate, has become a community hub and is "quite central and links parts of Sydenham to other parts of Penge."

Aazifiera Maciolej moved to Penge from Poland 18 years ago and runs a popular Polish deli - Kacper Polish Delicatessen - on the high street selling all sorts of Polish food from Pierogi to Polish cheeses and sausages. "I really like Penge," she said, "business is going not too bad."

Aazifiera sustains the deli on a strong base of repeat customers who she says all know her well. When asked if she thinks Penge is the coolest place to be in the city, she said: "Yeah, definitely. There are a lot of green parks around, and we've got the train station to different directions, and the people are really nice."

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