Walworth, London - have you been there?
 

Walworth is mentioned in this recent Globe and Mail article:
http://tinyurl.com/5udqv5

In case this link fails to work, here's an excerpt:
"We live in an area called Walworth - about 1½ kilometres south of the Tate Modern, but a million miles away in terms of social, economic and cultural difference.

Walworth is really the last inner London neighbourhood not to have been gentrified. It's not pretty, or quaint, or even very authentic. It's just very poor and quite ugly. And we're more or less lacking in amenities."

So, I'm not sure I will make a point of visiting Walworth, but I'm curious to know if this description is accurate. Maybe at least PalenQ has been there?

I've lived in London for over thirty years, and I've never been to Walworth - not because I think there's anything wrong with Walworth, but because I've had no reason to go there. Like many other parts of any big city, the only people who go there are people who live there.

Walworth is a 'working class' suburb, nothing else. My only memory of the place is from Sunday School about 45 years ago when the church charity supported was a children's home there.

I feel London has more to offer the visitor elsewhere.

How can somewhere in just off-centre London be "not even very authentic"?

Do they mean Dick Van Dyke doesn't drink in the local pubs? Or they've changed the local Palais into a bowling alley?

I can't think of anything you could possibly do with London (except get rid of the litter or make the trains run on time) that would be "not even very authentic"

Nope, I've not been there, but there are grotty areas throughout the city, often cheeky by jowel next to 'gentrified' areas. It can even change literally street to street. Turn a corner and be in another world.

I also found the 'not authentic' comment impossible to understand. How can it not be authentic London? What is authentic London then?

jowl even! :-)

He is an artist and this is impressionistic. He has just ticked all the usual, I have found this out of the way thing, boxes. I don't criticise his choice but not quite sure what he is trying to say about Walworth. One of the reasons it is late to catch on is poor transport links. Top marks for cycling to Hampstead very steep ride at the end. If you can wait till 2012 the Olympic cyclists will be whizzing past the heath and close to Fenton House (National Trust should be visited) on the way back downhill and south to the end of the race.

Walworth used to be my patch a few years ago. There's not much to say about it really. It has a good street market. That's about it really.

Those of you who watch the bill will see it regularly. The Aylesbury Estate and the Heygate Estate are the locations of the "Jasmine Allen" estate in the programme.

Also in the Channel 4 idents, the one where the tower blocks make up the logo is the Aylesbury. Both are scheduled for demolition and about time too.

"Almost something but not quite".... that's true of so many fairly nondescript parts of London.

i'm confused. if 'quaint' is the worst insult in provincial english, then not being 'quaint' is a good thing, right? someone please help.

It's pretty grim. There are lots of pound shops (dollar shops?), fast-food outlets, a pawn broker, chain pharmacies, charmless pubs and traffic galore. I would steer clear, unless you want to see a slice of urban London life. I live not far away, in a much nicer area, thankfully, and I can't stand going through it to get to work. (I go another way, but that goes through Peckham and Old Kent Road, which is only marginally nicer.)

So you're saying it's truly, madly, deeply authentic?

It's pukka cockney.

I knew I could count on the UK contingent for some humour!

There's a bit more about Walworth on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walworth,_London

grim is chic in london. grim is the new 'shabby'. trellick tower chic. council estate modishness. ever so britishly ironic to covet a council flat in a grim area. living a grim life is a brilliant statement of understatement. and very british.

'grim' is an endearing term but please don't call it quaint.

are you people that far out of touch that you don't understand this?

Coincidentally, I just got an email from National Theatre, about the Walworth Farce. Here are the production pictures:
http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/?l...mp;dspl=images