[vidarh]

When I first moved to the UK I rented a room literally across the road from Marble Arch and Hyde Park, I've since moved progressively further out. Despite 20 years of price increases, my mortgage on a 3 bedroom house with a garden in Croydon costs me about the same as that first room did... It'd take a seismic house price crash to consider moving back in even with a commute.

It's expensive here too, but the differential is staggering given East Croydon is a 15 minute train ride from both London Victoria and London Bridge.

[secondcoming]

Croydon isn't as nice an area as Hyde Park.

[vidarh]

Croydon is extremely diverse. Parts of it are worse. Parts of it I'd much prefer over Hyde Park any day (e.g. parts of Shirley and Purley, which have areas with huge villas set off private roads). Of course it depends on priorities too - if e.g. shopping at Oxford streets or being near Soho or living in a dense city centre is what you want, Croydon can't compete with that. That got old really fast when I lived in the centre, though - even in my mid 20's when I lived there I very quickly preferred more space and actually having money left over.