What’s going for it?
If you believe what you read in the property pages (I wouldn’t), Vauxhall and Nine Elms are where all the cool young daddios are. There’s still a cluster of nightclubs hunkered under the viaducts, and the gay village remains thriving. But now the swanky apartments have moved in, for how long? To cap it all work begins soon on America’s new fortress – sorry, embassy – complete with moat. Vauxhall is not for the faint-hearted. Still, all its hideousness equals good value, especially for its location, by the Thames, opposite Tate Britain. And hunt behind the roaring roads and you’ll find secret nooks of peace: Vauxhall Park, the grand terraces of Fentiman Road, Oval cricket ground, the Portuguese delis of South Lambeth Road, and the little community utopia of Bonnington Square, proof that even in the harshest of habitats, life can thrive.
The case against
Less a place, more a circle of hell. An unrelenting urban experience. Thundering roads as wide as the ocean. Trains overhead. Viaducts beneath. Blades of grass and trees rare as hens’ teeth – those nine elms are long gone. Patches can be unsafe after dark, even with MI6 in the ‘hood. New development’s not much improved it: the incomparably ugly St George’s Wharf will be in your eye sockets every day.
Well connected?
Tremendously. Vauxhall is on the Victoria line (zone one), and has trains to Waterloo and Clapham Junction (both five mins, every three/four minutes) and farther south. Super bus station, too.
Schools
Primaries a mixed bag: Wyvil, Ashmole, St Mark’s CofE and St Anne’s Catholic all “good” says Ofsted. Secondaries better: Archbishop Tenison’s “good”, Lilian Baylis “good” with “outstanding” features.
via The Guardian