Living in Camberwell

Camberwell is defined by two institutions and a lot of buses. Camberwell College of Arts brings a steady flow of students and artists, and King's College Hospital and the Maudsley at Denmark Hill are among the largest employers in south London, which is why so many doctors, nurses and researchers rent nearby. That mix gives the area its tone: creative, slightly scruffy, unpretentious.

The centre around Camberwell Green is a busy crossroads, and it is not pretty. Climb the hill in almost any direction, though, and the streets change sharply. Camberwell Grove, rising south from Camberwell Church Street, is one of the finest Georgian streets in London, and the roads around it and towards Denmark Hill hold substantial Victorian villas, many split into flats. North and east of the Green, large council estates make up much of the housing.

The food and pub scene punches well above the area's size, with small independent restaurants along Camberwell Church Street and Coldharbour Lane, and the pubs are the kind that fill with regulars on weeknights rather than stag parties. Burgess Park lies on the north-eastern edge and Ruskin Park sits beside Denmark Hill station.

There is no tube, and the traffic through Camberwell Green is heavy enough that bus journeys to Elephant and Castle or Vauxhall can be quick at 6am and slow at 8. Denmark Hill station gives a reliable alternative: Overground trains towards Shoreditch and north London, Thameslink through Blackfriars, and Southeastern services to Victoria. People who settle here tend to work at the hospitals, cycle, or simply accept a slightly longer commute in exchange for rents below those in Dulwich and Brixton next door.