Living in Clapham

Clapham is organised around the Common, a large, flat, open space criss-crossed by paths, with ponds, sports pitches and a bandstand. On a warm weekend it fills with picnics, five-a-side and running clubs, and that outdoor sociability is the area's whole appeal. The people who move here tend to be in their twenties and early thirties, often sharing, often in their first or second London job.

The area straddles the Lambeth–Wandsworth border, and the name is used loosely. Clapham Junction, the busy rail interchange, is actually in Battersea a mile to the west; Clapham High Street, Clapham Old Town and the streets around Clapham North are the Lambeth side. Housing is overwhelmingly Victorian terraces and mansion blocks, split into flats and house shares, with larger family houses in the roads off the Common.

Transport is good but crowded. The Northern line stations at Clapham North, Common and South are narrow and crowded, and at rush hour trains towards the City can arrive already full. Clapham High Street on the Overground and the Junction's mainline services give real alternatives, and many residents walk or cycle to Clapham Junction for faster trains to Waterloo and Victoria.

Nightlife centres on the High Street and is loud, predictable and busy from Thursday onwards. People who stay past thirty often drift towards the quieter roads nearer Clapham South or Abbeville Village, or across to Balham, rather than leaving the area entirely. The Common stays the constant: it is where the neighbourhood actually happens, in every season.