Living in Clapham: area guide to homes, schools and transport links

Thanks to a friendly vibe and great transport links, families, foodies and lovers of lively nightlife are flocking to this buzzing south London suburb.
Daniel Lynch
Anthea Masey23 January 2017

With a lively vibe that makes it a top attraction for young professionals, Clapham sits across the river from Knightsbridge and Chelsea and straddles the boroughs of Lambeth and Wandsworth.

It is broadly divided into three areas — Clapham North, Old Town and Clapham South. The fact that its nearest neighbour is very-trendy Brixton also makes it one of the most popular London locations to live.

Famous faces who have called Clapham home include Harry Potter author JK Rowling, TV’s Piers Morgan and actress Vanessa Redgrave.

Before the arrival of the railway in the mid-19th century, this south London suburb was where wealthy merchants built themselves large mansions overlooking the green spaces of the common.

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In pretty Holy Trinity Church on Clapham Common, you can still see the table where leading slave trade abolitionists William Wilberforce, Zachary Macaulay, father and son Henry and John Venn and Henry Thornton would gather. They became known as the Clapham Sect and their legacy lives on in many local street names.


Some of these grand houses survive. In Old Town there is a row of Queen Anne houses where fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood has her home — locals often see her out and about on her bicycle — while on Clapham Common North Side there is a fine Georgian terrace where the author Graham Greene lived and set the tragic love story, The End of the Affair.


Today, Clapham is once again a prosperous suburb. Estate agent William Pasquali from the local branch of Hamptons says the neighbourhood is divided into several pockets, each of which has its own distinct character. 
 

The flats off the High Street are occupied by fans of the vibrant local nightlife — university leavers sharing their first London home, and young professionals. The rest of Clapham is popular with families.

The Old Town area is where the grandest houses are — there is a French enclave clustered around the French schools on the north side of the common.

Off Abbeville Road, where the many smart shops include a branch of upmarket butcher The Ginger Pig, are streets of mainly Victorian terrace houses.

Pinning Clapham to the map. It is found four miles from central London with Battersea to the north and west, Stockwell and Brixton to the east and Balham to the south.

The property scene is predominantly Victorian and Edwardian semi-detached and terrace houses, but there are some pockets of Georgian houses too 
Daniel Lynch

Property scene

With predominantly Victorian and Edwardian semi-detached and terrace houses, Clapham also has pockets of Georgian houses, in the Old Town and on the north side of the common. There are some purpose-built Victorian maisonettes, mansion flats, Twenties houses and modern flats.

What's new?
Crescent House, on the corner of Crescent Lane and Abbeville Road, involves the conversion of a Tudor-style former Post Office HQ, latterly occupied by builders’ union Ucatt, into 36 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats and two penthouses with a communal garden.

The development is nearly ready to move into and prices start at £665,000 for a one-bedroom flat and £850,000 for a two-bedroom flat. Call Galliard (020 8012 9147).

Bentley’s Yard in St Alphonsus Road is a development of six four-bedroom houses, with prices starting from £1,795,000. Through James Pendleton (020 7627 1111).

King’s Lodge in Kings Avenue is a development of seven flats and two houses. Flats start at £650,000 and a three-bedroom house is £1.05 million.

They will be ready in November. Call Hamptons (020 7498 8686). Also through Hamptons, Abberley Mews, off Cedars Road, is a gated mews development of three flats and four houses. Two-bedroom flats start at £585,000, with houses at £925,000.


The Yard is a Notting Hill Housing association scheme in Clapham Road which will offer 77 homes in total, with 59 for shared ownership, six for social rent and 12 live/work homes for private sale, plus four shops or commercial units. Call 020 3815 1234.

The association has two shared-ownership apartments remaining in the latest phase of the Oval Quarter development off Brixton Road, between The Oval and Brixton, available at £133,750 for a 25 per cent share of a two-bedroom flat with a market price of £535,000.

Renting
Lettings manager Rachel Hanniquet-Brooking at Hamptons says Clapham renters range from sharers straight out of uni, to young professional singles and couples, to families.
 

“We were sole letting agent on the conversion of the home of Sir Charles Barry, the architect of the Houses of Parliament, which belongs to Trinity Hospice. The hospice did a lovely job converting it into six flats and they let in a flash.”

Her landlords are a mix of overseas investors who’ve bought recently built flats, and accidental landlords who moved away for work but want to keep Clapham homes, which they deem a good long-term investment.

Staying power
Good schools are increasingly keeping families in London, although according to local estate agent William Pasquali, of Hamptons, some families still make the move from Clapham to the home counties.
 

Postcode
SW4 is the Clapham postcode, although it strays into SW11 towards Battersea, into SW9 towards Stockwell and Brixton, and into SW12 as it merges with Balham.
 

Best roads
In the Old Town people aspire to live in Macaulay Road, The Chase and Grafton Square. Crescent Grove close to Clapham Common station is a garden square with large houses, some still with their own coach houses. 
 

In the Abbeville Road area the most favoured roads are Elms Road and Rodenhurst Road.

Up and coming
Hamptons’ William Pasquali likes the right-to-buy two- and three-bedroom flats in Cedars Road with their distinctive white brickwork.
 

Travel
Clapham is served by three Tube stations on the Northern line — known locally as the “misery line” because of its overcrowded rush-hour trains. The stations are Clapham South, Clapham Common and Clapham North. 
 

Clapham High Street station, close to Clapham North station, is on the Clapham Junction to Dalston Junction branch of the London Overground. All stations are in Zone 2 and an annual travelcard is £1,296.

Council
Lambeth council is Labour controlled and Band D council tax for the 2016/2017 year is £1,257.35. Wandsworth is Tory controlled and Band D council tax is £674.22

Lifestyle

Shops and restaurants
Clapham’s busy High Street has a large branch of Sainsbury’s and lots of bars and restaurants that make up a busy local weekend night-time economy. 
 

On a more serious dining note, Clapham has become a foodie hot spot with chef Adam Byatt at Trinity in The Polygon in the Old Town; Bistro Union in Abbeville Road, and Robin Gill’s three restaurants, The Dairy and Counter Culture in The Pavement, and The Manor in Clapham Manor Street.

There are two top-notch butchers — M Moen & Sons in The Pavement and The Ginger Pig in Abbeville Road — and fishmonger Moxon’s next to Clapham South station.

Hamptons’ William Pasquali recommends the all-day brasserie next door to his office — No 32 The Old Town, in The Pavement, which has a roof terrace overlooking the Common.

There is a popular Saturday food market in semi-pedestrianised Venn Street.

Open space
The 200 acres of Clapham Common is the area’s playground. There are three ponds, two for anglers, one for model boat enthusiasts; a Victorian bandstand, two cafés and a landmark pub, The Windmill. 
 

The Common is a favourite with picnickers, joggers and dog walkers. So popular is it with dog walkers that William Pasquali is thinking of installing dog baskets in his branch of Hamptons.

The South West Four electronic music festival is held on the common every August bank holiday weekend. This year, Saturday is headlined by Rudimental and Dizzee Rascal, with The Chemical Brothers on Sunday.

Leisure and the arts
Clapham Picturehouse in Venn Street is the local multiplex cinema showing a mix of new release films and classics. Omnibus in the old library building in Clapham Common North Side describes itself as “a space for arts and ideas, connections and discoveries”. 
 

Recent shows have included comedy acts heading for the Edinburgh Fringe. The Bread & Roses Theatre in Clapham Manor Street is the local fringe theatre.

Clapham Leisure Centre in Clapham Manor Street houses the recently rebuilt council-owned swimming pool.

Schools

Many wealthy parents now choose Clapham to bring up their children. The area has a wide choice of state primary schools judged “outstanding” by the Government education watchdog, Ofsted, plus private primary and preparatory schools.

Primary school
The “outstanding” state primary schools are: Clapham Manor in Belmont Road; St Mary’s RC in Crescent Lane, and Macaulay CofE in Victoria Rise. The area also has one of London’s most unusual primary schools — Wix in Wix’s Lane — a state school with a bilingual English/French stream.

The school shares its large building with a fee-paying French government primary school, École de Wix. However, the school is currently judged to require improvement by Ofsted.

Comprehensive
Three nearby state comprehensive schools are judged “outstanding”: La Retraite RC (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Atkins Road; Platanos College (co-ed, ages 11 to 16) in Clapham Road, and Chestnut Grove (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in nearby Balham.

Private
The private primary and preparatory schools are: Eaton House The Manor, on Clapham Common North Side, which operates as four separate schools (nursery, co-ed, ages three to four; pre-preparatory, boys, ages four to eight; girls’ school, ages four to 11, and a preparatory school, boys ages eight to 13); L’École du Parc (co-ed, ages 18 months to five years), a bilingual nursery in Garfield Road and Stormont Road; Parkgate House (co-ed, ages two to 11), on Clapham Common North Side; Oliver House (co-ed, ages three to 11), a Catholic school in Nightingale Road; Thomas’s Clapham (co-ed, ages four to 13) in Broomwood Road; the fashionable Newton Prep (co-ed ages three to 13) in Battersea Park Road; Dolphin School (co-ed, ages two to 11) in Northcote Road; Broomwood Hall (co-ed, ages four to eight; girls, ages eight to 13) in Nightingale Road, Ramsden Road and Garrad’s Road in Streatham, which is in the same ownership as Northcote Lodge (boys, ages eight to 13) in Bolingbroke Grove; The White House (co-ed, ages six months to 11) in Thornton Road, and Hornsby House (co-ed, ages four to 11) in Hearnville Road, Balham.

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