Has anyone stayed in the Vauxhall?

I don't know it intimately but it wouldn't be on my short list of places to stay. Have you been here before? If so, where did you stay?

I'll be interested to hear how you like the area, Lorierae, and how you like the flat.

I'm glad that you raised the topic because Emma has painted a picture much nicer than my general impressions of Vauxhall from the road and the train. What I see is little islands of housing divided by various branches of train lines heading to Victoria, Waterloo, Vauxhall, Clapham Junction and other stations and junctions.

I would like to explore the area on foot which I am sure would be much nicer. I bet that the views over to Millbank and towards the Houses of Parliament will be wonderful.

It is close in, but it wouldn't be my choice.

There is quite a bit of building work going on here last time I passed through. Some parts are better than others and some parts I wouldn't want to walk at night if I was on my own.

Be very careful to take flats from established vendors on established websites.

There have been quite a few frauds recently in London where pictures were stolen from estate agents, some of those properties weren't even in England. Be sure that there are enough good reviews, with specifics, enter into a dialog with the vendor, ask specifics about the flat and neighborhood and be suspicious of requests to wire or use western union or similar.

There are thousands of good transactions every week. Just make sure that you are not the one returning with a sob story because of insufficient research.

Vauxhall is a very diverse community. High percentage of social housing overall, but increasing pockets of gentrification spilling in from Battersea. Areas closer to the river popular with civil servants because of proximity to Whiltehall - many of these live elsewhere at the weekend. Unusual ethnic concentrations - Little Portugal around the South Lambeth Road as mentioned by Emma (about 25,000 people apparently according to the census). Also a gay community both for living and socialising (edit - see Emma has mentioned this too!).

The care to take with the flat is that it isn't someone sub letting social housing.

We walked down there along the river last September to see this art installation:
http://totallythames.org/events/info/jason-decaires-taylor-rising-tide

"the Rising Tide" was part of the Thames Festival; the sculptures could only be seen at low tide. We also thought it would be interesting to see the MI6 building.

After the viewing the sculptures we were hungry and looked around for a cafe or place to eat. There was a large new residential development there called St. George's Wharf which had a few shops and restaurants on the ground floors, but not what we were looking for.

I noticed when I was searching for a flat for our next visit that there are some for rent in this area and probably in this development. They were nice new flats,with river view, and were offered by one of the established agencies---maybe City Marque?

The Vauxhall area has good transport connections and is close enough to Westminster Bridge if you like to walk. It did not, however, have a "neighborhood" feel, and we decided against it.

By one of life's strange coincidences later yesterday I turned on the TV and up came a food programme that was touring south London and their first point of call was a Portuguese restaurant along the South Lambeth Road, although this one was a bit more towards Stockwell. (The other main place visited was an Osakan street food place in Brixton.) About half the customers were Portuguese.

Thanks everyone for the wide array of responses! Boy, it sounds like we'd be better staying in another area. I appreciate the advice, now I can eliminate Vauxhall from my search.

You are probably right to look to stay elsewhere but Vauxhall is an interesting area. I used to live there as a student a long time ago and the area is very much on the up these days, with pockets of gentrification and an interesting and diverse population. The London Walks company has guided walks that visit Vauxhall , Kennington and Walworth but they only run occasionally. They are guided by a lady called Isobel and they were all fascinating.

The cookery/food show mentioning Vauxhall, Stockwell and Brixton that was referred to in an earlier post is part of a series that looks at a variety of cuisines in different parts of the country including several in London. If it makes it to PBS or BBC America I think it ought to be required viewing for foreign tourists worried about English food. I'll put in a link but I am not sure you can get BBC i-player abroad.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06qsly7/len-and-ainsleys-big-food-adventure-10-south-london