Renting a flat in Barking, London in 2013

I've stayed out there a couple of times lately. There's a big Tesco at about London Rd and Highbridge, which is about a half mile from the tube station. There aren't as many pubs as you might hope for since the area has a large Muslim population - - the Spotted Dog across the road from the station is okay. The area's not exactly picturesque but the people are nice. If you go four or five blocks south of the station, the neighborhood switches to Indian rather than Middle Eastern / North African and there are all kinds of more good places for grub.

We also rented a flat in Barking a few years ago. I cannot help you with regard to the recent rioting, sorry. Ed is right in his assesment of the neighborhood. The pub accross the street from the Spotted Dog is the Barking Dog. Love it. Thursdays: currie and a pint for a set price. The only time we thought about the cummute was the morning we left for LHR when it seemed to take longer than we were comfortable with. But, John, you are right it did save us hundreds of £'s.

Certainly saving $900 sounds attractive. But for my wife and I, we value safety much more than saving money while traveling. We'd rather spend more to stay in a known-safe area than in an area that may have high crime. Personally, I would not stay in Barking. I want an area that I feel safe walking at night in, and I'd not feel safe there as an outsider. Tourists are magnets for crime, either petty pick-pocketing, or mugging and possible assault. How would you feel if one of your kids was harmed due to the fact that you wanted to save some money? Also, it would take you nearly 40 minutes on the District Line to get to Westminster, to see Westminster Abbey or Parliament. And then 40 minutes to get home again at the end of the day. Multiply 80 minutes by 7 and you've lost 9 hours of time you could have spent sightseeing, to sitting on a tube train. That's an entire day of potential sightseeing lost! So there is certainly a "cost" to saving money by staying so far out of London. I'd say a trip to London is priceless, and staying in a safer more central area will pay off in spades, and you won't miss the money when you get home. As for curry, we found a wonderful chicken curry and rice take away at the local Waitrose in Gloucester Road, near our flat, earlier this month, for only £4.75 and it was enough for both of us! Got that a few times, wish we could find it here at home!!

'and I'd not feel safe there as an outsider' As an american among brits you'd feel unsafe? Wouldn't that be true all over the city? 'not feel safe .... crime......petty pick-pocketing, or mugging and possible assault.........one of your kids was harmed' What's the basis for associating all of this with Barking rather than someplace else? '40 minutes on the District Line to get to Westminster' Which might be a bit inconvenient if you went there every day; but Tower Hill, for example, is twenty-five minutes. Also, most of the ride is above ground so there's stuff to see instead of tunnel walls. I wander around there in the dark all the time and remain intact. I'd not keep going back if the place bothered me. Score so far: Two people who have been there raised no safety alarms. One people who probably hasn't (Why - - if not staying there?) is blowing sirens and clunking gongs. Of course the score could change if Dave says he's actually been to Barking. It would really change if he actually saw all of this rampant crime. People are people. You can't blow a place off just because most of the residents have a different hide color or go to a different church. Plus, and most important, there is cheap curry all over London. And most important of all, £5 ain't the best price, anyway - - if you pay that much it should include a beer and a couple of brownies.

Ed You said it so much better than I was just about to. I'd say a place very near an Underground entrance is a good place, most places. Do remember that Barking and the District Line is often a scene of weekend engineering works - but this is 2 years from now so who knows?

Thanks! My wife is voting for renting a flat in Kew. Not as good tube-wise but doable. Agree about the central location. An advantage is if you have an early start or extra time it is easier to pop in on an attraction. Personally, I prefer being a neighborhood as I love to people watch. But yes safety is an issue. I am sure that I can dig up some data on-line.

John's made his decision, but what I found really interesting about his link was not so much Barking, but some of the other areas that were shaded much darker - - for example, I reckon I won't go to the British Museum anymore without my six-shooters. (Maybe Nigel can advise me if my concealed weapons permit will be honored by the local fuzz.) I'm not much for stats since 'crime' can range from an ax murderer to a kid swiping a pack of gum - - and it also depends on the propensity for reporting. One way I judge an area is by the cop population. On this last trip I saw one cop in Barking (noticed her because she was a real cutie) as opposed to seven at one time around Trafalgar while I was dorking around taking pictures of the lions while my buddy was snooping about the National Gallery.

Now for my Barking story: I hadn't been out that way for twenty or thirty years until two years ago, but found it now had one of my cheapo ETAP hotels, so that sealed the deal. Coming out of the station one night, I goofed up and used the east door (which I'd either forgotten existed or never knew about) and was totally confused. As we stood scratching our butts, we were surrounded by three rough-looking guys (they were North African Muslims, you know, and I find all such people suspicious). I really wasn't that worried since they were about as old as we were (very) and thus all five us were well-past the brawling age. What they wanted to know was if we were lost. We fessed up and they led us around the corner. My buddy is a bit of a tippler and wanted to know if there were any pubs around besides the two dog places. The ruffians allowed that they weren't too much interested in demon rum, but had a pretty good social club/coffee house joint and would spring for the cost. Off we went, touring their old store-front mosque enroute as well as a bigger building that they were proudly converting to their needs. We must have spent three hours in the little club, all of us bemoaning the state of the world and the fact that all politicians were essentially buttheads. Finally, a couple of the younger thugs led us back to where we could get our bearings. Zoom forward to about this time last year. Traveling with the same buddy who decided we should try to find the social club again. We did. We weren't two steps in the door, before the guys started shuffling chairs to make room and asking us where in the hell we'd been. People are people.

I thought the data was interesting, too. I do not know if it is by density or what; but it does pay to be careful in tourist areas. I may be backing off Kew for Barking anyway. Kew is really hard to get in and out of central London. Planning is fun!

I found this online: http://maps.met.police.uk/

@Ed...like your last post....you pointed out a lot of good things.. like Nigel said you said it better then I could. The person you mentioned has only been in London twice.
I'm sure that John does care alot about the safety of his family.

Kew can't be that bad for getting in and out. I'm not an expert, but I'd bet it's only a half hour, all one one line maybe (District?) to get close to about anywhere you'd want to go.

More like an hour and frequency not as good off-peak and weekends.

More like an hour and frequency not as good off-peak and weekends. 32 minutes Kew Gardens station to Westminster station via Richmond branch District line with no change, every 10 minutes, mid-day. At this time of night, 10 past 10 at night, its only 29 minutes, every 10 minutes, no changes.

There is a Hotelformule1 in Barking. It is £ 35.00 per night and sleeps 3. Beside it is a Ibis -£ 42.70GBP. HF1 is bath down the hall, and Ibis is insuite. That is the basic differences, plus Ibis has a better breakfast, if you wish to purchase theirs instead of going out and eating in a breakfast restaurant. If you are not planning on cooking and want cheap place to stay, both are ok. They are about 1/2 mile from the train station. I usually stay in a studio apt. but these are so cheap, I have stayed in both in prior years.

The Ibis, F1, and ETAP are all lined up in a row on Highbridge.

Wasn't sure about the Etap, so did not list it. Thanks.

Just exactly how does one book a tour with Ed from Pensacola? Sounds like they'd be a blast.

To book a tour with Ed I recommend first getting his book, "London Through the East Door", it may be harder to find than RS" Europe Through the Back Door" but it packs all the information one would ever need, it is the leading guide book for getting lost and loving every second of it, BTW he personally answers your emails and posts!

Does Ed's book come with a glossary? Seems he has a personal campaign to bring back wonderful words that have fallen into disuse. Like kerfuffle, ragamuffin, and bamboozle.

Ed, Thanks for the Barking advice, I will look those up. Thirty years ago or so I had a similar experience. I was at a deserted tube station after midnight when a leather clad puck with spiked hair sticking out 8 inches and a a silver bone through the nose, tatoos the whole deal walks toward me. I was nervous and blurted out "love the hair!". He goes "Hey thanks! You think so? My mum says it makes me look tall. Got the time?" Another time I ran from a guy chasing after me. Turned out later I had dropped a very nice scarf on the sidewalk. If I hadn't been such a paranoid american I would still have it.

A bit of a shift in discussion, but I learned on our last trip to London (this month) to better research areas. We always stay in Kensington, but I found quite a "deal" in a B&B close to Heathrow for our departure the next morning - in West Drayton. People online had said good things about this B&B. Have any of you been to West Drayton? At least the area of this B&B was very scary. After the fact, we found out that crime in the area is quite bad. We ended up not staying there.

I'd definitely buy a book by Ed! Thanks to his postings here, I chose to stay at an Etap earlier this year and wasn't disappointed. Back to John's question. "Tourists are magnets for crime" - yes, they are that, pretty much everywhere, in the heart of London too. I've seen pickpockets running away in Underground stations and my mum's bag was slashed while she was in the National Gallery. Didn't stop her from returning to London again and again though. When you're in a strange city and you're walking down a quiet street, even a perfectly safe street, you'll likely feel nervous because you don't know the district. If there's an Ibis, Etap and Formule1 lined up together, that's probably an okay area. As for rioting - well, who knows what might happen in two years' time, and who knows which areas might be affected if it should happen again. Another option for budget family stays are the university hostels, many are mini-apartments with kitchens and some are centrally located - try London School of Economics (LSE). In any case, it's always best for a tourist to pay attention to his surroundings and take the usual precautions, eg. wear a money belt and don't flash cash in public.

Ed has been added to my list of ETBD Heros. BTW, Dave, one of my children was with me in Barking and she emerged unscathed. Because we stayed in a self catering flat and had to carry home bags of shopping from Somerfield (the nearest grocery) we weren't exactly marked as tourists. And because of our ecomomies during that trip I was able to go to the UK again the same year. Remember all those tourists that you meet on the HOHO because they cay be bothered to learn to read a map? They don't stay in Barking. They stay in Kensington and eat at Waitrose.

@Laurel....great post!! Agree regarding Ed.

This is one of my favorite Ed stories. Love it. Barking has a lot of great Indian restaurants and cafes. The Indian neighborhood is families, and there is no reason you should be in danger walking around there. Just observe which cafe the locals are all going to, go there, and you will get authentic Indian food, not high priced crap made to sell to tourists. Also, there is a lot of discussion about Indian restaurants in that neighborhood at www.chowhound.com. If you decide to stay in Kew (since you mentioned it), be aware that Kew Pier has good boat service to and from Westminster Pier. Also, Thames River Boats has service from Kew to Hampton Court Palace. http://wpsa.co.uk/kew.html http://wpsa.co.uk/hampton.html This is a scenic way to get around London; not as quick as the tube, but you will see more this way. The boat rides up and down the Thames are something I like to do every time I'm in London. If you are a history buff, it really "sets the mood" to take the boat up to arrive at Hampton Court.

This discussion thread is fun to read. I plan to go to London, later this month (October). Karen (or any person) : I like the sound of the word "Kerfuffle". I do not remember seeing or hearing that word, before. What is the definition of the word Kerfuffle ? And where did that word originate ?

Ron, I think it Scottish. Kurfuffle means disturbance, agitation, commotion, a bit of a set-to. There was an English folk band called Kerfuffle. Great word. I think I've also heard it used on Monty Python?

I want to book a tour with Ed from Pensacola also!! But Ed, you have to promise you'll take us to pubs every night!