yes - it's so true. I used to work with a saffa, and he lived right next to Richmond and he said he chose the area because all his mates from South Africa lives around there. I would say West/North Kensington as well, has quite a few Australians. I think Wimbledon and Richmond are quite accessible. There's nothing wrong with trains. I used to live in South East London and the tube sort of circled around where I lived. I was able to get to London Bridge in 10 minutes flat, with trains leaving every 10-20 minutes.
I never realized The Bedford was in Balham
I thought it was in Bedford! I really don't like Camden either. I don't know - I find that it's a lot of hype without much really going on. I find it quite dingy in the high street as well. I know there are quite nice bits of it, but it's one of those places that you go to and think 'yeah, this would have been nice and cool and interesting 10 years ago'. I'm not a SW London person either. I find a lot of those high streets are kind of run down, or full of weird, naff shops and it takes away any charm and character. I lived in East Dulwich before and I loved it. We had a butchers, fishmonger, cheese shop, specialty veg shop that carried a lot of gluten free products, local-owned wine shop that also stocked deli items, our own deli (called the East Dulwich deli), as well as a lot of characterful pubs with good food and one of the pubs even opened up it's own specialty deli - all spread out over about 3 blocks on our high street. We also had a massive Sainsy's as well as a crap smaller Somerfield. I think it's quite rare to have such a nice high street with such variety of small, local-owned, product-specific shops in an affordable area and I loved that about it.
I never realized The Bedford was in Balham
I thought it was in Bedford! I really don't like Camden either. I don't know - I find that it's a lot of hype without much really going on. I find it quite dingy in the high street as well. I know there are quite nice bits of it, but it's one of those places that you go to and think 'yeah, this would have been nice and cool and interesting 10 years ago'. I'm not a SW London person either. I find a lot of those high streets are kind of run down, or full of weird, naff shops and it takes away any charm and character. I lived in East Dulwich before and I loved it. We had a butchers, fishmonger, cheese shop, specialty veg shop that carried a lot of gluten free products, local-owned wine shop that also stocked deli items, our own deli (called the East Dulwich deli), as well as a lot of characterful pubs with good food and one of the pubs even opened up it's own specialty deli - all spread out over about 3 blocks on our high street. We also had a massive Sainsy's as well as a crap smaller Somerfield. I think it's quite rare to have such a nice high street with such variety of small, local-owned, product-specific shops in an affordable area and I loved that about it.
I wish I could remember London like I saw it when I was little, but I didn't know anything besides the tourist attractions like the castles and museums. Where can I expect to see the best indie bands live? 
(I'm so obsessed with Mr. Hudson and the Library these days, and I would love to know more about where they come from!)
