“BILLIONAIRES’ row” is one of London’s wealthiest streets and loved by Harry Styles but locals are being pushed out of the area.
Houses on Bishop’s Avenue in East Finchley can go for as much as £12.5million with the average house price in the area hitting £1,307,996 and flats sell for an average of £447,860 – beyond the reach of many wanting to get on the property ladder.
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Singer Harry Styles, who recently swept the board at the Brits, is a tenant there.
Athena Norman, 67, has lived in East Finchley all her life and has seen the area transform from being “proper working class”.
Now, she says, houses around the park sell for around £2m as “a lot more lawyers are moving in”.
The good schools in the area also attracts “yummy mummy” types along with their nannies and dog walkers, she claims.
Athena told MyLondon: “I think a lot of London is changing completely and I think the saddest part is for the children who won’t be able to afford to live here. It [East Finchley] is definitely a friendly area, people are nice and you don’t get into any sort of trouble.”
Locals though think the area still has a community feel to it with many gravitating to The Cherry Tree Café as a place to meet.
Liam, 25, who works in the café, said: “Everyone is lovely around here and when this place opened 18 months ago, it’s become a sort of community hub.
“You would think with a well-off area you would get snobby people and pain in the asses but you don’t… It’s really good here.”
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The area also boasts the Phoenix Cinema on the high street, the oldest purpose-built cinema in the UK, and The Old White Lion pub which is steeped in history and conveniently located next to the station.
However, estate agent Angie Hopkins, 64, feels that an influx of coffee shops which have taken over a lot of spaces, has meant a lack of variety in the shops on the high street and it has lost some of the village feel that East Finchley was known for.
Louise Fawcett, 43, general manager at The Bald Faced Stag pub who took up running it after it was refurbished, said: “Customers are lovely and are around a similar age to me and upwards.
“People come in and say they love the way it has changed and how it feels quite trendy but still has the stag horns everywhere.”
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