Not Quite Morden But Close Enough

In one of my recent rants I mentioned that other parts of London, e.g. Camden, are do far better when it comes to creating a buzz about the place. Well, move over Camden, now south London shows that we can do it too!

Next Sunday in venues around the Wimbledon areas a range of live gigs will kick off under the heading "Wimbledon Calling". It follows the Camden Crawl model where one ticket lets music fans to combine a good old fashioned pub crawl with live music experiences.

I know this isn't quite Morden but it's certainly close enough, and it's certainly worthy of a mention on here!

Is Morden A Bit Behind The Rest Of The World?

Contrary to common belief Morden isn't such a bad place to live; Morden Hall Park (National Trust owned) near the centre, Northern Line starts/finishes here, three stops on the Wimbledon to Croydon tram line are near Morden centre, good road links in and out of London.

Looking slightly further afield Morden is practically next to Wimbledon, Wimbledon Common and of course the famous tennis courts. Heading in the other direction you'll find Mitcham Common - with public golf course. 30 to 40 minutes on the tube gets you to the heart of London's west end!

Property prices in Morden are also infinitely more reasonable compared to Wimbledon.

However, there are some areas where improvements could be made, for example:

• I keep reading articles and stories about how some areas, e.g. Camden, put up cycle hoops etc. to make the area more user friendly for cyclists. None of that ever seems to happen in Morden.
• With the exception of Sainsbury's I can honestly say that there aren't any shops in and around the high street I would set foot in; you won't even find a half decent chain coffee shop among the pound shops, greasy spoons, charity shops and halal butchers.
• Areas like Morden Park in particular are just big open spaces screaming out for something which would make them more attractive for people to use, e.g. jogging paths ... or how about paths for roller blading.

The basics are there, what is needed are just those little things which makes you want to use the place for recreational purposes and look after the place.