'We couldn't afford Clapham'
Balham hit the headlines a year ago when residents campaigned to prevent the opening of a hostel for ex-offenders, including paedophiles, close to Tooting Common.
Sarah Wrixon, who came to live in Balham seven years ago with her husband Angus, got involved with the campaign. Sarah works in PR and is used to dealing with the Press, but even she was surprised by the level of interest.
It was not long after the Paulsgrove estate's anti-paedophile riots in Portsmouth, so when 2,500 Balham residents marched from the local library to Tooting Common, all the national newspapers, the BBC and Sky TV turned up to cover the event. Following the protest, Paul Boateng, the then Home Office minister, called for a inquiry into the siting of ex-offender units, and plans for the hostel were quietly dropped.
Like so many Balham residents, the Wrixons, who have two children, Hattie, eight, and Lulu, six, moved from more expensive Clapham nearby.
"We bought our first home, a two-bedroom flat in Clapham Old Town, in 1990 for £85,000 and sold it four years later for the same price," Sarah says.
"We moved to Balham when we found we couldn't afford a house in Clapham, but we love it, especially now that we are so close to Tooting Common, where I walk our very lively cocker spaniel."
