The trouble is that once an area gets a bad name, then no matter how much it improves and no matter what is done to improve the area it still retains it's bad reputation. Often this reputation is continued to be spread by people who know very little about the area and only know what they have been told by others because it has been years since they actually were anywhere near the locality.
True, but if everything you've been told about an area is bad, it wouldn't be very public-spirited to not warn potential buyers about it, would it? My experience of Hawkesley is around 15 years old and it's my own experience, not second-hand gossip. Let me tell you the details of what I saw when I last went there. I'd gone exploring on my mountain-bike and had actually cycled the length of the alleyway that runs behind West Mill Croft (the Croft is part of a small modern estate that's criss-crossed by a multitude of back-alleys that offer a short-cut to just about anywhere around Hawkesley) and I enventually finished up at the shopping centre. This is small, and ALL the shops were boarded up, though still trading (either they'd all had their windows smashed, or the wood was there to save them from that fate). The overhead lighting was all smashed, too, so you can imagine how dim it was in there. In the gloom, small pockets of low-life could be seen hanging around in groups, eyeing up me & the bike. I managed to get out unscathed and headed for what turned out to be Primrose Hill. 'Primrose Hill', it sounds lovely, doesn't it, and maybe it was the day it was built, but that day had long gone when I was there and demolition was well underway. But this wasn't Council-approved demolition: the houses were wrecked but still being lived in and a large family - men, women & urchins - in one of them had decided to entertain themselves with a bonfire, so they were kicking their garden fence down and throwing it on to keep the blaze going, and it looked like there was already a door on there. The back door to their house was either open or already on the bonfire (I didn't want to draw attention to myslf by gawping) and I could see their furniture inside. So, here are people who wreck their, i.e. 'our', council house for a bit of Sunday afternoon entertainment. How can I not warn Josh about this?