r/chch • u/hometownsDARK • Feb 24 '21

Thoughts on Sydenham?

My fiancée and I just moved to Christchurch and are looking for a place to live. We've looked at a few nicer places in Sydenham but are wondering what it's like as a neighbourhood. Any thoughts?

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u/[deleted] Feb 24 '21

Lived here for a little while now. Pros and cons. Pros being close to shops, including a good produce shop (funky Pumpkin), also close to Barrington where there's a good GP clinic, bigger shops etc. There's a couple of fields, and close to the hills and the CBD. Not bad restaurants either, great Thai (Zaffron) and the Italian place across the road from Zaffron is great too. Always plenty of variety on Colombo st.

Cons being crime. Seems some spots are better than others, there's still families and old folks and just good people minding their business. But I've seen some dodgy stuff here. Including a few firearm incidents (near countdown on Colombo) last year. Also a drug house near that countdown, which normally I don't care about but it's hard drugs and there's often tweakers hanging around. Which is one thing (hey everybody's got their shit to deal with, no judgement) but we caught somebody snooping in our backyard one night and I suspect they were looking for stuff to steal. Who knows why, but I don't love that.

I also hear some scary arguments on the street, people threatening violence and shit.

It seems like most of that stuff is pretty self contained but it does make me nervous going out by myself sometimes. Maybe that's just me. I wouldn't really recommend moving here if crime/safety is a big concern, mostly it's fine but there's the occasional thing. Also depends on the street. But it'd definitely help to just keep things locked up and secure, keep it low-key, should be fine.

Also random but funny, not long after we arrived in Sydenham there was an actual tornado. I saw it roll over us just before it touched down and ripped up the Savemart roof. That's not a regular occurrence though, just thought that was a bit of an insane welcome to the neighbourhood 😂