Fun pubs, fried chicken and foxy androgynous students.
If you only ever go through it on public transport, you might be forgiven for thinking New Cross is just your standard-issue scuzzy southeast-London den of iniquity and fried poultry.
But look a little harder and you’ll discover, I’d argue, the quintessential exemplar of London multiculturalism in action.
It’s also a useful case study in well-managed gentrification that upwardly-mobile cities the world over could learn from.
Yes, the A2 – running bang through the middle – is a noisy pain in the arse.
We know. Get over it.
Come check out what you’re missing.
1. Goldsmiths College
During term time the pubs and cafes between the two – count ‘em – Overground stations are chock full of fiery leftist debate and asymmetrical haircuts.
In the main, Goldsmiths students are a bright, highly politicised bunch and well worth arguing the ideological toss with over a jar or two whenever you catch yourself thinking millennials are ‘lazy’ or ‘entitled’.
Alright, obviously some of them are douches.
2. Live music
In an era when the rest of London is weeping over its rapidly vanishing music venues, New Cross is quietly getting on with the show.
Every Tuesday, musicians from all over town descend on the excellent New Cross Inn jam night to smoke roll-ups and spit bars from 7pm, until the landlord is literally forced to prise the sticks from the drummer’s hands.
The Venue is an utterly mad – and madly popular – converted cinema that regularly hosts sticky-floored club nights and tribute acts – Spice Girls, Beyonce, Foo Fighters, that sort of thing.
Real-life Oasis played there once. Yeah.
The Amersham Arms showcases proper grassroots indie in the week, with the chance to grind along to DJs and indulge in a bit of sly celeb-spotting around the smoking area of a weekend.
3. Fried Chicken
Yes, New Cross has a strikingly high number of chicken shops.
No fewer than four branches of Colonel-Sanders-knockoff Morley’s are within hungover-stumbling distance, by my expert count, and that’s before we even get into the one-off places.
Whatever – fried chicken is cheap, convenient and delicious.
If you’re not a fan, those 12-quid beanburgers are just up the road in Shoreditch, mate.
4. The arts (darling)
Goldsmiths alumni include Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen and no fewer than six other Turner Prize winners.
Musicians such as Damon Albarn, Brian Molko, James Blake and Katy B all at one time or another called New Cross their stamping ground.
And alright, they might not stick around long, but bet you anything the next generation is coming through as we speak.
Put it this way – see that skinny young blade distractedly twanging a guitar onstage at the Amersham Arms? He’ll probably be headlining Glastonbury next year.
5. Pubs
The aforementioned New Cross Inn is a reliable place to plonk yourself on a picnic table with a few choice mates for an inexpensive all-day sesh.
Just across the way, the New Cross House is quite a bit nicer, with a price list to match – the local joke is, you nip over the road from the New Cross Inn whenever you need a poo, not that we endorse this behaviour of course.
The Rose Pub & Kitchen, opposite New Cross Gate station, is a smart mid-range gastropub. Never forget, however, that hot-headed hollywood hunk Shia LaBeouf had not one but two famous public brawls on the premises.
You can’t go wrong with the Marquis Of Granby, on the corner near Goldsmiths library. It’s popular, well-located and cheap, all you can ask for in a London boozer, really.
6. Greenery
Say what now?
But in fact, yes, New Cross is a surprisingly green corner of town.
Amble up the road to Telegraph Hill – which has, I’d argue, as lovely a view over town as nearby Greenwich Park.
Fordham Park, just around the back of the New Cross Inn, is a bit more expansive, ideal for a kickabout or flirty picnic once the weather picks up a bit.
7. Gentrification
Difficult point to argue this, but here goes.
New Cross has two Overground stations, plus a direct link to London Bridge, and a shedload of bus routes.
So of course it was inevitably going to turn, a little bit, into commuterville, eventually.
But look at what’s been gained: The London Particular, with their rarefied farm-to-fork aesthetic and celeriac fritters.
Next door, there’s the closely-related LP Bar, a mad jet-set airline-themed cocktail spot, that’s way better priced than it would be just a mile or two up the road.
Despite the blow-ins however, the fundamental layout, fabric and nature of New Cross will always be about keeping it real, bruvs.
8. Grub
The aforesaid London Particular is your go-to brunch spot.
Birdie Num Nums keeps the achingly hip denizens of Goldsmiths over the road in homely, veggie-leaning fayre.
The Fat Walrus, new on the scene, fires up a mean American-style barbecue, and paella, weirdly.
9. Bare jokes
The New Cross Inn jam is often a great laugh in itself, with the bizarrely mismatched bag of players muddling through.
Happy Mondays comedy at the Amersham Arms does exactly what it says on the tin, brightening up the start of everyone’s week with big-name talent such as Josie Long.
And, just over the road, The London Theatre puts on regular nights, and even trains comics though in-house courses.
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