London help! Harry and Ron to rent a flat and no idea where to put them

[QueenHal]

Having never been to London, I'm completely at loss as to where to stick Harry and Ron's post-DH flat.

I know I want it to be in central London, but not in a particularly ritzy area. Somewhere a little lower in profile.

I'm looking at maps and property sites and coming up with... well, not much.

Help, please?

[Ryan The Wizard]

I read somewhere that Brixton is slightly low profile, and although it may have a few shady characters is a great place to live. Perhaps there?

[dragonwings]

Hmmm, how 'bout the Hoxton area? I've been there recently and it's an up and coming neighborhood full of mainly University students and bars--very chic yet low budget. Hmmm *is thinking* I personally adore South Kensington, but it's rather high end I'm afraid. Picadilly Circus maybe? It's rather centralized and I don't really know about the housing rates however. The truth is, is that London is a ridiculously expensive place to live, no matter how large it is. There's Camden too, now that I remember...

[h_vic]

I'd recommend going for somewhere like Highbury, Finsbury Park, Bethnal Green, Kings Cross or Camden if you want to go for north of the river or somewhere like Clapham, Balham, Greenwich or Putney if you'd rather they were south. All of those are student/young professional-type areas which are all (I think) zone 2 on the tube (except King's Cross), so they aren't too far out and yet they aren't too central, and they aren't too expensive or too dodgy either.

Hope that helps,

~Hannah