dropc

We lived in Kingswood for a year after we moved to Penrith from Canberra. We were unaware of its reputation before we moved and found a nice rental house in the south side of Kingswood, near the uni. Our street was good, neighbours were friendly and the area was reasonably clean and well kept.

However the main part of Kingswood around the train station is just plain awful, there's heaps of housing commission flats around there and it shows. After we moved I found a job in Parramatta so would catch the train every day from Kingswood station, and there were always junkies and other dodgy looking people hanging around the train station. Witnessing junkie couples having loud domestics and arguments was a regular occurrence at Kingswood station, even during peak commuting hours, as was seeing people visibly affected by drugs struggling to walk in broad daylight.

The local shops are pretty poor too and full of the aforementioned dodgy people, the pub is the only one I've been to that had a big Tongan bouncer standing outside at 11am. Other than that, there's a small overpriced supermarket, a couple of dirty looking takeaway shops, a chemist, a brothel (yes, seriously, not even upstairs or in an alley or anything like that) newsagent, a couple of Indian spice shops, a surprisingly good bakery, and the Chicken Man which is a bit of a local institution. For groceries we usually just drove to South Penrith though, much better range and lower prices. In terms of dining, there's a couple of good Indian restaurants (there is a large Indian community in the area), and the Kingswood Sport Club bistro is good for counter meals, but generally you have to drive to Penrith for anything else.

In summary, Kingswood is somewhere best avoided. There's a few nice pockets (south of Derby Street mainly) and most people are fine, but there's just too many bad apples in this orchard to make it a nice place to live.