Best places for diverse, professional families near London?

[Paniconthestreetsof]

DH and I currently live (very happily) in Zone 1. We’re now thinking about moving as we want more space (a house and garden), good schools, and access to green space for our kids. Budget is around £1.5m.

We’re looking for:

• A genuinely diverse area, with a visible Black community (we’d prefer our children not to be the only ones in their class)
• A mix of middle-class professionals from different backgrounds
• Green spaces and a relaxed, family-friendly feel
• Good connections into central London for work a few days a week

We’re not from the UK originally and don’t have ties outside this bit of London, so wide open to ideas.

Worth saying upfront: well-meaning replies like “well I’m not Black and it’s not very diverse around here but we don’t see colour” or “there is a large (insert non-Black ethnic minority) community here” aren’t what we’re after.

If you’re Black or mixed race and living somewhere you love outside Zones 1–2 (especially if you moved from central), I’d love to know where you are and what you like about it.

OP’s attitude isn’t even remotely unpleasant. There have been a very small percentage of silly commenters and she’s, very calmly, put them in their place. Beyond that, it’s been extremely pleasant thread. So, your comment is interesting.

What are you on about? Nobody has suggested all Black people have the same approach to life.

Additionally, not all Black people from the Caribbean have the same approach as each other. Ditto Africans. And so on.

What does any of that have to do with this post?

Wandsworth
Battersea
Clapham
Dulwich
Brixton / Herne Hill
Kingston
Wimbledon
Southfields
Ealing / Acton

Avoid Essex and Kent.

I was going to suggest exactly these areas.

Indeed, we do not. And, if I’d suggested anything of the kind, that would certainly be relevant.

It’s extremely interesting, isn’t it? As are the votes.

It’s a bit terrifying to think of MN as a microcosm of the country, so I’m going to choose not to. For reasons of mental health. 😁

I’m guarding my blood pressure …

Apologies if it's already been mentioned but Milton Keynes - lots and lots of green spaces, easy commute into London (Euston) - very good for young families, very diverse

Beckenham definitely doesn’t strike me as “nod” territory. We’ve live here for about 15 years and it has changed a LOT during that period, with a large influx of people moving out of zone 1-2 into the area which has increased the both the diversity and % with professional careers.

I’ve just got one of DC’s school class photos and I count 5/30 black, a further 5/30 from it other non-white backgrounds (including mixed, Chinese, SE Asian), and I know a good chunk of the remaining 20 have heritage which isn’t white British (lots of other European backgrounds).

Would be interested in what wasn’t right here for you - I definitely think it is a bit of a compromise location and might not be London-y enough for London or Kent enough to be Kent - for us it’s the best of both worlds but I think some people want to commit more fully to one or the other.

Ugh.

OP, I love your style.

I’m zone 2 saw London but my boys are in school at Trinity school in Croydon. Youngest joining this year and in a class of 25 there were multiple black kids plus a few mixed race plus additional numbers of Asian and mixed Asian kids. I noted it particularly because my son’s current state school is very inner city mixed (lots of different ethnicities and TBH he’s the only white 100% boy in his class). and actually with the VAT increases I was worried that the diversity would decrease a lot in independent schools. But it was absolutely solidly mixed across lots of categories.

so I think the nicer parts of Croydon are defo worth looking at even from a black centric perspective.

good luck!

That's fair enough - and I totally get what you mean about moving far enough to have the benefit of not being in London, if you're not going to be in zone 1.

I hope you find somewhere that works

Hmm Clapham feels pretty segregated. I don't see many black people in the middle class haunts.

Finsbury Park/Stroud Green might work for you.

I really think you should revisit Beckenham. It ticks a lot of boxes for you, and for your budget you’d get a lovely family home. What was it that made it not quite right for you?

I was going to suggest Herne Hill.

Brockwell Park, Lido, gym, easy distance to the new theatre in Brixton, cinema, etc
Farmers Market, lovely cafes at the pedestrianised end of Railton Rd. Choose a house towards N Dulwich to be in catchment for Charter school.

we are in Croydon, the south leafy end. Over half of the children in my child primary class are black. The secondary schools are very diverse and if you have a son, Trinity School has a large percentage of black middle class boys. There are some lovely houses in south Croydon and links to London are fantastic. It is also a short drive to the countryside or a speedy train to Brighton and coastal areas.

Agree that Herne Hill and Croydon are both worth considering.

In the end, we decided against leaving London entirely for a few reasons -

Diversity
Costs - if you want a decent commute, house prices aren't much cheaper and train fares are a lot more expensive than TFL
Lifestyle generally - I don't want to have to drive everywhere and run two cars, I like living somewhere with a lot going on for kids and adults

I would consider Telegraph Hill, Peckham Rye, Honour Oak, Nunhead & Southern most Camberwell, East Dulwich

Lots of green spaces, lots of diversity, creativity, restaurants & bars, lots of transport links into town, lots of schools - you can be on the south bank or in the city in 30 mins

We did this hunt and I never found the ideal place. Ended up in zone 6 in a lovely area, but it turned out whiter than I expected. There are black families here, of course, but in primary it was like two black kids per class, which isn't enough. Things improved in secondary, with wider catchment areas.
Good luck! I would definitely look at Crystal Palace and Forest Hill.

Seconded.

I suspect what the poster is getting at in a certain sense is that there is that there is a kind of artificiality in the request for a "Black" neighbourhood, specifically.

She wanted "diverse" except it seems not really, Asian or other non-white ethnicity are not what she is looking for.

But those differernt communities of people of African descent are in many cases as likly to be very differernt than any one of them is from an Asian community, Jewish community, Arab community, or whatever. Some of these communities might not actually share many of her values at all - I have an Ethiopian community near me, many are very deeply and conservatively Christian. I suspect that might not be what the OP is looking for.

My interpretation is that actually she is looking for a community with a lot of people like her own family, in terms of race, general liberal progressive values, social class, and education.

Which is actually what a lot of people want when they look for a place to live. But it's not really diverse, any more than a suburb of mainly white middle class professionals is.

I suspect some people have been a bit thrown off by the gap between the idea of a diverse community and what the OP seems to be really looking for.

Where has this woman said she’s liberally progressive?

She hasn’t asked for a ‘Black neighbourhood’. She’s asked for ‘genuinely diverse area, with a visible Black community’. This is not complicated. So, a massive Asian community and no Black people wouldn't be appropriate, for example.

And, yes, it’s still diversity - why would the presence of a visible Black community render a place non-diverse? Why would the presence of a ‘mix of middle-class professionals from different backgrounds’ (direct quote, again) mean a place isn’t diverse? She didn’t say ‘nobody of any other background or socio-economic group can live there’, mind. Just that she’d like Black people and people of similar socioeconomic background to be present. The absolute cheek of her.

Every single Black person reading this, regardless of their background, understands exactly what she means and why she wants it. She cross-posted to Black MN and there’s been exactly no confusion over there (the existence of Black MN - a place for Black people to discuss Black issues is pretty illustrative of why she wants it). There is zero implication that we are ‘all the same’ or any of that nonsense.

However - and this really appears to be because OP has the temerity to be Black, well off, and in search of similar people - it appears to have got a lot of your backs up over here on AIBU. She’s apparently ‘rude’, ‘hung up on the Black thing’, hates the working class, wants a neighbourhood of only rich Black people and isn’t really interested in diversity. A bunch of you have literally read an extremely clear post and written a parallel narrative.

But I’m sure you’d be astonished and offended to be told you’re racist.

North London, OP.

You can look on the Northern Line. It's super easy to get into town. It's green and lovely and there are some fab schools. Properly diverse.