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.

Yes I haven't really got a handle on what it is that OP is looking for, but I think there's three main options:

London
London-Adjacent
Not London

Diversity/significant Black populations much easier to find in the "London" category but I don't know if that achieves enough of what OP is looking for in a move - house and garden and more green space can be achieved in zones 2-3 (I know SE London so areas mentioned like Brockley, Forest Hill, Crystal Palace I'd put in that category).

"London-Adjacent" areas like Beckenham you can escape the feeling of being in London but are still diverse enough for there to be no risk of being the only Black child in a class. But is that diverse enough? And does OP want to live in somewhere that feels like London, or is that part of what they want to escape?

Not London but still commutable to London it's trickier to meet the brief!

She went to both state and private. She is absolutely not sending her DC to private schools. Fwiw she won a scholarship and had a bursary. She is SEN and needed a different environment. We don't have Grammar schools.

If that's the case I'd definitely look at some of the SE London areas mentioned already (Crystal Palace might be my top pick but you can look across Forest Hill, Penge, Sydenham and other areas around there).

Though the feeling of not (quite) being in London is (after some initial mild culture shock!) has become the thing I really value about being in Beckenham.

I used to live in Balham and go out in Clapham quite a lot - they are among the most diverse areas of London. Truly diverse. Not 90% of one ethnicity (as I experienced when I briefly lodged with a friend in East London). Not sure what you mean by segregated / middle class haunts? Different groups of people having different interests is what drives perceived “segregation”, not racism and exclusion. I didn’t see many muslims in the Bethnal Green pubs I used to go to despite there being a sizeable muslim community living in the area, but does that mean they would have been turned away at the door? Absolutely not.

OP Oxford is great, summer town is a good area. One thing about Oxford is also the access to schooling if you are considering private schools there are a wide range of choices and a lot of diversity.

London Borough of Barnet is very diverse and parts of enfield are really nice. DC’s private school has an increasingly large number of black kids and overall it can’t be less than 20% now with similar Asian and Jewish. Out of their year group of 60 a good 20 were black or mixed heritage

If the OP were to decide on Oxford she’d need a whole separate thread just for the Summertown preps …

@Paniconthestreetsof not sure if you’re coming back to your thread, but it occurs to me that you might, during your Oxford visiting, take a turn around Abingdon. It isn’t the same as a city, but it has a certain charm of its own. And additional school choices.

@Crushed23 I have family who live in Balham, the roads they live on are very white. I assume that's what that poster meant.

I’ll pop back and update in a few months, if anyone’s still interested

I look forward to the update!

Yes, it's really tricky and very personal, I think.

I totally understand why people would view where we live (Tooting) as neither one thing nor the other - not central London but not as leafy as Beckenham - but for us, it's perfect. Still on the tube, plenty to do, got a buzz around it but some lovely green space too. I liked Streatham/ West Norwood/West Dulwich too - we looked there as well - but decided we did want the tube.

How far out do you want?

Beckenham is a great family friendly place but I don’t know about schools. South Croydon also seems to have what you desire (my brother loves it.)

Also maybe you should post this in “Black Mumsnetters” too.

You will get responses from many in the same situation.

(If you scroll up you’ll see the OP did that yesterday,@JHound.)

@diterictur I love Tooting and hence suggested it . My son lived there when he first moved to LOndon - great vibe , and very handy for popping to Wimbledon too plus a good hospital - if you go for the posher leafier areas with the big houses I would personally have thought it was a perfect fit.

Yes that's a good point actually about SE London - I've always lived here and just see living on a train line as totally normal (and I don't like the tube, it's noisy and claustrophobic!) But if you're used to living in zone 1 like OP then being dependent on overground trains that sometimes only run once every 30 minutes might be a bit appalling.

It’s beautiful. My brother and his family love it.

The OPs subsequent comments, to me, looked like she is interested in a black community, and the diverse element is a lot less important, that is, as long as they was a sizeable black community she didn't mind who else was or was not there. Possibly that's not true, but that was absolutely the impression I had.

It also seems like the places she likes are fairly liberal communities, and it seems that those are the suggestions she's most positive about. But perhaps not.

People often use the term "diverse" to mean non-white. Even about single individuals, as in "She is a diverse person". Other people read it exclusively as a term to be applied to groups that are mixed. Those two usages are mutually exclusive, and ime often cause people to talk past each other, and in some cases that can cause friction which seems to me happened in this thread, with the OP using it more in the former sense and some posters more in the latter.

I don't really care if you think I'm a massive racist, I think you very likely are, so your opinion doesn't mean a lot to me.

All already addressed. Your projections and inferences are your own (racist) problem.

So can I, sadly.

I mean that, although I know that plenty of black people live in Clapham I don't see many on The Pavement.

Just as there are load of Portugese in Stockwell but they're not mostly living in the £3m Georgian terraces.

Immediately thought zones 2 or zones 5 tbh, used to live in zone 5, my children are mixed but we have now moved to Kent instead which is now quite diverse too

I grew up in Sutton which used to be in Surrey but is now a London borough although some locals desperately try to cling to the Surrey historical postcode in the 80s and I definitely remember doing "the nod" but it wasn't just a nod, you'd actually start chatting and you'd end up with a friend for life! 😆 Nowadays it's much more diverse than back then, but curtains would definitely twitch if you walked down a street. I completely get everything you're saying though.
Out of interest, what part of Surrey did your friends move to?

Perhaps you might want to ask Rupert's children what their experiences are like in school. I think you might find out that everywhere most certainly does not suit.

If not too late, throwing in my lot with Nunhead, Brockley, and Crofton Park in SE London. Some huge lovely parks (Rye Park, Telegraph Hill) which have loads of family/community things going on, and very easy to get the train and bus to other big green spaces in Greenwich, Blackheath and Beckenham. You'd be able to get a v nice house + garden near to a station on that budget. Loads of families, good pubs/cafes, and straightforward travel connections up to central. Hope you find what you're looking for!

On the SW London suggestions, Tooting would probably suit you. It is predominantly non-white and a broad mix of financial backgrounds.