where can i find a multicultural area on the outskirts of london, with a low crime rate, good schools, friendly people and reasonably priced houses and good transport links!

[sunshineakindat]

hi. i have 4 boys and would love to live in an area on the outskirts of london which is multicultural and green. I have moved so many times and want to find an area that i'm happy with before the boys reach secondary school age. I love art and would love access to some nice galleries. my husband works in central london so would need easy access to oxford street. We are black british and being in a multicultural area is important to us. I have white friends as well as black and would love an area that has a nice mix of everyone! we can stretch to 250000 for a 4 bed house which i know isnt much in london! good schools are a must! thankyou for your help. I hope someone can help me.

Your link does not work so cannot tell you about the area of Sutton you are looking at.

Still you were able to find any 4 bed for £250k in the borough?

Out of those Hemel houses, I'd go for the Warner's End one personally - loads of green fields and a 15 min walk from Gadebridge Park - also close to Boxmoor fields.

Laurie - I live in HH too - should meet one day!

Move to Chesham! Tis lovely - slightly rural and with a Metropoloitan Tube station as well!

I certainly do, and very nice it is too...

(feeling slightly dim that I didn't recognise you before and hence responded to your post by talking about you!!)

Kbear... I grew up in Bexley/Welling and certainly at that time it did have a reputation for having a racist element (BNP HQ, murders of Stephen Lawrence/Rolan Adams/Rohit Duggal). There were certain pubs esp. in Welling which were known as BNP haunts.

As a young member of the Anti-Nazi League I regularly used to go out at night removing BNP graffiti from around the area.

But it was undoubtedly just a small element and as I said, times may well have changed since then.

Personally if you're gonna have 4 teenage boys I'd rule out southeast London / kent borders. One of my friends is a social worker there and some of the tales she's told me about gangs, drugs and knife crime are truly terrifying!

Without wanting to be too nosey, have you got a property to sell? Cos if not you're in a really strong position in the current market and I reckon you could look at properties £50-£100K above your budget. If you're willing to try and negotiate there are some pretty desparate sellers out there. Another alternative is to buy a property at auction where there are some serious bargins to be had at the mo but you would have to really do your homework and have all your finances in place.

Good luck!

Agree Meg - although Bexley/Eltham etc does have a poor reputation for racism, the BNP aren't here any more, thank goodness, and lots of people who live here are not racist. It is still, IMO, a fairly white-lower-middle-class monoculture, although that's changing. In particular lots more Turkish and Asian origin families here than when we moved in 2000. Not so many black British families. Good schools, comparatively affordable housing, lower than average crime rates, quickish links to central London via train, but not multicultural as yet.
Am still LOLing at the idea of 4 beds for £250k anywhere inside zone 6 that is not cheap for very good reason. I think you'll be lucky not to have to compromise on at least one of your criteria, OP. Of all the London areas mentioned so far I think Plumstead is nearest the mark - but it is very much up and coming at present. And the secondary school situation is not great in LB Greenwich.

I live in Plumstead...altho' v. close to welling etc it is much more ethnically mixed. It's a decent area I think (depending on which bit you live in....I like our bit, am less keen on other bits but the plumstead common area generally is good)-primary schools seem ok (the ones near us anyway) but not sure re secondary schools. I know there's a girls' school but probably have to go to woolwich/bexley otherwise.
property-you'd certainly get a 3-bed for that, not sure re 4-bed, probably unlikely though.
There are good green spaces close by, though immediate amenities are rather poor (in terms of shops, leisure centres etc).
We came here because the property prices were relatively low and it seemed better than areas with comparable prices, but am not sure it meets all of the OP's critera- but then again, where does?
we also moved here as we thought it had a lot of potential but it hasn't really changed in the 2 years we've been here...and with the recession looming, I fear things may go downhill somewhat...

Plumstead Common definitely a nice bit Cat Maybe the DLR opening down the hill will kick-start the area again
I have lived in SE London much of my life and my family used to be able to do all its weekly shopping in Herbert Road

marina that's what we've been hoping!
am just not sure though...
blimey, we actually never do any shopping in plumstead.
And I never, ever if I possibly help it set foot on the High Street . Tis grimola...(though easily avoided...)

You might get a 4 bed ex local for £250k in those areas but with teenage boys I'm guessing you don't want an estate?

I think you are going to struggle to find a house in merton/kingston/richmond in the catchment of a good secondary with 4 beds for 250k. Unless you get a 2/3 bed and do the loft later?

wow. u lot are good
their is a clause in our mortgage that we found out will allow us to rent out our property, stay on our mortgage and buy another property as long as you pay the deposit yourself and can guarantee tenants for your house. its the perfect thing to do in the current market as it allows us to hang onto our house until things get better and still move! you have to pay a permission to let fee, ours is £500,but its worth it. i would suggest that anyone else that wants to move does the same. sometimes they will allow you to release equity to use as a deposit if you have enough.
Im going off bexley and really like the idea of sutton. i will look more at the £300k mark as suggested. does anyone live around there, what do you think?

MegBusset - none of the tragic murders you mention actually happened in Bexley - I think you are confused with Greenwich.

I live in Forest Hill. Near East Dulwich (work there), but cheaper and nicer! Horniman museum, couple of nice parks. Houses reasonable, I think.

Here's a 4-bed house at £250, for example.

Or here.

Not outskirts of London but hubby commutes to Marble Arch from Peterborough. You'd easily get a gorgeous house up here for £250. Probably 5 bed detached. Not much art tho...

How about Penge / Beckenham / Bromley? You'll get more for your money in Penge which is multicultural, and you'll hopefully be in the catchment area for the 'good' Bromley schools - I work in a boys' secondary in Bromley. It's classed as an outstanding school - but is mainly white. School has robust anti-racist policy though.

Forest Hill boys has a good reputation, although don't know anything about it personally - also Deptford Green in New Cross which is a mixed school. Again, don't know it personally. Hope this helps.

just to echo what meg/marina said I lived in eltham for years (til I got married) and whilts it was not that multi cultural (although that was improving) , the racist element was very small. Good transport links, nice parks and ok primary schools but agree that secondary situation not great (crown woods was good some years ago but down the hill).

cats thought about plumstead a good one...

Forest Hill is massively multicultural, I'd say. Dunno the stats (though they're probably online somewhere), but I'd say every second to third face on the street isn't white. It's a real mix!
Come here - it's lovely!

Bits of Croydon are very nice. Coulsdon is green and pleasant with reasonable property prices.

I'm in the north of the borough in Little Lagos (aka Thornton Heath) - hideously rough, with gangs of teenage boys lurking on every street corner. But where else can you buy a mango five minutes from your front door at 11pm on a Monday night?

V. cheap property and very good commuting too.

its seems from my research that the bnp have moved their concentration away from bromley and into sutton areas. my sis thinks i should stop being so paranoid and move where i like! the rest of the family want to move to bexley because thats where my sister in law lives. im going to go and have a look today.
i know maybe i am being a bit over the top but i am already having nightmares about raising 4 teeenage boys!

sunshineakindat, I understand your concerns I'm going to be totally honest. I am a Police School Involvement Officer. I work in in a South London boys school. If I say any more people will figure out who I am. May I suggest you get your boys into sports and Cadet organisations. Our cadets this weekend have so much to do I think they will be going home too tired to think about going out again. They will also mix with positive adults and a wider community to help them out in life in general. I think this is true of army and sea cadets. Tell them to pick an trusted adult apart from you and your partner to talk to (this helps them to test some ideas out with someone once removed) If a crime happens to them phone the police and you at once. Ask them not to wait until they get home. They can phone from shops or public venues train stations etc.. Then the evidence can be gathered and then you as a family can decided what to do next (once the evidence disappears its difficult to prove their side of the story) Education education education I know its boring but those boys that are A level students have less aggro and have opportunities to be invited to more interesting out of school activities. The newspapers are scaring the living day lights out of parents and young people. The more people they can say hello to in a day will make their world feel safer.

oh my gosh starbear, you scared the living daylights out of me! .
they are still only young at the moment. just wanted to move and settle before they get to secondary school age.
im even more scared now!
im not worried about my boys turning bad, just other peoples!

Coulsdon/Caterham/Redhill?

Just over the M25. Good trains to London Bridge and Victoria but further out so season tickets would be more expensive.