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.

Have only skimmed so someone might have already said but Epsom isn't what you'd call multicultural. In fact, St Joseph's church is the most multicultural part of it! DD is down for St Joseph's school too. It has just received another outstanding Ofsted report. Heading towards Sutton is better for what you want. Better mix of people, still nice area and near to lots of greenery.

Sorry if I've repeated what anyone else said. Too knackered to read all of thread!

Sorry, sunshinakindat, I thought they were about to go to Secondary school. You said in your post you were worried about having teenage boys Also you were worried about racism. Other posters have said their area isn't that bad. Any area can be bad if you are in the wrong place and don't know what to do. It does amaze me that Police give sensible advice and no one want to hear it until something happens. Children are not taught simple things such to phone 999. I'm sorry to inflict this on you. I have just dealt with a serious case of bullying that the family have not co-operated with my colleagues and now expect me to protect their child. I'm not Jesus. I am also about to teach every classes at school about bullying,crime and how to report crime. I know that some kids are such a pain in the neck that they won't listen until it happens. This is the last time I admit what I do for a living.

My brother and family live near Brockwell Park, Tulse hill. We used to live in Balham, and his area of Brockwell Park has the feel Balham had before it got too too trendy and expensive; a lovely community feel, mix of people, and nice houses.
Brockwell Park on a Sunday morning is lovely, everone very friendly, playground, cafe, community garden/greenhouse.
You might juststill get something for under 300,000- but I doubt 4 beds.

How important is it to you that it's multicultural? I ask because my dh is black british, so ds mixed race. We live in a totally white village near Marlow and Henley on Thames (again almost totally white) and it's absolutely fine!

The crime rate is extremely low, there are absolutely no gangs and ds has stacks of friends. The school he goes to is about 98% white and apart from one racist incident which was stamped on by the school very effectively, we've had no bother whatsoever.

thanks everyone, i do appreciate it .
will look up brockwell park. its not essential that its too multicultural as long as people arent funny!

Oh- it certainly isn't like that in tulse Hill Brockwell park. My sil is black, their kids are mixed race, they have three sets of friends within spitting distance who are mixed race families.
The schoos are good in the main too. there's a parent started secondary near- ( their kids still young at primary- but they look ahead
Good luck!

Blackheath/Greenwich

agree Waltham Forest area is awful. I hate it, hate it, hate it. Though it's nice having Epping Forest nearby.

Brockwell Park is nice, plumandolive, so nice to have the Lido and that lovely big park.

good luck with this...

can i just chip in a vote for slough - its actually got lovely areas - near to windsor, eton, datchet and extensive woods with little villages in it - all very close to mainline train station - good for jobs too - prob needs a new name though!

Berkhamstead is nice although quite expensive. Its almost as expensive as somewhere like St Albans or Harpenden where the schools are truely amazing, but you would not get a 4 bed house for less than 250K.

Hemel is very divided, there are some rich areas and poor areas. Even if you choose to live in a poor part of Hemel there are ways round the secondary school problem. For example a lot of children take the bus to a C of E secondary school in St Albans called Townsend.

Although there is a lot of ex council housing, most of it is privately owned. It certainly isn't the bronx.

If you can't afford Boxmoor then it might be worth looking at Leverstock Green or Adeyfield.

I also think you have to be honest what your children are like. Are they actually bright enough to get a grammar school place. The competition is intense in Chesham and although the grammar schools are good, you would not want to send your child to the secondary modern.

Tring is really nice and has a very good school.

well my husband has said no to brockwell park- shame. he likes the idea of bromley or bexleyheath. the added problem is that we have totally different ideas

Findaproperty.com has just sent me a 4 bed town house with os parking and a garage in Dartford for £154.950 !

wow. thats good. do you know anything about beckenham?

Beckenham is pretty nice. We go there from FH to get to the nice kids' shoe shop (perefect Startrite mummy )

Why was there a "no" to Brockwell Park from your dh sunshine? Maybe not leafy enough?
It's really hard to strike a balance in London- to find somewhere you'd be happy for your kids to have independence, but also leafy and not too noisy, but not ultra suburban, to be able to walk to shops etc.
We loved Balham- near Tooting Common , but it's very trendy now; all the old useful shops are coffe bars or gift shops with names like Whippet. ( I still love it though!)

or maybe because its down the road from brixton.

Good schools and a four bedroom house in London for £250,000. Unlikely I'd say.

livingwiththeinlaws - what's that meant to mean please?

we considered brockwell park but my husband has family in brixton which he said was very difficult to grow up in.
he said the park is very busy with lots if festivals.

well have been off investigating beckenham and will go down tmw but someone told me its where the nf headquarters are . my husband is warming to the idea of surrey again.

I know this is an old thread, but where did you move too in the end?