LOL. I'm with WalthamstowDad on this one! (So much so, I've had to join MN this am finally, after seeing his tweet on this, and our local MP Stella Creasy tweeting about it too.)
If all you want from an area is an organic cafe and farmers market do feel free to head to Queen's Park (where your 450k will buy you no doubt a nice shoebox) - the last thing we need round here is bazillions more Stokey types moving in and pricing everyone out. Frankly, you'll be unlikely to find anywhere in London that truly satisfies with an attitude like that!
What's good about Walthamstow (or #awesomestow as we call it on Twitter) is its community - but that's meant in a very real sense. Yes, there are fewer organic shops but there's still loads of stuff like that if you want it (and some, shock, outside the village). But more importantly, there's a fruit and veg guy on the market who I know so well he tells me what to buy each day and often gets in special orders for me. There's also lovely frou-frou pubs and restaurants in the village, but even better places outside, where you walk in and know loads of people.
That's because most middle class locals who don't live in the village, do believe in putting back into the local community - not just taking out. That's why we have an amazing community of artists and creative types and local activists and a brilliant network of supportive parents etc etc. But most village residents sadly seem to run from the tube to the shelter of their mini-Stokey - and therefore miss all this.
As to schools, if your guide is Ofsted, you'll definitely be wanting to look elsewhere. If your guide is well-rounded, happy kids who have a really wide variety of mates - then most of the local primary schools are just fine. And secondary schools? Three smart, middle class, university-bound kids on our street went through the local ones recently and came out other end just fine!
Finally, as to crime and safety - the idea that people from Hackney are worrying about Walthamstow's safety I find just hilarious! Just about anywhere in London you might get trouble - and about anywhere in east London has its rough patches. But broadly speaking, if you treat people around you nicely, most will treat you back nicely. And Walthamstow is if anything a bit quiet. Ultimately, your precious kids are statistically far more likely to be flattened by a lorry on any one of loads of busy streets in east London than they are likely to be knifed - and that holds for Queens Park also etc.
Sheesh - if you want to live in London, then you need to live here. Don't just use your local area as a dormitory and convenient cake stop to catch up with your yummy mummy friends while ignoring the vibrancy and variety outside the window. If you're going to do that, you might as well make that break for Surrey/Herts right now and keep the house prices vaguely reachable by real people.
Final /rant over/ thought - when I got back from honeymoon in Thailand ten years back, I'd learnt to cook several Thai dishes - I found I could get all of the ingredients I needed (holy basil, galangal, lemongrass, weird-shaped aubergines etc.) within two blocks of my house. That's on the shop parades others on here have characterised as run down and all pound shops.