Arty/ liberal/ Bohemian (not stuffy materialist ones)places to live in the SE

[Buzzybee1983]

Sorry can't think of the right word?
We live in the South East and need remain here for work & family reasons
I love the actual area we live in, as in its beautiful,sweet and Safe and lots of great amenities
However I just feel like we don't fit in with community. It's affecting my self esteem. We are not super wealthy, we are creative, we like deeper conversations and feel very isolated here like the square pegs on the stock brokers bent
What areas would you say are still safe & affluent but have more of a open minded, arty vibe in the South?

Arty places are cheaper if you get there first(ish!)

Shoreditch for example used to be cheap and full of artists way-back-when. Then it got noticed by trendy types who moved in, the prices went up. More trendies moved in, landlords smelled the money, followed by developers and the mainstream. The artists long-gone it became ridiculously expensive.

Ditto Dalston, Clapton, Hackney Wick. They used to have thriving artist communities. Now they have pub / factory-conversions going for millions. Still a lot of art going on yes, but like you say not cheap - but it's not true to say all lefty / arty places are necessarily extortionate places to live!

Before the mainstream moved in and commodified it, the ones I mentioned were cheap places to live.

Also materialism is a state of mind. Rent aside, you can live in a rich area very cheaply and without the need for - or worship of - mountains of material goods if you want to.

Whitstable, Hastings, Rochester, Faversham and maybe Wye

Oh and Deal

I think that if you want to be somewhere edgy you will have to try to be an early adopter - how about Lewisham? Nasty in areas but really nice in others. Same with Catford. I grew up in Margate and wouldn't go back there for all the tea in China, would go to Bristol though!