Leaving London. Looking for liberal cosmopolitan areas close to London

[Reearry]

Hi ...we are thinking of moving out of London as we are planning to start a family and need a place with a bit of a garden. Our budget is about £1-1.2 million for 3/4 bed with a small garden.

1. Cosmopolitan population - we enjoy living in London because of the diverse population. We are South Asians and do not want to stick out so places which are liberal with diverse population from different countries

(something I love about London) would be ideal

1. Vibrant community - Definitely want a place with a young population (young families or students) and vibrant high Street with plenty of options to eat, shop, cultural activities etc

1. Good schools - state preferably

1. Sense of community - places with a lot of community involvement, public libraries, cultural options, book clubs, hobby clubs, meetups etc

1. Good transport access - Will need good connections to London Canary wharf

1. Picturesque if possible

We have moved across 3 countries in the past 5 years for work and will probably move after a few years ( Love UK, so planning to buy a house here to come back and settle down eventually for good) . Looking for communities which have professional mobile population. Also, I have always lived in dense cosmopolitan cities so will not be comfortable in too rural or small communities. Was thinking of perhaps Wimbledon or Surrey? But not sure if our budget will get us what we are looking for...

I'd suggest Beaconsfield.

20mins into Marylebone
Picturesque
Mostly white, but sizeable (wealthy) S Asian population as well
Access to M40
Lots of young families

@GetRid does beaconsfield really have a south asian population? I thought that was wycombe. I was looking to moving to that part but it did feel like there were very few BAME around. Wycombe has a lot of BAME which is great, but everyone told me it was unsafe.

I think there are nice parts in Wycombe though, just not within walking distance of the train station.

Wanstead. South Woodford. Leytonstone on the Wanstead end. www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-94000889.html#_full-description

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-94718570.html#_full-description

Forest Hill.

Why not try places like Wanstead or Beckenham? still London but they are really nice places with a village feel.

Outside London St Albans or Hitchin are great and easily commutable.

I am wetting myself laughing at some of these.

Beaconsfield?!

And Forest Hill IS in London. Not even close to the outskirts. It is fully in London.

OP, the place you're looking for does not exist unless you move to another city.

Also Guildford is not lovely, it's one of the most bland places I've ever had the misfortune to visit.

Brighton is OK but I wouldn't have said its connections into London were very good - the train is slow.

@BakedBlossoms you are right. I am BAME and really tried to find a town like that. Eventually I gave up and bought a London flat..

I am hoping things would change because of wfh. Maybe that would motivate BAME families to uproot themselves. It would possibly take years as many of the facilities they need would also need to be built. For Indians, I suppose having local temples and Hindi/Punjabi language classes locally might be important and needed to establish a strong Indian community.

If you are (or like) Korean then look at New Malden in South West London.

If you are Chinese then look around Croyden I would assume a fairly large SE Asian community still exists because of Wing Yip's supermarket. There is another one in Cricklewood in North London too.

You should be able to get a detaches house for 1.2m nearby those areas, but possibly not near pubic transport. I suspect something needs to change in your list of wants, and I bet you'll end up in a Victorian terrace in a monied area because that is where the international movers and shakers live. Beware though - they largely pay for private schooling so state schools suffer a brain drain in the area, particularly at secondary age.

Also you really don't wan to live in a student area when you have young children. Student house parties and a young baby next door sounds like a nightmare to me!

another vote for Bromley or Beckenham, good compromise for your commute vs house

Near Bromley South if you don't mind doing work:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-94671563.html - you need to check, Highfields junior is good but catchment like everywhere in London is shrinking

Beckenham
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-77057224.html - again do check, Alexandra Infants primary

Places like wimbledon are denser and wont be a detatched for your budget. Also the good primary schools have minute catchments and you end up looking at terraces within a 0.3 mile radius

Reading - very diverse, large South Asian community, lots of stuff going on, good schools if you buy in East Reading/Wokingham Council side, when crossrail opens it will be a direct train to Canary Wharf. Worth considering if you actually want to leave London

I am chuckling at the idea of Beaconsfield being liberal and cosmopolitan.

I am chuckling at the idea of Tooting being diverse - I think diverse is used nowadays as a catch-all for non-white. Tooting isn't THAT diverse because it has a prevailing culture. A bit like Peckham or New Malden in that way.

It is actually quite difficult to find a genuinely diverse areas around London. I would agree that South Croydon/Coulsdon might fit the bill - big detached houses for that price, lots of middle class BAME families, good schools. Deffo not picturesque though - ime all the picturesque places are hideously white.

There is no such place that is picturesque and also diverse. It just simply doesn't exist.

We’re in Surbiton where a lot of people commute to CW - it’s one stop (16 mins) on the train to Waterloo and then the Jubilee line.

It’s become much more diverse in the time I’ve lived here (12 years) but even at the 2011 census around a quarter of the local population were BAME (and a quarter born outside the UK).

Some lovely indie cafes and restaurants and a bookshop - we’ve run Starbucks out of town now but the indies seem to be doing ok even in Covid times.

There are a handful of detached houses for your budget and some seriously lovely large semis which I wouldn’t write off.

Surbiton is lovely

@BakedBlossoms why don't BAME people move to picturesque towns? Do they prize stuff like transport links and amenities and supermarkets more?

I have been puzzling over this for a long while.

@BakedBlossoms don't think its the money because there are a lot of BAME professionals.

@BakedBlossoms why don't BAME people move to picturesque towns? Do they prize stuff like transport links and amenities and supermarkets more?

Erm, speaking as a BAME person, I don't move there because only white people live there and I don't want to be the only brown person in the village.

Surely that's obvious?

@BakedBlossoms yes of course! I didn't want tobe the only asian person in the town either, hence i bought in London.

But i am asking why there isn't a community effort to try to move outside London. I know that for the Jewish community, they are trying to find new hubs- Canvey in Island in Essex for the Satmar Community and Hatfield for the regular orthodox. Borehamwood was quite successful, i think. But somehow none of these places are picturesque. They are all quite ugly! The main motivator is cheaper property prices.

What about Leamington Spa, lots of people work in London, and fits your other requirements.
<a class="break-all" href="https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-79654546.htmlwww.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-71536212.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-79654546.htmlwww.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-71536212.html
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-70835850.html

The main motivator is cheaper property prices
And good schools, and less crime and all the normal things that sensible people prize not just, 'yes but is it East Sheen' or 'does it have a Joules?'

Less affected by snobbery basically.

I was going to say Brighton too.

Beach, Downs and definitely vibrant.