London independent boys' schools recommendations?

[KensalMama]

Hello, my DS (9) has just started Year 5 at a well-regarded Central London independent primary school. We're thinking of putting him down for the ISEB pretest for Year 6. I have no idea where to begin looking at "good" schools & organising visits to open days, etc.
I have heard good things about Westminster, St Pauls, Haberdashers Askes, UCL in Hampstead... Any other top-tier schools? (I know they're very competitive, but our son is in the top "stream" so we're aiming high at this point).
We're based in NW10 so ideally somewhere Central/ West, but happy to commute for the right school. My son is friendly, bright, good at maths & quite a sensitive soul but very loyal to his friends. We're not interested in "snobby" schools - just schools with an ethos that promotes intellectual curiosity & which will hopefully help him get into one of the good universities.
Very grateful for any recommendations/thoughts on the subject and thanks to everyone in advance. :)

Yes, but I think she wants him to go after year 6 :) so he would be 11 not 13 :)

I'm not sure why I'm so invested in this but regardless of whether he wants to do 11+ or 13+ the registration deadline is early in Y6...
OP- just visit them all and look at the websites for info- you will get a gut feel for them.

We were looking at some of the same schools, and had offers from a few. Our son fell in love with Dulwich College, and made his mind up then and there (he found Westminster too cramped, didn’t like the feel of City and didn’t like the art department at St Paul’s, which were the main schools we’d been looking at).

Dulwich is such a lovely school. For the top boys, there are endless possibilities and they are given the means to succeed and go as far as they want. But the atmosphere is relaxed, they don’t make a huge deal about being “the best”, they make every boy feel confident and welcome, and they focus a lot on personal growth. Very well organised too.

Worth looking at KCS Wimbledon too.

Looks like a good list. Westminster v good for sensitive souls if you can manage the commute (one of DS2s chums comes from way up on the metropolitan line so I guess it can be done.

With Paul's and westminster you need to decide if you want 11+ or 13+ - presumably the former.

I wouldn't at all say that westminster is snobby.

Thanks, everyone. Really helpful feedback. BTW, we would like DS to enter at 13+ as he’s loving his prep school. My DH went to Westminster & recently we went to their Open Day so I could see their impressive facilities & ethos. DS was also inspired. Let’s see what happens. We will also
try for St Pauls, CLS, UCS & in two minds about Latymer Upper & Habs. Any opinions on these would be welcome. (Dulwich is a bit too far for us, sadly) I’d like to ask for recommendations for other North /NW /West london schools, beyond these aforementioned “top-class” schools, in case DS doesn’t do well at the ISEB pre-test. Thanks in advance for helping me out (_)