East Dulwich

Victorian terraces dominate the streets here, split into flats behind the kind of brick facades that estate agents photograph at golden hour, and the high street runs to independent cafes and delis rather than chains. It attracts a crowd in their mid-thirties, roughly split between long-term homeowners and renters who've traded a shorter commute for more space, and the density is high enough that you're never far from another person doing the same school run or dog walk you are.

The practical picture is a bit of a trade-off. East Dulwich Rail Station and North Dulwich give you a route into central London, but with only one rail line serving the area, transport scores lower here than almost anything else on the local report card — this is a place you commute from, not through. Schools pull the opposite way: Goose Green Primary and Nursery is rated Good, and if you want Outstanding you'd be looking at Dulwich Village Church of England Infants' for primary or Harris Boys' Academy East Dulwich for secondary. Housing is overwhelmingly flats on leasehold terms, with just under two in five sales freehold, so a For Sale board here usually means a conversion rather than a whole house — though the minority of semi-detached and terraced houses that do come up sell for well over a million, a reminder of what's tucked behind the flat conversions. A median house price around £650,000 sits comfortably above the London average and more than double the national figure, which tracks with a percentile ranking near the top nationally; the five-year price direction has been flat rather than rising, so this isn't a market that's been running hot lately.