West End

Detached houses with hedges and drives sit a few streets from parades of red-brick shopfronts, and the mix tells you who's here: settled homeowners, some long enough to remember when the Underground station was the only real landmark. It doesn't feel like central London and isn't trying to — this is the kind of West End that means Harrow, not Soho, and the streetscape is suburban through and through.

Pinner Underground Station anchors the practical side of things, and it's the reason a 43-year-old median age makes sense here — this is a place for people who've done the commuting calculation once and settled, rather than newcomers testing the waters. Schools carry real weight in that decision: Pinner Wood School holds an Outstanding rating, and West Lodge Primary School is rated Good, which is enough to make the area a credible choice for anyone thinking long-term about children even before you factor in the safety grade. Housing leans towards detached and semi-detached stock bought outright — freehold outnumbers leasehold in local sales — and a detached house here typically fetches close to three times the national detached median, which says more about what's on offer than about any particular bargain. A median house price approaching £800,000 sits above the borough's own benchmark, and against the national figure this is clearly one of the better-off corners of the country — decile 9 on the deprivation index, comfortably into the affluent end.