Willesden Green

Willesden Green's high street mixes Victorian terraces and purpose-built mansion blocks with a steady run of Caribbean, Polish, Gujarati and Irish shopfronts — a reminder this is a corner of Brent that's never belonged to one single community. You'll see prams and wheelie suitcases in equal measure, young professionals peeling off towards the Jubilee line, older residents who've been here since before the flats above the shops got their buzzer entry systems.

The area earns its keep on connectivity — Willesden Green station puts you on the Jubilee line, and with 22 transport stops scattered through the suburb, getting into central London rarely needs a plan B. Schools are the quiet strength here: Convent of Jesus and Mary RC Infant School carries an Outstanding rating, and the overall schools grade sits at the top of the scale even though the borough-wide Ofsted average is more middling — a scatter of Good, Requires Improvement and un-inspected academies around that one standout. A 30-something renting a flat near the station, with a child at the Convent and a season ticket into town, is a very recognisable Willesden Green resident; the median age of 37.6 backs that up, younger than London as a whole. Housing itself is dominated by leasehold flats — 19 of the 36 recent sales — with a seven-strong block of semi-detacheds pulling the averages around; a semi here fetches over a million, a flat closer to £480,000, both comfortably above what the same stock would cost nationally. Against Brent as a whole you're paying roughly a fifth more to live in Willesden Green specifically, which tells you this pocket is viewed as a cut above the borough average, even if the borough's own reputation varies street to street.