Wandsworth: 'Posh now'

Why? Families discovered that they could buy large Victorian or Edwardian houses near good state schools and, more recently, new private schools. They got more nearby green space, too, for much less than Fulham prices.

The change: Wandsworth is first choice rather than consolation prize for families who are no longer embarrassed to be south of the river. The smartest roads in the area known as Between the Commons (Wandsworth and Clapham if you have to ask) are lined with well-cared-for 19th and early 20th century houses, with original ornate porches and windows intact.

“Wandsworth Common is quite mummyish and posh now,” says one resident, who has lived in Wandsworth for 14 years. “For young families, everything’s nearby. The schools are great, the Common is beautiful — landscaped with ponds and very safe. And in Bellevue Road there’s Chez Bruce, a Michelin-starred restaurant, where you have to book weeks in advance. It’s full of people from north of the river.”

Public transport is not great, “but you get a lot of City people and they tend to drive”, says Ivor Dickinson of estate agent Douglas & Gordon. It gets a lot less smart in traffic-filled Wandsworth town, but the ugly 1960s Arndale Centre has been renamed Southside and acquired the ultimate sign of a middle-class area: a branch of Waitrose.

On the riverfront, the former gasworks in Smugglers Way is now Riverside West, a 533-flat development with leisure facilities and shops. “There used to be half a dozen small industrial businesses here, and a lot of the area was used for illegal dumping,” says Stephen Embrey, managing director of St George South London, which developed the site. St George is also developing the former Guinness Brewery land as Battersea Reach, with 658 new homes.