As an early settlement Perry Vale wins hands-down, but you have to go back to a time when it was called "Perry Slough", which translates as "a muddy place where pear trees grow". The first recorded mention of Perry Slough is in the early 18th century when it was no more than a small cluster of humble cottages (the poet Thomas Dermody apparently died in one of them in 1802).

"Forest Hill" was the name given by a developer to the group of villas he built along Honor Oak Road in the 1790s; Hill House and The White House are the two best survivors. So, east of the tracks is older, west of the tracks is posher.