Living in FH, and working in East Dulwich as I do, I'd say the latter has a better class of independent shop and restaurant because it is, frankly, populated by a more middle-class type, overall. If anyone fancies checking out some acorn profiling on the area, I'd be interested to know if my hunch is correct.


And I suspect ED often attracts the people it does because of the handful of very good schools there, for those that can afford them. However, once (if?) transport links into town are better, perhaps would-be "Dulwich mums" will be tempted to house-hunt further afield, safe in the knowledge that daddy can get to his high-powered job in double quick time from Forest Hill! Then, and only then, I think, can we expect to get independent shops on a par with ED: when a large enough proportion of the demographic is willing to pay slightly over the odds regularly enough to keep such businesses going.