Below is a highly personal (but tested by me and my friends multiple times) list of data sources and quick tricks to narrow down the list of neighbourhoods to look at for your first house in London (or in the UK).

Please note, that:

• if you have/plan kids, don't forget to have a look at the nurseries & schools in the area - from what I've heard from my friends - being in the catchment area of a childcare of your choice sometimes trumps everything else.
• understand transportation options not only to your office, but also to the places of interest for you (sports, meeting friends, day trips, etc) - https://where.rightmove.co.uk/

To quickly get the vibe of a neighbourhood, look at:

• brick & mortar grocery stores available in the area - you can proxy the usual clientele of these to live in this neighbourhood. By the affluence/woke-ness level (my POV): WholeFoods, Waitrose, Sainsbury's/Co-Op, Tesco/Morrisons (I live in that bracket), ALDI/Lidl, CostCutter.
• "speciality coffee" and/or deli - if available in quantities - most likely it’s a hip area
• "dog grooming" services available in the neighbourhood - should be a nice balance of hip & homey in the area

If you know for sure what vibe you are looking for - do a reverse-search on google using the keywords above to understand what areas to explore. Let’s say: if you are looking for village-y feel, yet not the most expensive area, I would try to find a Co-Op with some speciality coffee & deli places around.

After building a long list of areas, consider filtering these down using the UK government data (crime & area profiles):

• https://www.ourwatch.org.uk/crime-prevention/crime-prevention/crime-map
• https://data.london.gov.uk/london-area-profiles/

With a shorter list of areas consider using aggregated POV on streets / neighbourhoods:

• https://www.streetcheck.co.uk/
• https://crystalroof.co.uk

And finally, check out demographics & social profile information for a curated list of neighbourhoods or even streets (7 days trial, use it wisely): https://acorn.caci.co.uk/

When using the last data source, which will provide you with insights as “this street is populated by full families in their 40s with at least 2 kids, middle-class, having full-time jobs in the city” - reflect: a) if this group is socially similar to you and you want to blend-in; b) the group is different and you just like to be around people like that. Either is OK, it’s just a good idea to reflect on what do you want.

Lastly, when you have only a couple of candidates left, it always helps to check the voice of public: