Where do Indians live in London

moove2london on 24 Jul 2012

Indian expats or British Indians live in areas all over London, but if you’re looking for where to find a real Indian community spirit, then there are a number of areas across Outer London, West, South and East London that are very popular with Indian people. Indian people represent an estimated 6.4% of the population of London – this equates to around 500,000 people and the National Office of Statistics states that this is the largest non-white/non-mixed population of people in London.

First of all, let’s look at Outer London.
Harrow and Watford are situated to the North-West of London and are both on the Metropolitan line. A large population of Gujarati and Tamil Indians can be found out in Zone 5 in Harrow. Most of the Gujaratis are Hindu, whereas the Tamil Indians are a mix of Roman Catholic or Hindu. Grocery Stores, butchers, delis and take-aways in the area are of the South-Asian type. In Watford, Gammons Lane is the main hub of the Tamil community – a large proportion of these people are Indian Tamils from Sri Lanka.

Moving on to East London (Inner and Outer), you’ll find many of the Indians in this part of town are of the Hindu faith, although there is a small Muslim minority present, and a well-sized Sikh community. Ilford (in Essex) is extremely popular with Punjabi, Gujarati and Tamil Indians. For great Indian shops in East London, head to Green Street in Upton Park. Confusingly though, many of the people living in and around the Green Street area are actually Pakistani British.

South London’s Indian communities lie predominantly in Croydon (Outer London) and Tooting which has a large amount of Gujarati Muslim people (as well as amazing curry restaurants). Most of the Indian people living in South London belong to the Hindu faith, although you’ll also find various groups of Muslims and Sikhs living here too.

The largest concentration of Indian people in all of London can be found in West London around either the Southall, Hounslow or Wembley areas. Southall has a huge Punjabi community which is made evident by Southall Broadway, containing a fantastic selection of Indian restaurants, cinemas, clothing and food shops. Wembley is home to a large Gujarati community, most are Hindus but there are also decent amount of Gujarati Muslims and a few Gujarati Sikhs.

Many of the areas featured on this page have not yet been profiled by us – this is because many of them are located in Outer London. We’re still working on providing detailed areas descriptions of all Inner London areas, but once we’ve finished doing this, we’ll get started on Outer London too, as we want to give you as much information as possible when deciding where to live in London. Please bear with us!!!