Dulwich Village and the surrounding area, which is famous for its picturesque streets and upmarket shops, has so many private schools that a local uniform shop nearly runs out of blazers and shirts ahead of the start of the new school term.
Dulwich, which is actually made up of three villages: Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, as well as a chunk of Herne Hill, boasts no less than eight private schools, the most well-known being the elite all boys Dulwich College.
Alumni of the school include Brexit architect Nigel Farage, BAFTA winner Chiwetel Ejiofor and one half of music duo the Chemical Brothers, Ed Simons.
Parents of pupils who attend the school can pay up to £51,546 a year if they want them to stay there all year round but their sons must first undertake a hyper competitive entrance exam and selection interview.
Cheaper options in the area include the £25,020 per year day school Alleyn’s (which admits boys and girls) and the £22,725 per year girls-only James Allen’s Girls’ School.
Ahead of the new term, many local parents pop into West Dulwich-based Thomas Schoolwear, a specialist uniform shop that has been making tailored school clothes for South London’s poshest schools since 1938.
Its owner Panny Kokkini, 67, said the demand for uniforms in the run up to the new school year was so high, he sometimes struggled to keep enough popular items like blazers, shirts and ties in stock.
He said: “It sort of starts in July fairly slowly and then some people go away on holiday and there’s a big rush in August before the new terms start. There’s a risk of me running out of stock then. I can’t magic one item up because they have to make twelve at the factory.
“The very important thing is for parents to bring children in. Parents are saying that they might grow, but if he’s four and he has got away with a five or six, it’s unlikely it’s going to be a seven to eight. Parents can go away on holiday and not worry about the last minute rush.”
Mr Kokkini said parents at the elite schools could spend anywhere between £100 and £400 during a visit to his shop ahead of the new school year.
The store provides a bespoke service to parents and their kids, with blazers and shirts fitted to each individual child and uniforms delivered directly to schools and even families’ own houses in the most last minute cases.
Mr Kokkini, who ran snooker bars before making the switch to the school uniform business in 2006, added: “75 per cent of our customers are from Dulwich or surrounding areas like Norwood and Streatham, but you do get further afield too. Our schools are all private schools. There are lots of state schools in the area too but state school uniforms tend to be simpler.
“Some of the private school uniforms have the logo and they have got a specific style. If you’ve got ten iterations of a shirt, it does not match and it looks out of place. That’s why they have a specific shirt.”
Muhammad Ali, a tutor who prepares children for exams at top London schools including Dulwich College, said parents were willing to shell out up to £10,000 per year on tuition in order to bag their kids a place at the school.
The 50-year-old, who runs a tutoring service called Mathematics and Science Tuition [MST], said competition for sought-after places at London’s top private schools was fierce.
He said: “In the very top schools you will get about 3,000 candidates fighting for 150-200 places so you’ve got about a 20:1 chance of getting into that school. Unless your child is tutored there’s no chance your child is going to get into the school. We’re talking about the top five per cent. Out of 100 kids, 95 won’t get in.”
Recently Mr Ali started offering group tutoring sessions where parents pay as much as they can afford, in order to give children from less rich backgrounds the chance of getting into schools like Dulwich College.
He added: “The schools are uber competitive and sadly tuition has become a bit of an arms race. State schools are strapped for cash… they don’t have the resources for the basics, never mind to prepare [kids] for the 11-plus. Parents are left with no choice but to seek private tuition and unfortunately only the really well off can afford tuition.”
And it’s not only rich Londoners who are fighting it out for places. The crème de la crème of private schools like Dulwich College are hugely popular with rich parents abroad, chiefly those from China.
Educational consultancies, promising to guide international parents seamlessly through the process of applying to schools like Dulwich have sprung up in light of the demand.
To keep up with demand, Dulwich College has opened six sister schools across China since the early 2000s, as well as a school in South Korea and in Singapore.
Many of the sister school buildings are built to mimic Dulwich College and have replicas of the UK school’s distinctive clock tower.
Back in London, tutor Mr Ali is in the midst of preparing his latest set of private school hopefuls for the 11-plus exams that take place later this year. He said: “Those 10 year olds aren’t having much of a summer. They are doing intensive 11-plus prep. Competition is growing and if you’ve got the money you spend it on it.”