Graveney is one of two wards that cover the heart of Tooting (the other being Tooting ward itself). Both are very cosmopolitan with large minority ethnic communities.  

Graveney is essentially Tooting south of Tooting High Road and Tooting High Street.  It includes Tooting Broadway underground station and the statue of King George outside it, Tooting Market, Tooting Library and Amen Corner.

Despite being a strong Labour-supporting area, Tooting does not have many of the usual characteristics of inner-city Labour seats; there are no sprawling tower block council estates of the sort that can be found in Lambeth or Southwark, for example. And while there is a large Asian population, it is not close to approaching a majority, as it is in places like Southall or Bethnal Green. 

Instead, this part of Tooting consists of long terraced residential streets, many subdivided into flats, climbing the hill from the river Graveney up to Tooting Graveney common.

Facts & figures

Population: 13,215

Housing tenure:
Owner-occupied: 50.3%
Public sector renting: 18.8%
Private sector renting: 26.0%

Household type:
Detached/Semi detached: 9.2%
Terraced: 41.4%
Purpose-built flats: 22.1%
Multi-occupancy house: 24.5%

Employment:
Full-time employed: 49.4%
Self-employed: 6.8%
Unemployed: 4.5%
Retired: 7.3%
Students: 11.9%

Socio-economic bands:
Professional/Managerial: 40.0%
Skilled/unskilled manual: 27.4%

Ethnicity:
White: 62.5%
Black/Minority Ethnic: 37.5%

Source: 2001 Census