What do you mean by diverse? A lot of my white, middle class friends have grown up in countries all over the world (because their parents have been sent to work there, not because they're millionaires who sailed there on yachts). Everyone I've met at Durham has something cool and unique about them, whether it's that they're really involved with Greenpeace or lived in another country, or play an unusual sport, or play an instrument to a really high standard, or worked for an engineering company for their gap year (through YinI not a nick clegg style internship!). So you really can't tell people by their appearance.
Durham's definitely not a village. yes it's small for a city, but then if you look at a lot of cities , most of the city is houses. Why would you ever visit all the houses? I was in Birmingham last week, England's 2nd biggest city, and obviously it's a lot bigger than Durham but you could walk around that if you wanted to. I'd much rather be in Durham, where so, so many of the buildings are colleges/uni buildings/etc than a big city which is mainly random people's houses! Plus, walking is free - you really do save £100s a year by not having to get the bus to lectures! York as a city isn't that big either, and you probably wouldn't want to walk around all of Nottingham (lol) :P. Also, 99% of students don't have cars so won't be driving anywhere! Durham has a theatre - and at least one very high quality student play on each night of term, if not more; a cinema, and everything you'd need on a day to day basis. If you want to go to a big theatre or cinema, get a 12 minute train to Newcastle. If you want to go walking in jaw-droppingly beautiful countryside, you can walk out of Durham or get a bus and do one of 100s of published routes. If you want to go to the beach, that's only a short bus/car ride away. If you want to visit your friends in another college, it's a short walk rather than a 20 minute wait for a bus and then a paid bus journey.
I absolutely love London too, and I'm dead set on working then when I graduate, I'm not even looking at jobs located anywhere else. But I really wanted to explore a different part of the country before then, and Durham was so different for me that I really wanted to study there.