Community around London’s West End, reluctant to come forward (6)
I believe the answer is:
colony
'community' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'around london's west end reluctant to come forward' is the wordplay.
'around' indicates putting letters inside.
'west end' indicates taking half (the half on the left or west).
'reluctant to come forward' becomes 'coy'.
'london' halved is 'lon'.
'lon' going into 'coy' is 'COLONY'.
(Other definitions for colony that I've seen before include "Community" , "It is settled" , "New settlement abroad" , "Overseas settlement" , "Group of animals or plants living together" .)