Richmond has been named the best place to live in London in the annual Sunday Times Best Places to Live guide.
The lucky folk of TW9 and TW10 are spoilt for ways to enjoy a break from concrete and cars in this most serene corner of the capital. No wonder Richmond is regularly voted the happiest borough in London. They can stroll beside the river or patrol the magnificent 2,500-acre Royal Park. Richmond, with its picturesque green, feels like a small town in a big city. The high street is on the up after a spell in the doldrums and the restaurant scene has a new spring in its step.

Six other locations in London are included in the comprehensive guide. In total, 72 places across the UK were selected by The Sunday Times to showcase the best of Britain, with Norwich, Norfolk named the overall national winner. The guide is published online on Friday 20 March, with an abridged version appearing as a magazine supplement on Sunday 22nd.

The full list of London locations is:
Richmond
Bow
Crouch End
Fulham
Plumstead
Southwark (Bermondsey-Waterloo)
Walthamstow

Please note: apart from the winner, the entries are not ranked but published in alphabetical order.

Helen Davies, editorial projects director and Best Places to Live editor, says: “This guide is a great opportunity to highlight the best places in Britain. It is full of places that show that our village, town and city centres can still be full of life, as well as places bursting with natural beauty, culture, connectivity and most importantly a sense of community.
Our expert team of judges visit every location on the list and talk to the locals to find out what they love about the place they live. These judges have traveled the length and breadth of the UK, from the Scottish Highlands to the Cornish coast, selecting the top towns and villages, suburbs and cities for the 2026 guide. One thing all our chosen locations have in common is that the people who live in them are proud to call them home.”
The Sunday Times’s expert judges have visited all the locations and assessed factors from schools to transport, broadband speeds and mobile signal to amenities, as well as access to high-quality green spaces and the health of the high street.
The chosen locations come in all shapes and sizes, from the best bits of big lively cities such as Leeds, Liverpool, Glasgow, Cardiff and London to the tiny, rural villages of the Vale of Eden in Cumbria and the Vale of Belvoir in the Midlands. The whole country is covered, from Falmouth and Penryn in west Cornwall to Braemar in the Scottish Highlands and Ballycastle in Northern Ireland.
There are more new entries than ever before in this year’s guide. As always, the judges looked for thriving locations with a strong sense of community rather than famous names with high house prices.
The guide has been sponsored by the mortgage lender Lloyds Banking Group for the first time this year, which has provided an average house price for each location.
“For many, navigating the housing market can feel overwhelming,” says Kate Townson, Lloyds relationship and customer development director. “At Lloyds, our aim is to support all home buyers, including those taking their very first step onto the property ladder, with clear guidance, practical tools and tailored products that help them move forward with confidence and clarity.
“Our partnership with The Sunday Times Best Places to Live aims to give trusted insight into communities across the UK, helping homebuyers to make confident, informed decisions about their future home, ” Townson added.
Broadband speeds were provided by Thinkbroadband.com, the UK’s leading independent guide to broadband. We’ve also included mobile signal coverage, using network data from signalchecker.co.uk.

Pen portraits of the London locations from the Sunday Times judges

Bow, E3
From Romans and Plantagenets to creatives in houseshares, there’s a palpable sense of history on Bow’s streets. At the area’s heart is tranquil Tredegar Square, where resplendent Regency houses surround a classic communal garden. This is a laid-back, easygoing neighbourhood where gentrification has been a gradual and harmonious process.

Runners, cyclists and rollerbladers take advantage of verdant Victoria Park, and there’s cultural stardust on the doorstep, from soon-to-open V&A East, Sadler’s Wells East and the Abba Voyage venue to summer music festivals in Victoria Park and the street art and galleries of Hackney Wick. The Central Line makes getting to central London a doddle.

Crouch End, N8
Crouch End has all the charm of a quintessential English market town – it just happens to be in the capital’s Zone 3. It has vibrant shops and restaurants, a frankly indecent quantity of green space, solid schooling and family-size period homes. Yes, it lacks a Tube station, but independence is part of the package. Why would anyone want to leave somewhere so friendly and welcoming?

Fulham, SW6
Look elsewhere for edgy cool, this upmarket suburb – quietly ornate stuccoed Victorian streets, chilled-out cafés and cracking pubs – is content simply to be a jolly nice place to live: unassuming but reassuringly well-heeled. Fulham has high-flying state and independent schools and plentiful transport options, from the Tube, train and bus to riverboat.

Plumstead, SE18
This leafy, long-overlooked corner of southeast London is, at least for the time being, by far the best place to buy a period house in the capital for £500,000. On the streets around the charming common, the proliferation of freshly scrubbed façades with smart shutters shows just how far the ripple effect from the Elizabeth Line has spread. The excellent transport links, laid-back cafés and glorious parkland are catnip for first-time buyers priced out of more fashionable areas.

Southwark (Bermondsey – Waterloo), SE1
Southwark, bordered (roughly) by the river, Borough High Street and Waterloo Road, has been a hotspot for culture, and theatre in particular, since Shakespeare’s time. You can walk to the West End or the City, the area is formidably well connected by train, bus and Tube and there’s Thames-side people-watching, with St Paul’s and the Shard as a dramatic backdrop. The food scene is vibrant and the Georgian workers’ cottages in the Roupell Street conservation area are among the most charming period homes in central London.

Walthamstow, E17
E17 offers as much fun per square foot as anywhere in the capital. Soho Theatre Walthamstow has been bringing West End-worthy theatre, comedy and music out east since it opened last May, while Trades Hall caters for all tastes: its programme spans tea dances, cabaret, poetry nights and hardcore punk gigs. Music in the Village is a series of concerts at St Michael and All Angels from April to October. You may see swifts, kingfishers or even a peregrine falcon in the tranquil Walthamstow Wetlands, while the much-loved Lloyd Park is perfect for a leisurely stroll around a moated island, fuelled by pulled pork tacos or a mushroom croissant from the Saturday farmers’ market.