At Time Out, we’re big fans of all things London – shocker, right? – but it would be a bit naïve to think of this huge, sprawling metropolis, which was just named one of the best in the world, as one single place. The opportunities and quality of life vary massively across the capital, from affluent pockets of million-pound homes to areas where life is much tougher.
And Rightmove’s Happy at Home study proves exactly that. Richmond-upon-Thames was just crowned as the happiest place in the UK, marking the first time ever that a London borough has claimed the top spot.
However, the study, which quizzed 26,000 people across the UK about what makes them happy about where they live, also revealed the unhappiest places in the UK, and again the winner (or loser) was in London.
Roughly a 40-minute drive from the UK’s happiest spot is the unhappiest – the west London borough of Hillingdon.
The area has an average house price of around £546,555, plus bags of green space. So, how come it ranked so poorly? The proximity to all the noise from Heathrow, or the fact that it’s in Boris Johnson’s former constituency, perhaps? Who knows.
Ranking as the second unhappiest was Croydon, which was followed by Newham, then Barking and Dagenham.
You can find out more on the Rightmove website here.
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