London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

London's best and worst connected neighbourhood have been named

London's best and worst connected neighbourhood have been named

Shadwell is the best connected place in the country - unlike part of Biggin Hill in Bromley which is the worst in the capital

London is home to the best connected community in England, according to a MyLondon analysis.

People living in a particular neighbourhood in Shadwell - between Watney Market and St Mary’s Cable Street - have the best access to schools, public transport, their GPs, hospitals and airports in all of England.

People living in that part of Shadwell are just minutes from schools - on average four minutes to a primary and five minutes to a secondary on foot or by public transport, and six and seven minutes respectively by car.

Getting to their GP will take three minutes on average by walking or public transport or six minutes by car and bike, while it’s 12 minutes to hospital by foot or public transport or nine minutes in a car.

For those planning to head further afield, London City airport is 35 minutes away by public transport or 21 minutes in the car, while the nearest hub station London Fenchurch Street is 19 and 12 minutes travel respectively.


So how does your neighbourhood rank?

But those living in the Melody Road area of Biggin Hill in Bromley are the capital’s worst connected.

By foot or public transport, it’s an average 16 minute journey to a primary school and 28 minutes to a secondary school. By car, that’s cut to 10 minutes and 13 minutes respectively.

A GP is 14 minutes away by walking or public transport, 10 minutes on a bike or nine minutes in a car, while it takes 40 minutes to get to hospital on public transport.

It is likely to take 85 minutes to Gatwick airport and 46 minutes to Bromley South on public transport, although in the car you could be at the airport in 41 minutes and Sevenoaks station in 29 minutes.

These analyses are gleaned from a study based on official figures, published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The study ranks every one of 32,844 neighbourhoods in England based on how long the ONS says it takes an average person to reach primary and secondary schools, GP surgeries and food shops, plus major railway stations and major airports.

At the other end of the 'connectedness' scale is a sparsely-populated neighbourhood in Teignbridge, Devon – running from the villages of Poundsgate in the south to Moretonhampstead in the north.

According to the ONS data, the average resident of that area is 51 minutes away (on foot or on public transport) from the nearest primary school and nearly two hours from the nearest secondary school.

The nearest hospital takes at least two hours by public transport, and the nearest major airport or rail station (Bristol and Bristol Parkway respectively) are more than two hours away. By car you’re looking at over two hours to the airport, or 145 minutes to the station.


How does it work?

The ONS data breaks down England into neighbourhoods, or 'lower super output areas', which contain roughly the same number of people (around 1,500 in all).

That means neighbourhoods in densely-populated cities and towns tend to be much smaller, and average travel times to key services tend to be shorter.

Lightly-populated neighbourhoods are bigger and tend to fare much worse in the rankings.

The travel times show the average time it takes to get to key services for all people living in a particular neighbourhood.

'Major' airports are those with at least one per cent of UK air traffic, while 'major' rail stations are those which are considered, for official purposes, to be national or regional hubs.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
×