London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Sep 19, 2025

The London area crowned the best place to live

The London area crowned the best place to live

The Sunday Times selected a winner for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and each English region for its list this year.

Crouch End has been crowned the best London neighbourhood to live in for 2023 by the Sunday Times.

The picturesque north London area boasts two art house cinemas, leafy walks, record shops and independent cafes, drawing in celebrities like Simon Pegg, James McAvoy and Katherine Ryan.

Judges hailed the area’s grand Victorian houses in the tube-station free enclave describing the “lively suburb” as maintaining a market town feel.

“It’s all about the green spaces and the independent shops in this lively north London suburb,” said Helen Davies, the editor of Best Places to Live 2023

“There’s a vibrant market-town feel to the streets that radiate out from the clock tower, where you’ll find dozens of cafes, bars and restaurants. The grand Victorian and Edwardian houses draw in plenty of celebrities, there are parks galore, two cinemas, sports clubs and a swimming pool.

“Best of all, there’s a friendliness here that’s often absent in the capital – people say hello to each other on the street.”

Nationally, Wadhurst in East Sussex fended off 71 other locations to be crowned the UK’s best place to live 2023 by The Sunday Times.

Judges said the small market town offers “pretty much everything needed for modern life in miniature”.

Wadhurst in East Sussex has been named as the best place to live in the UK


A winner was also selected for each English region as well as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Sunday Times’s expert judges assessed a wide range of factors from schools, transport and broadband to culture, green spaces and the health of the high street.

These winners were:

Scotland – Dunkeld, PerthshireThe small town was praised by judges for combining “stunning” Highland scenery with “Scandi sophistication”.

Wales – Ruthin, DenbighshireJudges said it offered the “very best of small town living” with food and craft markets, pop-up restaurants, cafes and independent shops.

Northern Ireland – Donaghadee, Co DownThe town, which is where BBC daytime TV drama Hope Street is filmed, was praised for its clean seas, beautiful views and “lively community.”

East of England – Saffron Walden, EssexJudges said “youthful vigour” was being injected into the market town as young families move in and new bars, shops and restaurants open.

Midlands – Leamington Spa, WarwickshireThe tech hub has well-tended parks, good schools, excellent transport links and will get even more of a revamp when a Creative Quarter is launched.

North and North East England – Whitley Bay, Tyne and WearThe town was said to be “catching up fast” with its affluent neighbour Tynemouth after “years in the doldrums” – with cheaper houses and connections to Newcastle which are just as good.

North West England – LiverpoolJudges said there are “lots of reasons to be optimistic” about the city from Eurovision to its reputation for science and technology and grand projects such as the new Everton stadium and film studios. Waterloo was singled out for seaside while Toxteth was praised for its “cultural and community vibe.”

South East England – Chichester, West SussexWhile Wadhurst was crowned best place to live in the UK, Chichester – which has more Ukrainian refugees per head than any other UK city – was praised for its good schools and transport links and was still deemed worthy of inclusion separately.

South West England – Cirencester, GloucestershireThe heated outdoor swimming pool was marked out as a particular highlight of the capital of the Cotswolds.

– The full list can be found online at thetimes.co.uk/bestplacestolive.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
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
×