Crystal Palace has been voted the best place to live in London.
The area, straddling the five boroughs of Southwark, Bromley, Croydon, Lambeth and Lewisham, was named the best place to live in London.
It topped the list of six locations in the capital chosen by The Sunday Times in its annual best places to live guide published last week.
“While the mix of green spaces, pretty Victorian streets and chichi shopping and dining isn’t unique, Crystal Palace has a welcome urban edge, too – as well as community spirit and a fascinating history,” wrote the newspaper.
The average house price in Crystal Palace is currently £526,000, which has grown 17 per cent since 2020.
In 2016, Crystal Palace was named in the Sunday Times newspaper’s top ten list of the best places to live in London. Now, five years later, it has rapidly risen to the top spot.
The comprehensive guide, which includes 70 locations across the UK, ranked the other best places to live in London as Hanwell, King’s Cross, New Malden, Teddington and Victoria Park, although they were listed in alphabetical order, not ranked.
Areas were judged by experts against a diverse range of factors, from schools, transport and broadband speed to culture, green spaces and the health of the high street.
The judges at the Times wanted to celebrate improving towns, villages and city centres, attractive and well-designed homes, and locations bursting with community spirit – all of which they said have become increasingly important to us due to the pandemic.
“The Sunday Times Best Places to Live list is necessarily subjective,” said Helen Davies, property editor at the Times. “Leave it just to statistics and you will never capture the spirit of a place. For that, you need to visit to take into account that ‘you have to be here’ feeling.”
“Is the pub dog-friendly, for example? Can you live car-free? What are the schools and houses like? Is it multicultural and multigenerational, and can it offer a good way of life to lots of different sorts of people,” she added.
The Best Places to Live list is published every year. Where else in Southwark will be next?
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