London isn’t known for the being the friendliest place to live in the UK (we’ve all seen a tourist try and fail to spark conversation on the Tube), but there’s one area of the capital that has been crowned the most miserable.
A recent survey by Rightmove polled 26,000 on 13 ‘happiness measures’. And, while Richmond came top in their Happy At Home index – there was some towns that weren’t quite so cheery.
At the unhappy end of the scale, right at the bottom of the list in 213th place, is Hillingdon, West London.
The west London borough scored lowest on the happiness measures, which included ‘I feel proud about the area I live in’, ‘nature and green spaces’, ‘artistic and cultural activities’ and ‘I feel a sense of belonging.’
Despite being Richmond’s neighbour at less than 15 miles away, Hillingdon is not the most glamorous of boroughs.
It’s on the doorstep of noisy Heathrow Airport and is pretty far away from, well, everything – but it’s got a lot to offer too.
In the summer, you can take a stroll around Ruislip Lido or take a canal trip on the Grand Union Canal. There’s also the 726-acre Ruilsip Woods that are worthy of a stroll any time of year, and lots of independent shops and restaurants to visit.
It’s got some culture, too. You can check out The Battle of Britain Bunker at RAF Uxbridge, the Operations Room which was used throughout the Second World War.
The bunker is said to be the place from where Churchill first uttered the words: ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed, by so many, to so few.’ He then later repeated it in the Commons.
There’s also Brunel University in Uxbridge, a 50-year-old campus university, with state of the art facilities and a newly opened Medical School.
Still, the people of Hillingdon have spoken – and they’re not the only ones who aren’t thrilled by their local area.
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Almost a third (30%) of respondents said they’d be happier living somewhere different, a particularly common sentiment among 18 to 30-year-olds in built-up areas or from London, the East Midlands or the West Midlands.
Of this group, 46% said they’d prefer to live in the same region of the UK and the rest felt they’d be happier further afield, although only 35% are planning on moving in the next year.
The most common reasoning for those looking to relocate was to find an area that made them happier (37%) but a bigger home (28%), better value for money (27%), a change of lifestyle (24%) and changes to personal circumstances (21%) also came high on the list.
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