Richmond-upon-Thames has been officially crowned the friendliest place to live in London for 2026, and it also took the title of the happiest. The borough, in south London, finished top after a joint assessment by The Sunday Times Best Places to Live guide and the annual Rightmove Happy at Home Index.
The result puts Richmond-upon-Thames at the center of a familiar London contradiction: a place that feels close-knit enough to win praise for neighbourliness, yet remains one of the hardest areas in the city to move into. The ranking was built from two different kinds of evidence. Independent judges sent by The Sunday Times assessed broadband speeds, transport connectivity, educational infrastructure and the strength of local commerce. Rightmove, meanwhile, drew on responses from thousands of residents about safety, neighbourly interaction and civic pride.
That combination helped produce a picture of a borough with unusual range. Richmond Park spans 2,500 acres, while residents also have access to the River Thames towpaths, giving the area an amount of green and open space that is rare in the capital. The housing stock in the TW9 and TW10 postcodes is described as low-density and rich in period properties, and the borough is said to carry the intimacy of a rural market town while sitting mere miles from the City of London.
What appears to have mattered most, though, is the way residents describe the place in daily life. The area recorded a high frequency of civic engagement, including neighborhood watch programs and conservation volunteering in the royal parks, signals that the social fabric is not just pleasant on paper but actively maintained. That matters because the ranking is not only a snapshot of mood; it reflects both subjective feelings and objective local conditions, from transport links to the quality of local amenities.
There is, however, a tension beneath the praise. Richmond’s appeal is tightly bound to exclusivity, and securing a home there is difficult because of the high cost. In other words, the borough’s status as London’s friendliest and happiest place to live is inseparable from the fact that many would-be newcomers are priced out before they can experience it for themselves.
For now, the verdict is clear: Richmond-upon-Thames is not just admired for its parks and river access, but for a sense of civic life that residents continue to reinforce. The question is no longer whether it deserves the crown. It is how long a borough defined by community warmth can keep that character while remaining so hard to enter.
