London’s most walkable / friendly / lovely neighbourhoods?

[Bagggy]

I feel like I live in my car and I live in a popular, expensive London neighbourhood.

Where do you think I’d get all of the above in my title? Walkable (as in, no one drives around really), friendly, lovely, great atmosphere generally?

Which zone are you in, and what are you needing the car for?

I rarely use a car, only to leave London really. Most of the city is brilliantly organised (and more efficient) using public transport.

Where do you drive to?

i’vr Lived Islington/ clerkenwell/ barbican/ Bankside all without a car. Walked to work/gym/ tube to social. Top up shops on foot. Ocado for bulk.

Kids walk too! To school/ clubs. Tube to fixtures/ matches/ distant swimming tracing venues.

How can you be living in your car if you are in London? I use mine a couple of times a month and have mainly had it to get out of London to visit family or go away to the countryside.

Like the PP, I get a lot of my food delivered (Ocado, Abel & Cole) and have a Tesco Express and Sainsburys within walking distance for staples. I walk or take public transport pretty much everywhere.

Surely most areas of London are walkable. They all have good public transport and amenities. Where do you live now?

Many areas are friendly once you've lived in them a while and got to know the people. In my experience, London neighbourhoods reward those who put in the most effort to get involved in local things. And 'lovely' is generally in the eye of the beholder. Most places in London are not picture-postcode 'lovely'. They have pleasant and less attractive aspects, often on the same street 😄. That's what makes London London really. I'm leaving London this week after 26 years here. I can walk up my street and list things that I will really miss (fab neighbours, architecture) and things I won't at all (dog poo, the proliferation of recycling receptacles) in equal measure.

You must be in Zone 6 if you're in your car. We're border of 2/3 and I walk everywhere, or bus or Tube it. It feels like our car's just a ruddy great ornament gathering rust outside our house. We only keep it to get to elderly parents living outside London.

I walk or cycle everywhere -Z2 south London.

But I know people who live in their cars in the same area. Mad, IMO, but it is a choice not a necessity

We live in Zone 2 (SW London) and don't even bother having a car - haven't done for years. Excellent buses, tube and train network with lots of green space and a river nearby mean everything we want is pretty accessible.

On the odd occasion we need a car, we Zipcar or Sixt it.

I walk everywhere in my neighbourhood and can pretty much buy anything if I walk 15 mins. Some neighbours walk nowhere. I’d say where we live is walkable, but there are still unreasonable gazillions of cars.
i don’t understand your question!

And in terms of specific neighbourhoods, I think Putney, Barnes, Richmond would all have what you are looking for (Putney better connected than the other two). Also have a soft spot for Pimlico and bits of Kennington.

Are you asking where to move to in London so that you use your car less? Look, no one is making you use your car. Stay where you are and use it less? We lived on the border of Zone 2/3 for ten years and never owned a car.

If where you want to go is really close to public transport then it's great. If not then the car is quicker.

E.g. I'm zone 2 SW London and not that close to the station. The children's sports clubs are in venues usually 20 minutes walk from the nearest transport. So door to door by car is usually half the time public transport would be due to the time either side of the public transport leg.

If you want a car free life then living on top of a station is the best way to achieve that.

See the public transport access map here.
https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/urban-planning-and-construction/planning-with-webcat/webcat?intcmp=25932

Most of London is walkable - as in has pavements, facilities that are in walking distance and good frequent public transport. Where the hell do you live?

I live SW but the neighbourhood with most walking/cycling I’ve seen is De Beauvoir in N London. The whole thing is a giant low traffic neighbourhood. On a summer day the ratio of bikes to moving cars must be about 2:1 on the residential roads. Lots of people walking too, and children playing in the squares. It was lovely.

I live just within zone 3 in south London and I can’t imagine not having a car. I’ve used public transport for a few hospital visits recently but other than that I drive everywhere. I drive partly for convenience, but I’m also out at work a couple of nights a week and wouldn’t dream of using public transport to get home after dark.

I've lived in Angel, Shoreditch, Bloomsbury, King's Cross and Camden. All are very walkable and I've always used public transport to travel around including in the early hours. It's fine and nothing bad has ever happened (admittedly my late nights out are infrequent these days). Being near the canal is particularly handy. I find some bits of north London not very walkable as they are quite hilly (e.g. Highgate and Muswell Hill).

We've often not owned a car at all, but when we have it's mainly used for trips outside London, perhaps a handful of times a year. I get groceries and almost all other shopping delivered. I've always lived within 5-10 minutes walk to a tube, and ideally close to another station as well as it maximises travel options in different directions. We use the tube a lot at weekends though as we visit places all over the city rather than just staying in the local area.

Hasn’t Richmond got the tube and rail?

I live in Muswell Hill and drive to see friends who live east (no easy public transport there), also to go to the gym (Mill Hill) and also to do anything that I can’t get to easily on a bus, basically! Big supermarket, when we go bowling in Finchley, garden centre.

I really dislike all the driving. I used to live far more centrally and absolutely never had to get in the car!

I think zone 2-3 walking still fine. Past zone 3 cars are more used. I live in zone 4 and not near a tube

I live nearby and use my car about once a month. It's not the area, it's about whether it works for you.

@Growlybear83 I live in zone 3 SE London and have never owned a car. It's perfecrly fine. For the very few times I need a car an Uber or hire car will.do.

You don't need a car in East Dulwich and environs in Zone 3. Plenty of train stations, Overground and buses.

I don’t feel safe being out alone waiting for public transport at night. If I couldn’t drive, then I wouldn’t be prepared to continue with my work. Some of the places where I work would be difficult to get to by public transport anyway.

I knew you were going to say Muswell Hill!You could try coming south - Herne Hill or Dulwich? Blackheath perhaps.

Ah Muswell Hill, that explains it. I’m not a fan as I don’t feel it’s “Londoney” enough and I think that’s what some people who move in like about it. You will have to put yourself out a lot more or move. Maybe East Finchley? I’m in Z2 near the Royal Free and I don’t drive often for well over a week and then to visit DS who is in supported living in Weybridge, I can’t take him out on public transport.

Honestly you could do almost all of that without a car. Laboratory gym is pretty good. Ally Pally garden centre is a short walk. Big Tesco extra at the top of Colney Hatch Lane on the 43. Bowling at Finsbury Park on the W7. It’s no good for the tube unless you’re Highgate side but the buses are great.