Is London safe?

[Springyayspring]

My 10 year old who usually never wants to go anywhere has asked to go to London. I’m overjoyed that he wants to go as I love city breaks and it’s so nice to see him showing an interest, he wants to see all the touristy things.

I have been to London but it was years ago and although I loved it. I’ve got very bad anxiety since then.

I try not to watch the news because all you seem to see is knife crime, terrorism, violence.

I mentioned to a couple of friends that we were looking at going and they seemed a bit horrified and said that London has really changed in recent years, and that they wouldn’t go.

Exactly this.

Mumsnet has been peppered with these kinds of threads for a good while,

No! you will die if you go to London. You will be stabbed or kidnapped or pushed onto the tube tracks - by someone with brown skin and a funny sounding name. Do not do it under any circumstances!!! All the 9 million people currently living in London are sheltering in nuclear bunkers.

Oh for goodness sake, of course it is!
I go regularly as a lone female, out on the Tube at night etc.
Millions of people live there perfectly safely.
Don't teach your son to be afraid of his own shadow - take him, and enjoy yourself.

Get your son to investigate on line fun places to go there’s so much to see best be led by his own interests. It’s often fun things for kids in the Southbank.

Millions of people live there, many more commute in regularly and still more come as tourists, the number of incidents of crime each year is not very high! Crime has actually decreased not increased!

What other city breaks have you been on? You say you love them. I feel far far safer in London than other European cities such as Paris, Barcelona, Rome. I've experienced and heard multiple stories of people being mugged/pickpocketed and chased in Barcelona, similar in Rome. I've only ever heard of one person I know getting mugged (phone snatched out of hands) in London and that was 20 years ago in a dodgy bit of north London late at night.

I've lived in London and visited all my life, fabulous city, I miss it all the time. Enjoy!

I think people have a right to be sarky when yet another person is clearly being dramatic about something a little common sense would go a long way towards alleviating concerns about.

I am sick to death of people willingly buying into the very deliberate right wing agenda to paint London as some crime ridden hell hole where you’ll be stabbed as soon as you get off a train from the ‘decent’ parts of the country because we dare to have a Muslim mayor.

8 million people live and work here. We go to school, go to work, go to museums and theatre and cinema and meet our friends all without wearing flak jackets or seeing our children kidnapped off the pavement into county lines terror cells on a daily basis.

Crime happens everywhere including the bubbles everyone who thinks London is a flaming war zone lives in.
I’ve felt far more unsafe in parts of Liverpool and Manchester than I do in the equivalent parts of London but that’s because I don’t know those cities and I’m projecting my own anxieties onto my surroundings.

You can’t blame the algorithm for the echo chambers you find yourself in - you’ll just find confirmation bias.

Clearly people live and work in London and feel safer, just as they do in say in certain gun crime cities in Mexico. On this thread you will only get individual person's experiences- so if you've been a victim or know of a victim of knife crime in London clearly you will believe it's dangerous whereas for the vast majority of people who haven't been a victim of knife crime then it's perfectly safe.

This is why you need to take an objective view, look at the actual statistics and then see for yourself what is the statistical risk of a knife crime happening to you in London, which if you look at the stats below shows that you have a 0.002% chance per year or one in 50,000 per year.

Mobile phone theft in London however is closer to one in 5,000 per year.

https://www.eufy.com/uk/blogs/security-camera/city-with-most-stabbings-uk

DD lives in London, I have no anxiety for her at all. She visited Italy last year, and said Rome and Naples were much more scary.

London's absolutely fine with designer handbags - I carry my Chanel and Hermes bags all the time and never have any problems.

Wtf?? 🤣🤣🤣

The possibility of anything bad happening is very low as others have noted.

The greatest danger you have is probably from those on your roads locally who speed, drive in other dangerous ways, or for other reasons should not be allowed a driving licence.

I live in London- it's great and you will have a wonderful time. On safety, just use common sense as you would in any city- don't wave your phone around or leave it in your back pocket. Don't have your purse visible in an open tote bag etc.

Assuming you’re not from the UK @Springyayspring ? Is people worrying about the safety of London a result of everything that’s been going on in the world recently or have people always worried it’s not safe? What do you think is unsafe about it specifically? It’s pretty baffling to me, it’s a large city in a developed country, just like any other. You’re not going to South Sudan!

Crime is down here op.

Indeed.

OP, if you are genuine: London is perfectly safe. Millions of us live here and go about our business without ever encountering these issues that are supposedly rife.

There is an organised effort currently (organised by whom I’m not sure, but I have my suspicions) to portray London, and the UK in general, as a crime-ridden hellhole. This is being done in order to stir up hatred against immigrants, Muslims and other minority groups and boost support for Reform/foment social unrest. Part of this involves posting faux-innocent queries on sites like Mumsnet and Reddit, claiming to be worried about visiting London/the UK because you’ve heard how terribly dangerous it is. It is blatantly obvious and once you’ve spotted it you can’t unsee it.

Naples comes in at number 5 for highest crime cities in Europe. Worrying 3 out of the top 5 cities for crime in Europe are in the UK, with Bradford being number one.

For the OP London comes in at 15th and Paris is 10th.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-europes-most-dangerous-cities-according-to-citizens/

https://www.eufy.com/uk/blogs/security-camera/most-dangerous-cities-in-europe

And by the way OP - I also have a ten year old. She walks to school by herself and in September will be getting the tube to secondary by herself. London is great for kids.

This is behind paywall but you can get one article a month for free if you sign up. Much better to read respected journalism from high quality sources than offensive, often racially motivated, social media nonsense. Or listen to anacdotes.

https://www.economist.com/britain/2026/01/28/london-is-far-safer-than-violent-viral-videos-will-have-you-believe

The population of London is nearly 9 million and it is a vast place so what you see on the news is not indicative of day to day life for most Londoners. Millions of tourists come every year and have a wonderful time. The only proviso is to watch your phone when out and about because of thieves but that is the same in any large city.

London is absolutely fine. I live there for 20 years, travelling around the city everyday and never felt safer. Feel much more anxious in the countryside walking by myself. Go and have fun!

I live in East London, have done for 40-odd years. I always feel safer in London than almost anywhere else because it's so busy all the time.

This is what drives me mad. Can we have a bit of analysis here? The survey you posted where you say "Worrying 3 out of the top 5 cities for crime in Europe are in the UK, with Bradford being number one" isn't based on actual crimes. just perception of crimes which is usually just a virtue of social media and echo chambers. The article itself states "Numbeo’s Crime Index is based on user surveys, scaled 0–100, and reflects perceptions of crime and safety rather than official statistics." Please, for the love of god, can we exercise some critical thinking and alaysis before sharing things?

This is the thing. I've come back late on the tube, but the carriages are always busy, so I don't feel unsafe.

Your friends are talking nonsense. But you do need to be aware (like in many other major cities all over) of pickpockets/bag grabbers, so do make sure your bag/purse are very secure, and don’t walk around with a phone in your hand. If you need a map for getting around, invest in an A-Z - small tourist versions for central London are readily available for a very few ££.

Dh and I often go into central London via public transport, and I go quite often on my own - never any issues
And do please remember to stand on the right on underground escalators!