I certainly make no secret of the fact that I have a fairly sizeable soft spot for this big, bright city of ours. And despite having lived here for the best part of two decades, there are still very few things that I enjoy more than discovering new corners of the capital to fall in love with. But with desirable neighbourhoods found at each turn and every tube stop, it sure is tricky to pinpoint the very best places to live. And so I guess it’s pretty darn handy that the lovely lot over at Muddy Stilettos, have – once again – done the hard work for us.
Every year, the leading lifestyle publication have us on the edge of our moquette-covered seats, waiting for the highly-anticipated arrival of their annual ‘Best Places to Live’ guide. From busy towns to teeny-tiny villages, the trusty team scour the length and breadth of the entire country to create this catalogue of the best places to reside. 260 lovely locations managed to earn themselves a comfy spot on the 2026 iteration of the list; eight of which are here in London. And topping the charts as one of the very best places to live in the country is – drum roll, please… Crouch End.
Seamlessly blending a hip-and-happening city location with a quaint-and-quiet village vibe; Crouch End really does have the best of both worlds. Filled to the brim with things to see, do, eat, and drink, it’s certainly not too hard to see why the legendary likes of Alan Carr, David Tennant, Katherine Ryan, and Simon Pegg all call this north London locale home.
The neighbourhood is picture-perfectly perched in the London Borough of Haringey, and has a (rather iconic) 19th-century clocktower slap-bang in the middle of it. According to Muddy Stilettos, the area boasts ‘an elegant, laid-back vibe more akin to a market town than a city’. The lack of tube station certainly adds to the village-like feel of the place, but Highgate is just a hop, skip, and a 20 minute walk away – and residents can also hop on a train to London Bridge from the nearby Crouch Hill station.
Just a stone’s throw from Alexandra Palace, there’s no shortage of green space nearby – and there’s also a plethora of independent shops, pubs, restaurants, and bars dotted around the area. Crouch End boasts some pretty gorgeous Victorian and Edwardian houses but – as I’m sure you can imagine – they don’t come particularly cheap. The average cost of a flat in Crouch End is £552,331, whilst a semi-detached house will set you back a rather eye-watering average of £1,447,756.
The best places to live in London (according to Muddy Stilettos):
- Crouch End
- De Beauvoir Town
- Greenwich
- Herne Hill
- Teddington
- Walthamstow
- Wandsworth
- Wimbledon
If you’re interested to know where else in the UK was named among the best places to reside, you can peruse the full list here.
