Camden
London Borough · 210,137 residents
56Good
Good · better than 1 in 10 towns
Check Local Score out of 100 · 60 is typical for the country
Each arc is a topic, coloured by its score
What’s good
- 1,901 places to eat and drink
- 75 GP practices within a short walk
Check before you view
- Prices are high for local incomes: affordability scores 13, where 60 is typical
- Safety scores 32, below the typical 60
The essentials
Everyday life
The area
Around Camden
Somers Town45St Pancras58AldwychDartmouth Park50Cricklewood66Fortune Green53Lincoln's InnGray's Inn RoadKentish Town49Gray's InnMaitland Park49Parliament Hill
See all 35 in the guide ↓Map outline: Council boundary
Is Camden a good place to live?
Camden scores 56/100 overall, which the scorecard rates as good — 60 is typical for the country.
It stands out for food & drink (97) and health (80).
It scores lowest on affordability (13) and safety (32).
Scores come from official data on safety, schools, transport, prices, health, food & drink and the local environment, for Camden in London, each measured against the national average.
Summary of Camden
Camden's streets don't do quiet consensus — market stalls, Victorian terraces converted into flats, tourists photographing the Lock, and residents pushing past them to get to the tube. It's dense, mixed, and unmistakably urban in a way that either energises you or wears you down within a month.
The practical picture here is dominated by transport and property type, and the two are connected. With 34 rail and underground connections including Chalk Farm, Belsize Park, and Swiss Cottage stations, this is a place built for people who don't own cars and don't want to. Schools carry a strong reputation on paper — the average Ofsted rating across the area's 98 schools sits well above the national norm, and Parliament Hill School is the named Outstanding secondary locally, with Rhyl Community Primary the Outstanding primary — though it's worth knowing that The UCL Academy, the one sampled secondary with published progress data, shows pupils making slightly less academic progress than the national average. Housing here is overwhelmingly flats on leasehold terms — 519 of 643 recent sales were flats, and leasehold outnumbers freehold by five to one — so a "For Sale" board on most streets means a share of a converted building, not a house with a garden. At a median of £735,000, prices sit close to the wider Camden borough figure and far above the national median, though the last year has actually seen a small dip rather than the rise many assume is automatic here.