Crap Towns / Greater London / Kensington and Chelsea
Kensington and Chelsea
79/100Crap Score
203rd crappest of 984 towns, and 23rd in Greater London. Higher scores are crapper.
Have your say
Crap Town of the Year 2026/27
See the raceThe public vote. It's separate from the Crap Score, and it closes on 31 December 2027.
Letters from the locals
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agree it's crap have defended it
Chelsea. Shut that Lamborghini up.
South Ken's museums are free, which is about the only thing round here that is.
South Ken's got the museums and Notting Hill's got the coloured houses tourists queue to photograph. Then at night some knob in a Lamborghini does laps of Sloane Square, revving it at every bus stop.
Plenty of the big houses sit empty with the shutters down, and the borough has nearly twice England's share of homes stood empty for six months. Whoever does live here pays £1,667 council tax on a Band D. And somehow the fly-tipping comes in at 4.7 times the typical council. Somebody in a very nice postcode is dumping a sofa.
The kitchens are spotless, to be fair. You could eat off the floor, if you got a table.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Kensington and Chelsea's 99 for serious road collisions means it's crapper than 99% of towns.
- Serious road collisions99/1008.1 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Air pollution99/10023.2 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 9.4 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Fly-tipping97/10051.2 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Kensington and Chelsea council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Anti-social behaviour97/10034.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Criminal damage and arson59/1007.7 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Broadband39/1006.7% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 6.7% across the Kensington and Chelsea council area
- Sewage spills27/10078.7 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Deliberate fires23/100
- Rain10/100114 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene1/1000.9% rated 0 to 2, of the 1,658 food businesses with a rating
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 19 | Islington | 84 |
| 20 | Wandsworth | 84 |
| 21 | Barnet | 83 |
| 22 | Waltham Forest | 82 |
| 23 | Kensington and Chelsea | 79 |
| 24 | Redbridge | 77 |
| 25 | Barking and Dagenham | 77 |
| 26 | Kingston upon Thames | 73 |
| 27 | Havering | 72 |
Kensington and Chelsea by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 151 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 2x the typical town's 76.2
- 45 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 3.1 per 10,000 people, 9% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- Good The Serpentine - Hyde Park's bathing water rating, 2025
What's left on the high street
- 81 pubs, 131 hairdressers, 33 charity shops, 18 bookmakers, 4 vape shops, 25 banks, 2 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1.5% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (1 of 69) Better: 63% lower than the typical town's 4.0%
- 13 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 9.1 per 100,000 people, 2.7x the typical town's 3.4
- 32 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.2 per 10,000 people, 38% higher than the typical town's 1.6
- 13 public swimming pools open; 5 closed for good since 2010 Better: 0.9 per 10,000 people, 29% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
- 36 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.53am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 1.1% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 2.2x the typical town's 0.5%
- 0.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: Against the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,613 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 5% higher than the typical town's 1,532
Kensington and Chelsea council
- £1,667 Band D council tax (2026-27) Better: £725 less than the English average
- 2% of Kensington and Chelsea council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 88% lower than England's 16%
- 22 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Kensington and Chelsea against your mate's town, and a match ticket to rub it in.
- ?Fly-tippingper 1,000, council area?
- ?Anti-social behaviourper 1,000 people?
- ?Serious road crashesper 10,000 people?
- ?Sewage spillshours per 10,000 people?
- ?Food hygienerated poor?
- ?Criminal damageper 1,000 people?
- ?Dirty airµg/m³?
- ?No gigabitof premises can't get it?
- ?Deliberate firesper 10,000 people?
- ?Raindays a year?
Ten ingredients. One verdict. Who's crapper? The higher Crap Score takes it.