{"id":543891,"date":"2025-11-02T09:34:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T09:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/543891\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T09:34:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T09:34:13","slug":"culture-packed-area-brent-has-been-named-the-worst-borough-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/543891\/","title":{"rendered":"Culture-Packed Area Brent Has Been Named The Worst Borough in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, the Telegraph pitted all 32 London boroughs against each other<\/a> and\u00a0proclaimed\u00a0Richmond-upon-Thames the\u00a0finest of them all<\/a>. But\u00a0one borough\u00a0had to land in last place.\u00a0And right down at the bottom of\u00a0its ranking, and therefore the apparent \u2018worst\u2019 borough in the city, was Brent<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The paper scored each borough based on\u00a037 different metrics, which all came under one of four broader categories: great outdoors, good vibes, culture and activities and hospitality.\u00a0Brent scored just 148 points in total, compared to Richmond\u2019s 791.<\/p>\n

Brent\u00a0earned 38 points for great outdoors, 14 for hospitality, 38 for culture and activities. To put that into perspective, the top scorers in each of those categories were Richmond with 261 for the great outdoors, Westminster\u00a0with 231\u00a0for culture and activities and Hackney with 244 for hospitality.\u00a0Brent\u2019s highest score was 58 for \u2018good vibes\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, why did\u00a0the northwest borough\u00a0do so bad? Well, it\u00a0ranked 30th out of the 32 boroughs in Rightmove\u2019s happiness survey<\/a>\u00a0last year and has the ninth highest level of crime according to Met Police stats \u2013 both\u00a0facts that the\u00a0Telegraph\u00a0used to inform its \u2018good vibes\u2019 scores. The\u00a0paper also points out that it has just one Grade I-listed building, which will have lost it points in the culture and activities realm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Welsh
\nPhotograph: Shutterstock <\/p>\n

In terms of the great outdoors, there\u00a0are more than 100 parks across the borough, covering around 1,000 acres.\u00a0While the\u00a0Telegraph did take the percentage of green space into account, it\u00a0handed out extra points to parks if they were\u00a0one of its top ten<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and none of those are in Brent. But the 170-acre Welsh Harp (aka Brent Reservoir)<\/a>\u00a0will have earned it some vital points for being a nature reserve and the borough\u2019s only Site of Special Scientific Interest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brent\u2019s best bits\u00a0<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t write Brent off. While it may not be as densely packed with things to do as other boroughs, it still has plenty of\u00a0stuff that make it\u00a0worth\u00a0a visit.<\/p>\n

Most notably, it\u2019s home to a little venue called Wembley Stadium. Throughout the year, the borough of Brent welcomes some of the biggest music and sports stars from around the world to the UK\u2019s largest stadium. We\u2019re talking the likes Oasis, Coldplay, Taylor Swift and America\u2019s finest NFL teams<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Wembley
\nPhotograph: Craig Russell \/ Shutterstock.com <\/p>\n

Even when there aren\u2019t major events going on, Wembley Park offers an art trail, theatre shows (right now you can see Andrew Lloyd Webber\u2019s Starlight Express<\/a>), shopping and lively parties and screenings at Boxpark<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the borough, there\u2019s the beautiful Hindu temple BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir<\/a>\u00a0(aka Neasden Temple), the interactive Brent Museum<\/a>\u00a0and one of Time Out\u2019s favourite independent cinemas<\/a>,\u00a0the Lexi<\/a>. Brent also\u00a0has one of\u00a0London\u2019s \u2018magnificent seven\u2019 graveyards\u00a0Kensal Green Cemetery and Catacombs<\/a>, where famous residents include\u00a0Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Lady Byron.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For foodies, there\u2019s Ida on Kilburn Lane, which was just named London\u2019s best local restaurant by the\u00a0Good Food Guide<\/a>, and\u00a0over on Lonsdale Road in Queen\u2019s Park there\u2019s the trendy\u00a0trio of\u00a0Don\u2019t Tell Dad<\/a>, Carmel<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Milk Beach<\/a>, plus a weekly\u00a0Farmers Market. See? It\u2019s not so bad after all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

See how the\u00a0Telegraph\u00a0ranked every London borough here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

G<\/strong>et the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke \u2013 from news and reviews to events and trends. Just\u00a0<\/strong>follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stay in the loop: sign up for our\u00a0<\/strong>free Time Out London newsletter<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, the Telegraph pitted all 32 London boroughs against each other and\u00a0proclaimed\u00a0Richmond-upon-Thames the\u00a0finest of them all. But\u00a0one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,6419,393,4884,257,6420,6417,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-543891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-categories-things-to-do","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-news-city-life","14":"tag-things-to-do","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115479424131265929","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}