{"id":614267,"date":"2025-12-05T17:37:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T17:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/614267\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T17:37:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T17:37:18","slug":"east-london-borough-barking-and-dagenham-is-the-most-depressing-place-to-live-in-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/614267\/","title":{"rendered":"East London Borough Barking and Dagenham Is The Most Depressing Place To Live In The City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Living in London is amazing \u2013 we\u2019ve got many of the country\u2019s best restaurants<\/a>, museums<\/a>, public parks<\/a>, live music<\/a>, theatre<\/a>\u00a0and more, all on our doorstep.\u00a0But\u00a0being surrounded by all that capital city concrete can also get a bit depressing, especially combined with the extremely high cost of living.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Property platform Rightmove has just unveiled its annual Happy at Home<\/a>\u00a0Index, revealing the locations in Britain where people are the most \u2013 and least \u2013 happy, at home.\u00a0Rightmove surveyed thousands of Brits about where they live, taking into account not only how residents felt about their properties, but their thoughts on their community, local area and proximity to amenities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The least happy borough in London, according to Rightmove\u2019s data, was\u00a0Barking and Dagenham<\/strong>. Coming in dead-last place out of the capital\u2019s 33 boroughs, the east London\u00a0area ranked\u00a0220th nationally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To the residents of B&D, we say chin up, because we don\u2019t actually agree. Not only is the postcode poised to receive a\u00a0\u00a3200 million investment from the National Lottery Heritage Fund<\/a>\u00a0soon, but\u00a0the area is home to a number of fascinating and beautiful historical attractions, including the Elizabethan\u00a0Eastbury Manor House<\/a>, and the\u00a0Grade II*\u2013listed manor with a medieval moat\u00a0Valence House Museum<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Barking
\nPhotograph: Abdul_Shakoor \/ Shutterstock.com <\/p>\n

B&D is also London\u2019s most affordable location, where the average house price is just \u00a3335,500<\/a>.\u00a0This is much, much cheaper\u00a0than London\u2019s\u00a0happiest borough, the affluent Richmond upon Thames, where the average house will set you back an enormous\u00a0\u00a3760,700.\u00a0And if saving all those pennies isn\u2019t enough to make you content, we don\u2019t know what is.<\/p>\n

The capital\u2019s second and third most depressing boroughs were also in east London, with Newham and Havering ranking nationally in 219th and 218th, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But hey, you don\u2019t have to listen to Rightmove. There\u2019s a reason why so many people want to live in east London, and\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0certainly not going to change because of this index. And if you don\u2019t believe us, here\u2019s our guide to the best things to do in east London<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 5 least happy places to live in London\u00a0<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n
  1. Barking and Dagenham<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  2. Newham<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  3. Havering<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  4. Enfield\u00a0<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  5. Brent\u00a0<\/li>\n

    \n<\/ol>\n

    A new Overground line could open in north London by 2027<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    38 London restaurants have been named the best in the UK in a prestigious new list \u2013 and this one ranks highest<\/a>.\u00a0
    <\/strong><\/p>\n

    Get 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 to 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":"Living in London is amazing \u2013 we\u2019ve got many of the country\u2019s best restaurants, museums, public parks, live…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614268,"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-614267","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\/115668179638120828","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614267","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=614267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}