{"id":717167,"date":"2026-01-24T08:27:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T08:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/717167\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T08:27:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T08:27:17","slug":"the-best-place-to-retire-in-england-is-just-20-minutes-from-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/717167\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Place To Retire in England Is Just 20 Minutes From London"},"content":{"rendered":"

After decades of dedicating your blood, sweat and tears a 9 to 5, we all want to settle down somewhere we know we\u2019ll\u00a0be well-looked after \u2013 whether that be\u00a0 when we need medical attention or when we just fancy a cuppa and a chat. There are places across the country that are far better suited to OAPs than others, and now the\u00a0Times\u00a0has compiled\u00a0a \u2018Growing Old Index\u2019<\/a>\u00a0to reveal exactly\u00a0where retirees are the healthiest and happiest. And you won\u2019t have to go far out of London to find the number one spot.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The paper\u2019s research\u00a0looked at six\u00a0main factors: average life expectancy, GP provision, A&E wait times, the referral period for trauma and orthopaedic services, number of care home beds and where each location ranks in the ONS\u2019s annual happiness index.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After diving into\u00a0all that data, the\u00a0Times\u00a0said\u00a0that\u00a0Windsor and Maidenhead\u00a0<\/strong>is\u00a0home to England\u2019s\u00a0healthiest, happiest\u00a0retirees right now. The\u00a0royal borough, just 20 minutes from the capital city, has the second highest average life expectancy (83.2 years) after Wokingham (84 years) and is joint first for the proportion of referrals to trauma and orthopaedic services within 18 weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Windsor and Maidenhead also got high scores when it came to\u00a0happiness, GP provision, the number of care homes and A&E waiting times<\/p>\n

\"Windsor\"
\nPeter Titmuss\/ Shutterstock <\/p>\n

But OAPs don\u2019t just rely on health services to keep them content. Things like green spaces, leisure facilities and social communities are important too. One 95-year-old Maidenhead resident told the\u00a0Times\u00a0that she stays busy with\u00a0two luncheon clubs every week, theatre shows at\u00a0Norden Farm Centre for the Arts and things going on at the \u2018very good\u2019 community centre.\u00a0<\/p>\n

England\u2019s second best place for retirees, according to the\u00a0Times\u2019\u00a0research, is Hartlepool in County Durham. It ranked first in the country for A&E wait times, fourth for trauma and orthopaedic referrals and seventh for happiness and care home beds per capita. Third place went to Solihull in the West Midlands. See the\u00a0Times\u2019\u00a0full list of England\u2019s best places to retire here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ICYMI:\u00a0The 5 most \u2018desirable\u2019 towns to live in Britain have been crowned (and they are all near London)<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Plus:\u00a0London is officially the most powerful city in the world right now<\/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 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":"After decades of dedicating your blood, sweat and tears a 9 to 5, we all want to settle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717168,"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-717167","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\/115949131873367418","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717167","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=717167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}