The Sunday Times Best Places to Live 2026 guide, published this weekend, named seven London locations. Richmond won the capital’s top spot. Fulham was praised as “a jolly nice place to live.” And Putney – sandwiched between the two – was not mentioned at all.
This should sting. Not because the guide is everything, but because the criteria it uses (schools, transport, green space, high street, community) are exactly the things Putney has in abundance.
So where are we falling down and what would it take to get us into the top places to live in the country?
What the judges liked
Richmond was praised for its riverside setting, its 2,500-acre Royal Park and a high street the judges said was “on the up after a spell in the doldrums.” They called it “a small town in a big city.” Fulham was recognised for excellent state and independent schools, plentiful transport options and a neighbourhood that is “content simply to be a jolly nice place to live.”
The guide’s judges visited every shortlisted location, spoke to residents and assessed schools, transport links, broadband and mobile signal, green space and the strength of the local high street.
How Putney actually compares
Start with the things money cannot buy. Putney has the river, Putney Heath, Wimbledon Common, Putney Common, Wandsworth Park and Barnes Common within walking distance. It has two Tube stations, a mainline railway, a bus network (struggling, but present) and the District Line into central London. It has excellent schools across state and private sectors, including Putney High School, which the Sunday Times itself namechecked in the Fulham entry as a feeder school via Kensington Prep.
On house prices, the three areas are closer than you might expect. The ONS average for Richmond upon Thames was £777,000 in December 2025. Across Hammersmith and Fulham, the average was £714,000. In Putney, Land Registry data via Rightmove puts the average at £726,000 over the past year. These are not numbers that explain why one place makes the list and another does not.
Community is harder to measure but easier to feel. Putney has an active rowing scene, volunteer-run events, a parkrun, charity networks, church communities and neighbourhood groups that organise without being asked. The Boat Race starts here every year. People know their neighbours. That counts.
Where Putney falls short
The honest answer is the high street. Richmond’s is improving. Putney’s is not. Air pollution remains an issue. Vacant units sit empty. The traffic is a huge problem the council has acknowledged but not fixed. There is no masterplan, no investment framework and no public commitment to change this.
Transport scores hurt too. East Putney station has no step-free access. Bus reliability on routes through Putney ranks among the worst in the capital. We have the most complained about and least reliable buses in London (thanks in large part to the botched redesign of Putney Bridge junction). Our trains are still running on a Covid timetable. The District Line’s woes will only get worse until TfL and Network Rail are forced to the table.
And there is the bigger structural problem. Back in July, we revealed that Wandsworth Council’s Growth Plan excluded Putney entirely. No housing investment, no transport upgrades, no public realm improvements, no high street support. Every pound of the council’s decade-long growth strategy was directed at Battersea, Nine Elms, Clapham Junction and Tooting. Putney was not even named. The number of new builds in Putney in the past year? Zero. Literally. It’s in the official figures.
You do not make a “best places to live” list when your own council does not include you in its plans.
What needs to happen
The May 2026 local elections are eight weeks away. Every candidate standing in a Putney ward should be asked one question: what is your plan for this area? Not the borough. Putney. Specifically.
We want to know what they will do about the high street. We want to know whether they will fight for East Putney station. We want to know whether they have read the Growth Plan and whether they think it is acceptable that a third of the borough’s population was left out of it.
Putney has the river, the green spaces, the schools, the community and the transport links that matter. What it does not have is people treating it as a priority. That needs to change.
Richmond did not make the list by accident. It made the list because people who live there have pushed for investment, fought for their high street, worked together in collaboration and held their council to account. Putney can do the same. Let’s get into the top five next year.
