Where to Stay in London: 6 Neighbourhoods to Know (From Someone Who Lived There)

London was actually the first city I ever called home away from home. I moved there in my early twenties, living in North-West London and working at The Walt Disney Company HQ in Hammersmith for a year.

It was my first experience of properly getting to know the capital beyond the version I’d seen on occasional visits growing up in England ~ commuting to work, meeting friends in different ends of the city, spending weekends pottering around different areas and gradually understanding why parts of London felt completely different from the next.

And that’s perhaps the first thing to know about London: choosing where you stay can completely change the experience you have here. Because London isn’t really one London. It’s a patchwork of neighbourhoods, each with its own little personality.

You can spend an afternoon among the grand townhouses and pretty mews of West London, another eating your way through the wonderfully multicultural streets of the East and another browsing independent shops and cafés in a leafy neighbourhood that barely feels like you’re in one of Europe’s biggest cities.

Being the capital of my home country, London has also remained a constant in my life long after I stopped living there. I’ve returned countless times over the years ~ to see friends, for work, for keratin treatments (yes I still go to the same hairdresser there) and simply to spend time in a city I’ve now known for around fifteen years.

Some of the places I’ve known for over a decade are still favourites today; others I’ve discovered through all the visits since (I wrote about my 33 most loved spots in my little London Insider Guide in case you’d like to read it).

So this isn’t an attempt to cover every one of London’s many neighbourhoods (we’d be here for quite some time haha). Instead, I’ve narrowed it down to six areas I think are particularly worth knowing, whether you’re deciding where to stay or simply want to venture beyond Central London and experience some of the very different versions of the city.

I’ll share what each neighbourhood actually feels like, what it’s best for, some of my favourite things to do there and, importantly, who I think will enjoy staying there most. Let’s find your London…

Table of Contents

Soho / Covent Garden

Central but soulful. If it’s your first time in London and you want to be right in the heart of the action without losing that quintessential London charm, staying in the West End will give you a pretty wonderful introduction.

This is the London where you can step outside in the morning and simply start walking. Theatres, galleries, old pubs, independent shops, restaurants, historic streets and some of the city’s best people-watching are all around you ~ with many of those famous London sights you probably want to see on a first visit within walking distance too. But despite sitting side by side, Soho and Covent Garden have quite different personalities.

Soho is the more creative, buzzy and cheekier of the two. It has long been one of London’s great entertainment districts, with a colourful history tied to music, nightlife and the city’s LGBTQ+ community. Today, its little streets are packed with restaurants, bars, cafés and independent businesses and there’s an energy here that carries on well after dark. Back in the day, I spent a month working for a Film PR company here and enjoyed the vibe very much!

Covent Garden is its more polished cousin ~ all cobbled streets, historic buildings, theatres and the beautiful old market at its centre. It’s undeniably touristy in parts, but there’s also something wonderfully London about wandering through here, particularly once you venture away from the busiest central piazza and into the smaller surrounding streets.

Staying in either means sacrificing some of that quiet, residential neighbourhood feeling in exchange for something else: having London quite literally on your doorstep.

So if it’s your first visit and you want to throw open your hotel door each morning and immediately feel like you’re in London, I’d happily point you here.

That said, if you’re the type of traveller whose experience is somewhat dampened by being surrounded by other tourists, or you’ve been here before and want something more local, keep reading ~ the next spots might be more up your alley.

Notting Hill

Charming, colourful and effortlessly romantic. When I’m travelling the world and someone asks where in England I’m from, they quite often mistake my answer of “Nottingham” for “Notting Hill” ~ and honestly, I’ve let that slide a few times.

Notting Hill is an absolute beauty. Think rows of pastel-coloured houses, leafy residential streets, little cafés tucked between elegant townhouses, independent shops and one of London’s most famous street markets running right through the middle of it all.

Portobello Road is such a vibe ~ particularly on market days, when its antique stalls, vintage finds, food vendors and colourful shopfronts draw people from all over the city (and, admittedly, plenty of tourists too). But if you go a few streets away, Notting Hill can feel surprisingly peaceful, with those grand white terraces, garden squares and ridiculously photogenic little mews that make parts of the neighbourhood feel like you’re on a film set.

And considering Notting Hill actually was the setting of one of Britain’s most beloved rom-coms, perhaps that feeling isn’t entirely imagined.

I’d recommend staying here if you want London to feel nothing short of charming ~ somewhere beautiful to return to after a day exploring, with plenty happening on your doorstep but without quite the same intensity as staying right in the middle of Soho or Covent Garden. I stayed here for two weeks once during a visit and absolutely loved it!

notting hill portobello market — old instagram stories (sorry for the quality eek)

notting hill colourful streets — old instagram stories (sorry for the quality eek)

Shoreditch / East London

Gritty, creative and full of character. This one’s for the cool kids, creatives and anyone who likes their cities a little rough around the edges (in the best way!). Shoreditch might not have the delicate frills of Notting Hill or the polished charm of Covent Garden, but what it lacks in prettiness, it more than makes up for in personality.

This is a part of London where colourful street art covers old brick walls, railway arches hide bars and restaurants, vintage stores sit alongside designers and some very serious coffee is being brewed inside spaces that probably once served an entirely different purpose.

Then, of course, there’s Brick Lane ~ one of those wonderfully chaotic London streets where curry houses, record shops, street art, vintage markets, bagel shops and people from seemingly every walk of life somehow coexist within a relatively short stretch of road.

And that’s really what I love about this side of London. Nothing quite matches… and somehow that’s exactly why it does. There’s also a much wider East London beyond Shoreditch itself that’s worth exploring.

Head further east and the city gradually becomes more residential and local, where trendy coffee shops sit alongside proper old-school East End caffs (greasy spoons they used to be called), serving mugs of tea and proper fry-ups, neighbourhood pubs and that slightly scruffy character still manages to survive among all the change.

I’d point you towards this part of the city if immaculate streets and postcard-perfect London aren’t particularly important to you. Stay here because you want energy, individuality, good food, nightlife and a slightly more alternative side of the capital ~ somewhere that feels lived-in rather than manicured for visitors.

And while you’ll be further from some of London’s famous West End sights, you’ll be much closer to a version of the city that has spent decades reinventing itself.

If West London puts its best outfit on to leave the house, East London probably threw something together from a vintage shop and somehow looks cooler anyway.

Camden / Primrose Hill

Rebellious on one side, dreamy on the other. Camden has long marched to the beat of its own drum ~ a neighbourhood synonymous with London’s punk and music scene, live gigs, edgy markets and unapologetic self-expression.

Walk around Camden Market and you’ll find vintage clothing, street food and just about every form of alternative fashion imaginable, while the surrounding streets are full of music venues, old pubs and reminders of the musicians and subcultures that have shaped this corner of London over the decades.

If you wander away from the main streets though, there are much quieter residential pockets too. In fact, when I was first moving to London, I spent a month staying with my then-boyfriend’s cousin’s girlfriend’s parents (ha!) ~ getting my own little taste of everyday Camden life away from the markets and crowds.

Then, if you cross the canal, something rather lovely happens… London becomes another world, yet again. Enter Primrose Hill ~ Camden’s prettier, dreamier neighbour and, personally, way way more my vibe!

Here, colourful houses give way to elegant terraces, little independent boutiques and oh so cosy cafés. The pace feels a little slower, the streets a little leafier and you get a glimpse of that proper neighbourhood feel. The kind that makes you wish you could buy one of those gorgeous colourful apartments and immediately move in (I’ll take one in pastel yellow pretty please)!

I’d particularly recommend this area if you like the idea of having two very different versions of London within walking distance. You can dip into Camden when you’re in more of a rebellious mood and Primrose Hill when you’re in the mood for elevated pretty living.

Hampstead

Leafy, literary and wonderfully peaceful. If you want somewhere that feels like a looong breath out after a busy day exploring London, Hampstead would be very high on my list if I were you.

I actually stayed here for three weeks during one of my most recent visits to London and loved getting to experience this part of the city as a temporary local. There’s something quite lovely about hopping on the Tube back from the chaos of Central London and emerging somewhere that suddenly is very residential, quieter, greener and almost entirely removed from the city you were wandering around just half an hour earlier.

It has long attracted writers, artists and creatives, and somehow that literary spirit still feels weaved into the neighbourhood today. And then, of course, there’s Hampstead Heath. One of London’s greatest green spaces sits practically on your doorstep, giving you hundreds of acres of meadows, woodland and walking trails to disappear into, along with its famous swimming ponds and some truly beautiful views across the London skyline.

I’d particularly recommend staying here if you’ve already experienced the buzz of Central London, you’re visiting for a little longer like I was, or you simply value peace and that lovely feeling of temporarily having a neighbourhood of your own when you travel.

You’ll sacrifice being able to walk out of your front door and straight past Big Ben, sure. But with the Tube keeping you well connected, I think Hampstead offers something pretty special in return: the feeling of coming home from London… while still being in London.

Richmond

Then there are those neighbourhoods that make you stop for a moment and question whether you’re actually still in London at all ~ and Richmond is the most suspiciously un-London-like one of them all.

Sitting along the Thames in southwest London, it feels like the city gradually loosened its tie on the journey out there. The pace is snail and there’s an almost countryside-like quality to everyday life ~ with shops, cafés, beautiful old pubs and long riverside walks replacing much of the hustle you might associate with the capital.

And nature is a pretty big part of the appeal. You’ve got the river winding right through the neighbourhood and then the enormous Richmond Park nearby ~ one of London’s eight Royal Parks and a place where you can spend hours walking through wide-open grassland and woodland, with its famous herds of deer wandering freely around you.

It’s the part of London that lends itself beautifully to slow living. A morning coffee somewhere local, a long walk with actual fresh air, lunch in an old pub and an afternoon disappearing into the park without particularly needing to do very much at all.

That said, Richmond is quite far out compared with the other neighbourhoods on this list, and I probably wouldn’t recommend basing yourself here on your first trip if your days are going to be filled with ticking off Central London landmarks. You’ll spend more time travelling back and forth than you need to.

But if you’ve already done Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and the rest of the famous sights, or you’re simply craving a completely different experience of the capital, Richmond is wonderful. You’ll seriously look around and think… hang on, did I just leave the city?

Want to Know My 33 Favourite London Spots?

If this neighbourhood guide has made you want to experience London a little deeper while you’re here, feel welcome to borrow my personal notebook of 33 places I genuinely think are worth knowing about.

It’s essentially fifteen years of exploring condensed into guide to properly local cafés, hidden restaurants, peaceful gardens, quiet courtyards, neighbourhood markets, old bookshops and wonderfully quirky places ~ many lesser-known, some unusual and almost all with a story behind them.

I’ve heard many Londoners say that this is one of those cities that’s actually better to live in than to visit as a tourist. My hope with the guide is to give you a little glimpse of why ~ and introduce you to the other London.

Most importantly, I wish you a beautiful time in my motherland!