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Harrow ranked one of the unhappiest places to live by RightMove

12:50pm Friday 10th February 2012 in News By Anna Slater

Harrow has been ranked one of the "gloomiest" places to live, according to a recent survey.

The Happy at Home survey, conducted by online property portal Rightmove, rated Harrow in the bottom ten of the worst places to live, alongside eight other London boroughs and Oldham in Manchester.

The survey quizzed 25,000 people across the UK on everything from the size of their homes to how friendly their neighbours are.

The results were met with disappointment in Harrow Town Centre.

Simone Haynes, 62, said: "I have lived in Harrow for the past 50 years, so I find this really disappointing. We’ve got a great town centre and I’ve always found everyone so friendly. I don’t really see why it was ranked so low."

Martin Joseph, 28, from Stanmore, admitted that while the "night life could be improved", the town as a whole was a nice place to live.

He said: "What’s not to like? We are well connected by London transport, we have a great town centre and some nice restaurants.

"Maybe the night life could be improved, but it’s not really something that would warrant our borough coming so low.

"It’s also very subjective, because one person who lives in Harrow may have a great job and house and be really happy, but some won’t.”

What do you think? Do you love or hate Harrow? Email aslater@london.newsquest.co.uk or leave your comments below.

Comments(17)

Larson says...
12:13am Sat 11 Feb 12

Take a look at south harrow or wealdstone with its drug dealers who move in at night when the pcso s have gone home they inhabit the late night bookmakers or the fast food establishments or even the multitude of late opening barbers, These areas are depressing dirty and disgusting

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hypochondriac says...
10:41am Sat 11 Feb 12

Sadly - I agree. Harrow has changed beyond recognition since i was a child here.
It used to have a wonderful community feel about it. No gangs roaming around. Drug use was rarely seen around. You felt safe and when you walked through Harrow you saw all your friends.
So many of my friends have moved away from Harrow - as far as they can to places that resemble the Harrow of 30 years ago. I wish we could turn the clock back.

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jasen502 says...
11:26am Sat 11 Feb 12

Ive lived in harrow for a year now and i think its a lovely place, the night life isnt great but that is harrow licencings (?) fault, my partner runs a pub in the centre and we have never come accross an authority so hostile.

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Vanassa says...
3:00pm Sat 11 Feb 12

I have been living in Harrow for 27 i
I have been living in Harriw for 27years and love it. Harrow doesn't need night life. We can go into London fir ghat, only 30 mins away!

Nice place with Museum, cinema, Arts centre, shopping centre, what else you need for leisure?

Lovely multi cultural people.

Once a year , Diwali, Harvest festival , Jewish festival and Xmas!

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writeincolour says...
5:49pm Sat 11 Feb 12

I go to the arts uni - a lot of my student friends are so happy to get away from the place, and whenever the location comes up in small talk with strangers, we are met with the similar response "Was glad to finally get out of there" Ive always made an effort to love Harrow but I cant pin down the reason why I cant - I mean the facilities are great - Ive been to worse places - its a mystery

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tracys10 says...
8:18pm Sun 12 Feb 12

Larson wrote:
Take a look at south harrow or wealdstone with its drug dealers who move in at night when the pcso s have gone home they inhabit the late night bookmakers or the fast food establishments or even the multitude of late opening barbers, These areas are depressing dirty and disgusting
your quite right wealdstone has always looked dirty and people dealing drugs in front of you me myself dont feel safe in wealdstone

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LunaKordavani says...
1:22am Tue 14 Feb 12

Well, I agree and disagree! Yes, from beautiful and lively areas of Harrow, you can imagine how wonderful borough it used to be; and yes, gangs and dirty people have made the face of Harrow quite ugly but we shouldn’t forget that always everywhere, gentle people who try to hold and grow the positive side are the majarity; so why not joining them? Instead of moving to elsewhere, let’s stay and determine to improve our environment! I believe, gangs and drug dealers are the only who has to leave harrow if they don’t want to change! And for sure, we must have council on our side toward such improvements.

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biffer says...
10:30am Tue 14 Feb 12

I have lived and worked in Harrow for 30 years and witnessed its slow slide into depression.As some of the other posters have already said,there are some positively dangerous and threatening areas of our Borough,like Wealdstone,that no-one feels safe in at night.I can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of police Officers I have seen walking the beat in the last 2 years.The absence of a visible Police deterrent allows the low level "quality of life" offences to rise,such as distraction thefts at ATM's,youths smoking drugs in our parks,littering,cycl
ing on pavements,disregardi
ng traffic laws.
All these things contribute to how residents and visitors feel about Harrow.The good thing is that they can be tackled if the Council and Police worked together to deal with the relatively small things that we all encounter on a daily basis.It is up to the Council to take the lead and ensure that existing laws under their control are enforced and bring back some pride to the Borough.

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MGatch says...
12:31pm Tue 14 Feb 12

I would have to agree in part to this survey. I have been living in Harrow for several years and live within a mile of Harrow Wealdstone High St and use the local train station Harrow and Wealdstone. Although the transport links into London and the North from Harrow and Wealdstone are great the actual area itself is grim and leaves a lot to be desired. Basically, the main problem is linked to a small number of youths who consistently loiter outside a derelict pub, a fast food chicken shop, a betting shop and along the side of the Wealdstone Centre. From here these youths openly drug deal and partake in general anti-social behaviour, on most evenings this generally goes on until late into the night. The answer to resolving the problem is simple, use the local police, who have 2 sites - Wealdstone police station and a Safer Neighbourhood Base, both sited within 200m of the problem hotspots, to stop the youths congregating, drug dealing and making the area feel unwelcoming and unsafe. However, it would appear that this clearly doesn't comply with Harrows soft-touch policing tactics.

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Larson says...
9:41pm Tue 14 Feb 12

It seems we all agree what the problem is its the gang that hang around in wealdstone constantly on their phones dealing drugs and lately the younger hangers on are being educated in this behaviour we all see the same faces day in day out. Police action is needed why dont they tackle this by a raid one evening on a friday or saturday round them up and put the dealers out of buisiness.

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starbright says...
1:12am Wed 15 Feb 12

I agree with all of the comments above. Sadly Harrow is no longer what it once was, and in some areas has changed beyond recognition. One of the biggest problems we have is a Council that is hostile, arrogant and certainly does not listen to all of its residents. We also have schools in this borough that unecessarily over use school exclusions, resulting in one of the highest
amount in this country, coupled with the fact there is very little for young people to do here. This is a big part of the reason why we have disaffected youth roaming the streets of Harrow. Some schools are failing our youth, and the Council are failing just about everything else! I for one having lived here a long time, intend to move out of the area in the next few years.

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Janice Doe says...
11:55pm Wed 15 Feb 12

As they say, there's no smoke without fire. If the survey has ranked us low there must be a reason - to some extent. Its quite clear that the main reason is indeed Wealdstone. For it to receive such national notoriety is surely saying something. I've lived in Harrow for over thirty years and in recent years Wealdstone. Everything being said about Wealdstone is unfortunately so true. The Police are under resourced, and the council are without doubt arrogant and too embroiled in politics to address the Wealdstone situation. All their efforts are concentrated on central Harrow Where do we go from here folks? This could be such a great borough if only some resouce was put into addressing the mentioned hotspots.

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CharlotteP says...
8:40am Fri 17 Feb 12

I grew up in Harrow but I moved away 10 years ago. Whenever I come back to visit friends or family it seems to be a little more miserable! It's a shame to see a once lovely borough looking so run down and dirty. Community spirit just doesn't seem to exist in Harrow any more. I would definitely never consider moving back.

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jackdaw says...
10:57am Fri 17 Feb 12

Community spirit does exist. For example, there are many Neighbourhood Champions in Harrow, but more are needed. A Neighbourhood Champion is a volunteer who represents a road and reports flytipping, graffiti, faulty streetlights, potholes and criminality to the Council/police.

The Council provides training and they need more volunteers. YOU can start to make a difference by becoming a Neighbourhood Champion and looking after your street.

You can improve the look of your street and show criminals this street has people who care about their environment and neighbours.

Oak trees grow from acorns and if there is a Champion for every street the situation will improve.

If you are aware of something that needs to be changed telephone, write or email your MP or Councillors because we pay them to deal with the problems.

You can write a letter to the Harrow Times or ask them to campaign on your behalf.

Action is the way forward because if we just talk Harrow down and DO NOTHING then we will end up with the results of apathy - bottom in the survey.

Stop complaining and become proactive yourself.

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jackdaw says...
11:08am Fri 17 Feb 12

Volunteer Street Pastors are patrolling the streets of Wealdstone on Friday and Saturday nights, giving out bottles of water and offering assistance to people who have been drinking or who run into trouble in a bid to reduce crime and make people feel safer.

COMPLAINERS WHAT ARE YOU PREPARED TO VOLUNTEER TO DO FOR HARROW?

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starbright says...
8:14pm Mon 20 Feb 12

Jackdaw the problem IS the Council, councillors, and the MP. I for one have had many changes made within Harrow Council, but NOT with the assistance of the Council, councillors, or MP. I approached many of them, and none were interested in helping me! Why? Because I had found many flaws within their system, and because of their ongoing arrogance they were not prepared to help. Eventually after exposing them in the media, they invited me in for 'talks'. Finally some changes were made but not all, of which I am still fighting for today. I could show you toe curling evidence in emails and letters from the Council, which proves their arrogance beyond reasonable doubt! It has taken up over 3 years of my time on and off, and affected my health along the way. So when you say get the council and councillors involved, it truly is not that simple!

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diligaf says...
1:39am Tue 21 Feb 12

Sarbright couldnt agree more, you have said it all Harrow is a an absolute disgrace as to what it used to be, the foreign yobs hang around wealdstone all night until the small hours, the police are no where to be seen and how the new "team" in wealdstone can keep on claiming succes after succes is beyone me, they already have become complacent and nothing ever gets done now. South Harrow Pinner Green need I go on?? Harrow's crap as its run by crap council Lockwood and Co, Cllr's in the paper each week slagging one another, Ms Hall I want I want I want, screw the people. we must look like the blot on the landscape to all and sundry I for one cant wat to leave this sewer behind.

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