Last year, you may remember, I went to every London borough at least 40 times.
Here's how I'm doing so far in 2026.
Enf
2
Harr
2
Barn
2
Hari
2
WFor
2
Hill
2
Eal
2
Bren
2
Cam
2
Isl
2
Hack
2
Redb
2
Hav
2
Hou
2
H&F
2
K&C
2
West
2
City
2
Tow
12
New
8
B&D
2
Rich
2
Wan
2
Lam
2
Sou
2
Lew
2
Grn
2
Bex
2
King
2
Mer
2
Cro
2
Bro
2
Sut
2
It's only 12th January and I've been to every borough at least twice.
That is very good going.
What's more I've been to every borough exactly twice. (other than Tower Hamlets where I live and Newham which I live five minutes from)
This is arguably the greater achievement.
It took some doing.
For example I'd been to Southwark, Lewisham and Bromley twice by 3rd January, then wasn't allowed to go back again.
For example this weekend I still had nine outer London boroughs to visit but had to get there without setting foot in an inner London borough.
n.b. my rules for visiting a borough are that I have to set foot in it - standing on a station platform or riding through on transport don't count.
My 2026 visits include a tour of SE26, both ends of the 222 bus route, the London New Year Parade, exploring Aldborough Hatch, a yomp across Richmond Park, riding the Waterloo & City line and visits to Arnos Grove, Barking, Belvedere, Colindale, Haggerston, Morden, New Malden, North Greenwich, Northwick Park and Upminster. I like to travel.
And at the other end of the scale there are Londoners who haven't been to all the London boroughs, not even once.
I wonder if that's you.
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I AM A LONDONER AND THERE ARE BOROUGHS I'VE NEVER BEEN TO
It'd be hard never to have visited Westminster, Camden or the City of London. If you've walked along the South Bank you've done Lambeth and Southwark, if you've crossed Tower Bridge you've done Tower Hamlets, if you've done the museums you've done Kensington & Chelsea, if you've been to Battersea Power Station you've done Wandsworth and if you've shopped at Westfield you've done Newham and/or Hammersmith & Fulham. Further out if you've been to Wembley you've done Brent, if you've flown from Heathrow you've done Hillingdon, if you've visited Richmond Park or Hampton Court you've done Richmond, if you've been to Wimbledon you've done Merton and if you've been to Greenwich you've obviously done Greenwich.
But some boroughs are much easier to miss. Havering's so far east most Londoners have no need to visit. Harrow and Enfield are easily skippable if you live south of the river, similarly Kingston and Bexley if you live north. Barking & Dagenham seemingly has nothing to entice visitors from further afield. A lot of Londoners couldn't tell you where Redbridge or Sutton are, let alone think of a reason to go. There are all sorts of reasons why peripheral boroughs might go unvisited, even after several decades of living in the same city.
My hunch is that Bexley, Harrow, Havering and Sutton are the boroughs least visited by other Londoners, but we'll see if your comments back that up.
I wasn't always the roaming globetrotter I am now, indeed when I introduced my random jamjar feature in 2004 I was in some cases breaking new ground. Even so I'd been to most of the boroughs before I moved to London, aided by growing up at the end of the Metropolitan line and having family in Croydon, Waltham Forest and Enfield. A concert at Crystal Palace took care of Bromley, a wedding in Fulham ticked off Hammersmith & Fulham and a rail replacement bus must have delivered Havering. I couldn't tell you which was the last of the 33 boroughs I eventually visited but it wouldn't surprise me if it was Sutton, dullest of the suburbs.
Obviously most Londoners go about their days without giving a damn where the borough boundaries are. You have to be a bit of an administrative nerd to know that crossing the Old Street roundabout takes you from Islington into Hackney or that one side of Kilburn High Road is Camden and the other in Brent.
But some people do deliberately go out to visit the lot. In 2018 Ollie O'Brien did all 33 boroughs by bike and train in 9 hours 25 minutes and wrote up his exploits here. David Natzler went one better and placed artwork at all the triple points, the places where three boroughs touch, and Richard Gower has a fabulous photographic summary of the results. Maybe you went out and did something alternatively specific, or at least kept track of your travels over a longer period of time.
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I KNOW I HAVE DEFINITELY BEEN TO ALL 33 LONDON BOROUGHS
For all other comments, including "I'm not sure which boroughs I've never been to", please use the ordinary comments box at the end of the post.
It's obviously entirely unnecessary to have visited all the London boroughs but, as I hope I've made clear over many years, the suburbs contain much that's fascinating so if you've never been you're missing out. Maybe this should be the year that you fill in your gaps - even Barking & Dagenham and Sutton have their moments! It shouldn't take long unless you've been extraordinarily parochial, indeed some of us have been to all 33 twice in twelve days flat.
