London's burglary hot spots

A residential district of Kentish Town is London's worst burglary hot spot, according to Met figures.

The Cantelowes ward, a part of Camden which contains a mix of large privately owned Victorian homes and council flats, achieved the unwanted position after suffering more than 24 burglaries for every 1,000 residents last year.

The next three districts with the highest rate of break-ins were all in Haringey, while parts of Hillingdon, Barnet, Southwark, Islington and Hammersmith and Fulham were also in the top 10.

By contrast, the safest homes in the capital were in the Eastbrook ward of Barking and Dagenham, which had only 1.68 break-ins per 1,000 residents. Parts of Kingston, Sutton and Bromley did almost as well.

The figures show the London local authority wards with the highest and lowest rates of burglary during the past year. They reveal that despite recent police success in cutting the overall number of break-ins, some areas continue to be blighted.

The Cantelowes figure of 24.21 burglaries per 1,000 residents equates to around 250 offences and means that roughly five per cent of homes in the ward were broken into during the year. One possible explanation for the high burglary rate could be the large number of shared houses and converted flats in the area, which together account for half the accommodation in Cantelowes.

The area also contains several large local authority estates, including St Pancras Way and Maiden Lane.

Around a third of all properties in the ward are owned by Camden council.

Other wards shown to be blighted by burglary were Tottenham Green, St Ann's and Harringay in Haringey, which had 21, 20 and 19 burglaries per 1,000 residents respectively.

The Yiewsley ward in Hillingdon, Childs Hill in Barnet and East Walworth in Southwark had the next worst rates, each with more than 18 break- ins per 1 , 000 residents.

They were followed by Canonbury in Islington, Stroud Green in Haringey and the Munster district of Hammersmith and Fulham.

Other areas with high burglary rates included Blackheath Westcombe and Greenwich West, both in Greenwich, Harrow Road in Westminster and Herne Hill, Thurlow Park and St Leonard's in Lambeth. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Eastbrook ward in Barking and Dagenham had the lowest rate of burglaries, followed by Chessington South and Coombe Vale in Kingston. All three had fewer than two break-ins per 1,000 residents, with Eastbrook's figure of 1.68 more than 14 times better than the Cantelowes rate.

Other areas with fewer than

2.5 burglaries per 1,000 inhabitants were Berrylands, also in Kingston, Stonecot and Cheam in Sutton and Biggin Hill in Bromley.

The only inner London wards in the top 20 lowest burglary rates were Vincent Square and Regent's Park, both in Westminster.

The remaining top 20 places were taken by other areas of Kingston, Bromley or Sutton - except for the West Barnes ward in Merton, which had 2.51 break-ins per 1,000 residents, the eighth best rate.

The figures, which cover the 12 months to the end of February, show there were 59,954 residential burglaries across the capital during the year.

That is half a per cent down on the number for the previous 12 months, but three per cent lower than the comparable figure two years ago and 16 per cent down on the London burglary total six years ago.

Most burglaries

Fewest burglaries