Is WC1A a safe place to live?

WC1A has no Safety score: it is mostly a busy town or city centre, where crime is counted per resident and few people live. See the figures on this page for what is recorded.

Is crime going up or down in WC1A?

Down 6% over 5 years, from 432 recorded crimes a year to 406.

What is the most common crime in WC1A?

The most common recorded crime is other theft, about 188 per 1,000 residents a year. The most harm, weighted by how serious each crime is, comes from violence and sexual offences (assaults, harassment, sexual offences).

How does crime in WC1A compare with Camden?

Crime severity in WC1A is 3.3 times the Camden average.

WC1APostcode district

WC1A crime rate and crime map

WC1A is mostly a busy town or city centre, so it has no Safety score: crime is counted per resident and few people live there. Recorded crime in WC1A is 3.3 times the Camden average and 6.9 times the England and Wales average. Over 5 years it has fallen 6%. The biggest share of the harm comes from violence and sexual offences (assaults, harassment, sexual offences). Police data to August 2026.

Camden. 1,047 residents in 1 neighbourhoods.

Safety: -Busy centre, not scored
Living: 8.8/10Excellent
5-year change: −6%fewer crimes
vs the council: 3.3×the Camden average

Open on the map

Safety and Living

Safety

What it measures. How serious the crime recorded here is, not how much of it there is. Each recorded crime is weighted by the typical sentence for that kind of offence (the Office for National Statistics Crime Severity Score), so a robbery counts about 76 times a shoplifting offence. The total per resident is ranked against every neighbourhood. 10 means among the safest tenth.

Data. Street-level crime from data.police.uk, September 2016 to August 2026. Weights: ONS Crime Severity Score, year ending March 2025.

Anti-social behaviour is not a crime and has no weight, so it is left out of the score. It is shown on its own line.
The weights come from sentences in 2015-2019 and one weight covers a whole police.uk category: violence includes both minor assaults and rape, and the data does not say which. A town with more serious cases than the national mix is under-scored.
Some forces have missing months (Greater Manchester published nothing after June 2019). We use the months that exist and say so on the page.
A neighbourhood's score is blended with the neighbourhoods around it, because police.uk records each crime at an approximate location, often the middle of a street that sits on a boundary. Three quarters is its own rate, one quarter the average of the neighbourhoods it touches, weighted by residents. Crimes recorded on a map point within 30 m of a neighbourhood boundary are shared equally between the neighbourhoods on each side, because the point usually sits on the boundary road itself. Where the map shows a neighbourhood's score, its own score is shown as well when it differs.
Busy city and town centres are not scored: few people live there and many visit, so crime per resident would mislead.
It counts crimes that were reported and recorded, not every crime. In Scotland there is no Safety score yet; Living covers it.
On the map you can filter by crime type. The filter changes the crime figures, the Safety score and the map colours, and compares with the national figure for the same types.
Crime Rates Map is a guide, not advice. Visit the area before you decide.

Read the full method

Crime severity: 3.3× the Camden average (6.9× the England and Wales average)

Busy city or town centre. Crime is recorded where it happens but measured per resident, and few people live in a centre while many come to shop, work and go out. So crime per resident here looks many times higher than the risk to someone living here, and much of it is theft from shops and from people out and about. That is why it gets no Safety score: compared with residential areas the number would mislead. The crime figures shown are still the real recorded crime.

Living

Based on schools, transport, health, supermarkets, weighted by importance. Crime is not part of it. Higher is better.

Neighbourhoods by Safety

Tested: 79% of scores were within 1 point of what happened next. How we test

1 = least safe, 10 = safest. Grey: no score. Select a neighbourhood to open it on the map.

1 neighbourhood has no population figure, so it is not scored.

Crime over 5 years

Down 6% in 5 years Recorded crimes in WC1A, anti-social behaviour left out.

What is recorded

Crime severity: 3.3× the Camden average (6.9× the England and Wales average). 658 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents a year.

Violence and sexual offences (assaults, harassment, sexual offences): 23% of the harm here
Robbery: 21% of the harm here
Other theft: 18% of the harm here

Anti-social behaviour: 152 incidents per 1,000 residents a year, not scored. Not a crime, so it is not part of the Safety score.

Shops, transport, schools and health

Distances are straight-line, not walking routes. Scores use fixed distance bands, so they do not depend on other districts. Higher is better.

Supermarkets

Excellent accessScore 9 out of 10

Typical distance to a large supermarket: 920 m.
Waitrose Bloomsbury (Waitrose), 920 m from the district centre
M&S Pantheon (Marks and Spencer), 1.7 km from the district centre
Waitrose Kings Cross (Waitrose), 2.2 km from the district centre

Transport

Excellent accessScore 10 out of 10

Typical number of bus stops within 400 m: 14.
Nearest railway station: London Charing Cross Rail Station, 980 m from the district centre
Nearest tram or metro stop: Holborn Underground Station, 320 m from the district centre

Schools

Good schools nearbyScore 7 out of 10

Primary schools within 2 km

St Josephs Catholic Primary School: Good (ungraded inspection, 2024), 160 m away
St George the Martyr Church of England Primary School: Outstanding (graded inspection, 2024), 970 m away
Christopher Hatton Primary School: Strong standard (report card, 2026), 1.4 km away
Winton Primary School: Outstanding (graded inspection, 2024), 1.8 km away
Edith Neville Primary School: Outstanding (graded inspection, 2023), 2.0 km away

Secondary schools within 2 km

Maria Fidelis Catholic School FCJ: Needs attention (report card, 2026), 1.8 km away

Health

Excellent accessScore 10 out of 10

Nearest GP surgery: COVENT GARDEN MEDICAL CENTRE, 310 m from the district centre, CQC rating: Good, rated 2021
Nearest hospital with A&E: University College Hospital, 1.7 km from the district centre

Crime by type

Recorded crimes per 1,000 residents per year, most serious first, not counting anti-social behaviour.

Type	Per 1,000 a year
Robbery	22.3
Burglary	35.6
Violence and sexual offences (assaults, harassment, sexual offences)	81.0
Drugs	13.5
Possession of weapons (knives and other weapons)	2.3
Other crime	2.6
Other theft	188.0
Theft from the person (pickpocketing, bag snatching)	166.2
Vehicle crime (cars stolen and broken into)	57.5
Criminal damage and arson (vandalism)	18.2
Public order	26.2
Bicycle theft	19.0
Shoplifting	26.0

How often crimes lead to a charge

In WC1A, 3% of crimes reported between September 2024 and August 2025 led to someone being charged or summonsed (England and Wales: 9%).

Charged or summonsed
Caution or other action
Suspect found, not prosecuted
No suspect identified
Still open

Show as a table

Type	Crimes	Charged or summonsed	Caution or other action	Suspect found, not prosecuted	No suspect identified	Still open
Theft from the person (pickpocketing, bag snatching)	261	1%	0%	3%	92%	4%
Other theft	222	1%	0%	8%	87%	4%
Violence and sexual offences (assaults, harassment, sexual offences)	95	5%	1%	48%	35%	11%

Uses the latest outcome police have recorded so far. 5% of these crimes are still open, so the final figures may be a little higher.

Trend over the years

Crime severity per resident (sentence-days of the crimes recorded each year). Hatched bars are years with fewer than twelve months of data for most residents.

Last 12 months: 106.2 against a 10-year average of 105.3, 1% higher.

Questions about crime in WC1A

Is WC1A a safe place to live?: WC1A has no Safety score: it is mostly a busy town or city centre, where crime is counted per resident and few people live. See the figures on this page for what is recorded.
Is crime going up or down in WC1A?: Down 6% over 5 years, from 432 recorded crimes a year to 406.
What is the most common crime in WC1A?: The most common recorded crime is other theft, about 188 per 1,000 residents a year. The most harm, weighted by how serious each crime is, comes from violence and sexual offences (assaults, harassment, sexual offences).
How does crime in WC1A compare with Camden?: Crime severity in WC1A is 3.3 times the Camden average.
How often does crime lead to a charge in WC1A?: In WC1A, 3% of crimes reported between September 2024 and August 2025 led to someone being charged or summonsed (England and Wales: 9%). 77% were closed without a suspect being identified.

Nearest town

London

Council: Camden

Town-centre neighbourhoods

Few people live in these areas but many shop, work and go out there, so crime per resident looks far higher than the risk to someone living there. They have no Safety score, because compared with residential areas the number would mislead; their crime figures are still shown.

Camden 028C: 660 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents a year, mostly shop and street theft.