Hampton is better connected than most of its residents ever need it to be. There is a station in the middle of the town and another a short walk north. Buses come every few minutes at peak. Broadband reaches nearly every home. Half the working population skipped the commute altogether.
Hampton (London) station serves the town centre, Fulwell serves Hampton Hill, and Hampton Court station is just beyond the park. Kempton Park, Teddington and Hampton Wick stations are all close by. Even so, the 2021 census recorded only about 4% of working residents travelling to work by train and about 5% by bus. There are 87 bus stops across the area. Three railway stations within reach and a commuting share in single figures is the kind of mismatch a transport planner loses sleep over.
What people actually did at the 2021 census was mostly stay put. About 51% worked from home, a figure taken during lockdown that will have eased since. About 27% drove, about 5% walked and about 4% cycled. About a fifth of households have no car, and about 31% have two or more. Those two groups live on the same streets and need very different things from the transport network.
The nearest town centre is about 9 minutes away by car and 17 by public transport, on the Department for Transport's modelled 2019 times for the area. Cycling takes about 12 minutes and walking about 21. All of these are averages for the area. Your own trip depends on which end of Hampton you start from.
Everyday errands are close. The Department for Transport's 2019 journey-time statistics, modelled for the area, put a GP about 8 minutes away by car, 12 on foot and 11 by public transport. A food shop is about 7 minutes on foot or by car, and a cluster of jobs about 8 minutes by car or 18 by public transport. A hospital is further, at about 22 minutes by car and 43 by public transport. The distances will not have changed since 2019, but bus timetables have, so the public transport times are the ones to check against today's services.
Broadband is close to complete. Gigabit-capable connections reach about 95% of premises, ultrafast also about 95%, and superfast about 99%. Mobile coverage is complete. Every postcode gets 4G or 5G from at least one operator, and from all of them.
The buses run often. Each stop averages about 231 scheduled weekday departures, about 12 an hour at the peak, and every stop has some weekend service. These are current timetable counts, more recent than the modelled journey times above. Check the timetable for the stop nearest the house you are looking at. A busy average still does not tell you whether the bus from that stop goes where you need.
Road noise reaches almost everywhere. About 100% of Hampton's postcodes are close to roads at or above 65 decibels, the level at which official noise mapping treats road noise as significant, and the loudest band recorded is 75 decibels or more. Rail noise is a separate problem. About 38% of postcodes are near track at or above 65 decibels, with 65 the loudest band recorded. The Saxons built Hampton where the road along the river from Windsor to Kingston met the road north to Twickenham, and the traffic is still using that junction.
There are nine public charge points in the area with nine connections between them, and none of them are rapid chargers. An electric car owner here charges at home or plans the trip around a slow charger.
Hampton is well connected for an outer London suburb. There are trains and frequent buses within walking distance, and the broadband is fast enough that many residents use neither.