Mortlake is well connected for a district whose residents mostly stay at home. It has two stations of its own. Buses run frequently. Broadband is close to universal. At the last census, most of its workers did not commute at all.
Mortlake Rail Station and North Sheen Rail Station both serve the district, and Barnes Rail Station, Barnes Bridge Rail Station and Richmond (London) Rail Station are nearby. The two local stations are minor stops on the Waterloo to Reading line, and trains to Windsor or Reading pass through without stopping. At the 2021 Census only about 5% of working residents took the train to work and about 3% took the bus, even though the area has 34 bus stops. Most of the trains through Mortlake are going somewhere else.
The largest commuting group at that census, about 63% of working residents, worked from home. The census was taken during lockdown, so that figure is inflated, though by how much is unclear. Driving came next at about 12%, then walking at about 7% and cycling at about 5%. About a quarter of households have no car, and about 20% have two or more. For most residents, travelling to work means opening a laptop.
The Department for Transport's journey-time statistics, modelled for the area in 2019, put the nearest town centre about 7 minutes away by car, 8 by public transport, 8 by bike and 8 on foot. With every option taking about the same time, there is little reason to drive, though about one in five households has two or more cars anyway.
The same modelled statistics put a GP about 8 minutes away by car and about 10 minutes on foot or by public transport. A food shop is about 7 minutes away on foot or by car. A hospital is about 20 minutes by car and about 39 by public transport. Employment centres are about 6 minutes by car and 14 by public transport. These are area averages, so distances to fixed places like a surgery hold up well, but the public transport times date from 2019 and may have got worse as services have been cut since. The hospital is the only trip on that list that takes real time.
Buses are a real service here. Stops with timetable data average about 276 scheduled departures each weekday and about 14 an hour at peak, and about 91% of stops have some weekend service. These are current timetables, not modelled figures, and the count is of departures, not routes.
Broadband is not an issue. Gigabit connections are available to about 89% of premises, superfast to about 99%, and no premises fall below the universal service minimum. Mobile coverage from every network reaches the whole area.
Traffic is the downside. Official noise mapping treats 65 decibels as the level at which road noise becomes significant, and about 64% of Mortlake's postcodes are near or above it. The loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is mapped separately, and about 19% of postcodes are near or above the same threshold from trains, with a top band of 70 decibels. A postcode figure cannot tell you how loud a particular bedroom will be, so it is worth checking the government's noise map for the exact house and visiting at rush hour.
The area has 60 public charge points with 73 connectors between them, but only 3 are rapid units. For most electric car owners, charging here means plugging in overnight, because quick top-ups are hard to find.
Mortlake is fairly well connected, with frequent buses, good broadband and every everyday trip close by, but the trains are slow, the hospital is a long way off and the main roads are noisy. It works best for residents who rarely need to leave it.