North Harrow is well connected, by tube, by bus and by broadband. It has its own station on the Metropolitan line. Buses come through constantly, every day of the week. Nine in ten homes can get gigabit broadband. For a suburb that grew up around a railway station, it is noticeable how few of its residents now take the train to work.
North Harrow tube station, on the Metropolitan line, is one stop before Harrow-on-the-Hill, which gives the area its link to the main line. Even so, only about 4% of working residents took the train to work at the 2021 census. The area has 290 bus stops, and about 7% of working residents commuted by bus. North Harrow exists because of its station, and today more of its workers commute by bus than by train.
At the 2021 census, about 36% of working residents worked from home, the largest share of any method. Another 32% drove, about 5% walked and about 1% cycled. Around 24% of households have no car, and 30% have two or more. In practice, North Harrow splits into people who drive and people who do not commute at all.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey times, which date from 2019, put the nearest town centre about 8 minutes away by car, 9 by bike, 12 by public transport and 13 on foot. The walk is only about five minutes slower than the drive, and parking at the other end is often the deciding factor.
The same Department for Transport figures put a GP about 7 minutes away by car, 8 on foot and 8 by public transport. A food shop is about 7 minutes away whether you walk or drive. A hospital is about 15 minutes by car and 29 by public transport, and the nearest major employment area is about 7 minutes by car and 12 by public transport. These are modelled averages for the whole area. Because the distances themselves do not change, the car and walking times hold up well. The public transport times are from 2019 and some bus services have been cut since, so they are the least reliable of the set.
The bus figures are current. The average stop here sees about 410 scheduled departures on a weekday and around 23 in the peak hour. Every stop with service data also runs a weekend service. With that many buses at most stops, there is little reason to learn a timetable.
Gigabit broadband reaches about 90% of premises, and so does ultrafast. Superfast reaches 99%, and no premises fall below the legal minimum speed. Every postcode gets 4G or 5G from every network. For the 36% working from home, that matters more than the station.
Road noise is the one weak point. About 100% of North Harrow's postcodes are near or above 65 decibels, the level at which official noise mapping treats road noise as significant, and the loudest band reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source, and about 14% of postcodes are near or above 65 decibels from it, also peaking at 75. Before you buy, stand outside the house during the morning rush hour. How loud it is there will tell you more than the noise maps can.
North Harrow has 48 public charge points with 66 connectors between them, 7 of them rapid. With so few rapid chargers, most electric car owners here will be charging overnight at home.
North Harrow is one of the better-connected suburbs for its size, with constant buses, a tube station and broadband good enough to work from home. Noise from the roads that carry all that traffic is the one real drawback.