Britain’s Unhealthiest High Streets Revealed: From Stockport to Westminster

Where we live has a direct impact on our health. Local high streets play a big role in this, shaping the choices we have to make every day. Streets lined with fast food outlets, betting shops, and off-licenses can make it harder to stay healthy, while those with gyms, healthcare services, and balanced food options are linked to better outcomes.

To better understand this link, our research team at The Independent Pharmacy analysed 419 UK high streets, each at least 700 metres long, using Ordnance Survey data.

We looked at the mix of businesses, including takeaways, vape shops, sweet shops, pubs, and gyms, to create a unique index, with higher scores highlighting the UK’s unhealthiest high streets.

The Top Ten Unhealthiest High Streets in the UK

Our analysis of Britain’s high streets reveals striking results. From Greater Manchester to outer London, suburban towns to city centres, the UK’s most unhealthy streets are scattered across the country. What they all share is the same imbalance: a concentration of takeaways, pubs, sweet shops, vape outlets and limited access to healthier options, often alongside poor air quality.

Topping the list is Stockport Road in Greater Manchester, the single most unhealthy high street in the country, scoring a maximum 100 on our index.

It’s not hard to see why. Stockport Road has 44 takeaways, 32 pubs, 11 sweet shops, five off-licences, and four vape shops, but only two gyms. In Stockport, 26% of adults are obese, almost identical to the national average of 26.5%, suggesting the local environment is doing little to support healthier choices.

Hot on its heels is London Road, Croydon (91.21 points), which has one of the heaviest concentrations of fast food in the UK, with 75 takeaways. Even with five gyms, the balance tips firmly towards cheap, calorie-dense food. Here, 24.4% of people are obese.

Third place goes to High Street, Sutton (87.06 points), where the unhealthy mix continues: 35 takeaways, 11 pubs, six sweet shops and five vape shops. Sutton’s 26.3% obesity rate is again close to the national picture, but combined with poor air quality, the street is an especially tough environment for health.

London’s core retail areas also make the list. Oxford Street and Edgware Road in Westminster scored 86.65 and 83.90, respectively, offering almost no fitness facilities. Yet Westminster’s obesity rate is just 15.2%, far below the national average. With millions of tourists, commuters and office workers flowing through daily, the link between environment and resident health plays out differently here.

Elsewhere, Bromley, Barnet and Brentwood show that outer London and commuter towns aren’t immune. Brentwood is especially stark: 27.3% of residents are obese, the highest rate in the top ten, paired with 16 takeaways and five sweet shops.

And in Manchester, Wilmslow Road stands out as the UK’s takeaway capital, with an eye-watering 105 takeaways on a single stretch, plus 30 pubs and 12 sweet shops. Manchester’s obesity rate (23.5%) is lower than the national average, but the scale of fast-food availability is unmatched.

The UK’s Unhealthiest High Streets

Looking beyond the top ten to the 50 most unhealthy high streets, the scale of the problem becomes clearer.

The Student Effect

High streets in university districts reveal a different story. Manchester’s Wilmslow Road, Nottingham’s Mansfield Road and Leicester’s Melton Road all rank among the unhealthiest thanks to the extraordinary density of takeaways and pubs. While younger student populations may not show obesity rates as high as other areas, these environments normalise cheap, calorie-heavy eating as the default choice.

North West Clusters

The North West is the only region outside London that is heavily represented in the top 50. In addition to Stockport Road and Wilmslow Road in Manchester, Liverpool contributes multiple entries, including London Road, Smithdown Road and Prescot Road, while Salford’s Liverpool Street also makes the list. Together, these highlight a regional trend where unhealthy high streets mirror higher-than-average obesity rates across the North West.

Air Quality Overlap

Many of the UK’s most unhealthy high streets also suffer from poor air quality. Sutton scored 68, the worst in the top 50, while Westminster’s busiest streets regularly sit in the mid-60s. By contrast, Wilmslow Road in Manchester, despite its record-breaking takeaway count, recorded the cleanest air of all (26), showing how environmental risks don’t always align neatly.

Striking Ratios

The data also highlights just how unbalanced these high streets have become. On average, each of the top 50 had 38 takeaways but only two gyms, meaning fast food outnumbers fitness facilities by almost 20 to one. One in three of these high streets had either a single gym or none at all, creating what can fairly be called fitness deserts.

Beyond Food

It isn’t only takeaways driving the scores. Sweet shops and vape outlets are now staples of the UK’s most unhealthy high streets. Both Stockport and Bromley recorded 11 sweet shops each, while vape shops now appear almost as frequently as off-licences. Outside London, alcohol plays an even bigger role: the unhealthiest high streets beyond the capital average more than twice as many pubs as those within it.

London’s Dominance

London makes up almost 80% of the top 50, underlining how concentrated the problem is in the capital. Westminster alone contributes nine entries, nearly one in five of Britain’s unhealthiest high streets. Boroughs such as Croydon, Barnet, Lewisham and Bromley also appear repeatedly. Central hubs like Oxford Street and Regent Street combine clusters of takeaways, pubs and sweet shops with some of the country’s worst air pollution, creating a double health burden.

Outer London and Commuter Towns

High streets in boroughs like Barnet, Bromley and Haringey also rank poorly, alongside commuter towns such as Brentwood. Haringey’s High Road, for example, recorded 72 takeaways, one of the highest counts in the dataset. These areas don’t have the same commuter or tourist footfall as central London, meaning residents are more directly exposed to the imbalance of food and retail options every day.

Why The Health Of High Streets Matters

High streets aren’t just places to shop; they set the backdrop for everyday life. If the default options on your doorstep are fried chicken, off-licenses, and vape shops, making healthier choices becomes an uphill struggle. Our research shows that, in many towns, the unhealthy option isn’t just available; it’s unavoidable.

This matters because obesity isn’t only a lifestyle issue; it’s shaped by the environments people live in. Communities with high streets dominated by takeaways and alcohol premises face higher risks of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, not because individuals don’t know the risks, but because the healthier choice is often the hardest one to make.

The evidence is clear: where high streets are part of daily life, obesity rates are higher.

What Can Be Done

There is no single fix. Healthy high streets will require coordinated action from councils, planners, and public health teams. Better access to affordable fresh food, restrictions on new takeaway outlets near schools, and investment in green spaces and active travel all have a part to play.

For individuals, lifestyle change remains the foundation:

• Diet: balanced, lower-calorie eating patterns are proven to reduce obesity risk.
• Exercise: even small increases in daily activity can improve health outcomes.
• Support: community weight management programmes, GP-led interventions, and pharmacy services can all provide guidance.

And for some, medical treatments like weight loss injections, when prescribed responsibly, can make a meaningful difference alongside lifestyle changes. They are not a replacement for healthy habits, but they can help tip the balance for people struggling to lose weight in environments saturated with unhealthy options.

The Bigger Picture

The implications go far beyond local planning. With one in four adults in England now obese, unhealthy high streets are feeding into a national crisis. These environments don’t just encourage unhealthy eating, they magnify the risks of diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

If nothing changes, the cost will be measured in more than just NHS budgets: it will mean shorter lives, poorer quality of life, and widening health inequalities between regions. High streets cannot solve obesity alone, but reshaping them is one of the levers that can tip the balance.

Britain’s health is being decided not just in hospitals or GP surgeries, but on the pavements of its high streets.

Methodology

We sourced the address, length, and number of buildings for over 4,000 high streets across the UK from Ordnance Survey. From this dataset, we selected only high streets measuring 700m or longer for our analysis. This threshold was chosen based on urban studies and retail planning classifications of typical high street lengths:

• Small town high streets: 300–700m
• Medium town or city high streets: 700–1,500m
• Major city high streets: 1.5–3km (for example, Oxford Street is ~1.9km)

By focusing on high streets of 700m or more, we ensured that only medium to major high streets were included, making the comparisons fairer and more representative of significant retail and community hubs.

To assess the healthiness of these high streets, we analysed metrics including the number of pubs, bars, vape shops, sweet shops, off-licences, and gyms, which were gathered using Google Maps and Yell, while air quality statistics were sourced from WAQI.

Following data collection, each high street was given a score out of 100, with higher scores representing less healthy environments compared to those with lower scores.

Data analysis correct as of September 2025.

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