Kingston is the best London borough for tourists, and the second best sits next door in Richmond, according to a new study ranking all 33 boroughs on what a visitor actually experiences.

The index was compiled by adult services site AdultWork, and scores every borough on 10 measures grouped around the decisions a visitor makes: what a night costs, how long it takes to reach the sights, how safe and how clean the streets are, how good the food is, and how much green space sits on the doorstep.

It draws on 1,314 priced hotels, 2,691,995 hotel guest reviews, 1,139,831 police crime records, 70,949 food hygiene inspections, 1,442 restaurant reviews and 825 timed public transport journeys, and no borough in London manages a top-ten finish on more than five of the ten measures.

Six of the 33 boroughs sit in south west London, and ranked against each other, from best to worst, they finish: Kingston upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames, Wandsworth, Croydon, Sutton and Merton.

First in south west London: Kingston upon Thames, and first in London

Kingston scores 71.8 out of 100, the highest of any London borough.

It is the only borough in London that stays out of the bottom ten on all 10 measures, nine of its ten scores sit in the top half of the table, and no other borough places in London's top 10 for hotel cost, street cleanliness, safety and food quality at once.

A median hotel room costs £87 a night, the third-cheapest in London and less than a sixth of what the City of London charges; only three boroughs record less fly-tipping; theft and robbery account for 5.51% of recorded crime, the eighth-lowest share in the capital; and its restaurants average 3.6 out of 5 with Harden's, the long-running diner-survey guide to British restaurants, the third-highest average of any borough.

The trade-off is distance: a median 58 minutes to reach London's main tourist areas, its only measure outside the top half, though nine boroughs still sit further out.

Second in south west London: Richmond upon Thames, and second in London

On 69.7 out of 100, Richmond is the steadiest performer in the table, reaching London's top 10 on five separate measures – a tally no borough in the capital beats.

Some 31.9% of the ground within a one-kilometre walk of its hotels is parkland, water or garden, the highest share in London, and its hotels average 8.58 out of 10 across their Booking.com guest reviews, second only to the City of London.

It also ranks third for safety, with theft and robbery accounting for 4.5% of recorded crime. Rooms are the priciest in south west London at £280 a night, 24th of the 33 boroughs.

Third in south west London: Wandsworth, and eighth in London

Wandsworth scores 64.9 and is the only inner-London borough in the south west.

Inspectors have awarded the Food Standards Agency's top hygiene rating of 5 to 78.1% of its food premises, the fifth-highest proportion in the capital, and its hotels average 8.31 out of 10 in Booking.com guest reviews, the fourth-highest score in London.

It is also the quickest borough in south west London to reach the sights from, at a median 46 minutes, and 16.73% of the walk from its hotels is green space, seventh in London. A room costs £176.90, a little under the London median of £184.

Sixth and last of the six south west boroughs: Merton, and 16th in London

Merton scores 60.8. It is the lowest of the six south west London boroughs and still inside the top half of the capital's table of 33.

It ranks third in London for food hygiene, where 81.2% of premises hold a top rating, and fourth for safety, with theft and robbery making up 4.94% of recorded crime.

A median room costs £120 a night, the eighth-cheapest in London. Its weaker measures are food quality, where its restaurants average 2.75 out of 5 with Harden's reviewers, and green space, at 7.09% of the walk from its hotels.

The wider picture

South west London is the only part of the capital with all six of its boroughs in the top half of the table of 33, and it holds four of London's six lowest theft-and-robbery rates – Sutton second, Richmond third, Merton fourth and Croydon sixth.

Sutton, 15th overall, has the cheapest short lets in London at £86 a night, and Croydon, 12th, has 231 dining, nightlife and cultural venues within a kilometre of its hotels, more than any other outer London borough.

Across the capital, the table runs against the assumption that central London serves visitors best.

Only four of the 10 highest-scoring boroughs sit in inner London, while seven of the ten lowest do, and the bottom of the table is central: Camden finishes 33rd on 42.6, recording more fly-tipping than any other borough, and the City of London 32nd, where a room costs £536 a night.

Commenting on the study, a spokesperson at AdultWork said: "Most people book a London trip around the daytime map, then pay a premium for a room they barely see in daylight.

"What this ranking shows is how much you get back by looking one stop further out – cleaner streets, better-rated hotels, and enough left over to actually enjoy yourself once the museums have shut.

"London after dark is a different city to London at lunchtime, and the boroughs that come out well here are usually the ones nobody thought to check. Where you sleep and where you spend your evening don't have to be the same place."

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