Surbiton named as the UK’s second most boring town by The Telegraph

By Tilly O'Brien 2nd Jun 2025

The Telegraph says that Surbiton's top tourist attraction is the station (Credit: Tilly O'Brien)
The Telegraph says that Surbiton's top tourist attraction is the station (Credit: Tilly O'Brien)

The Telegraph has created a list of the seven most boring towns in the UK and Surbiton takes second place.

The paper says it thinks of "a boring town as somewhere with nothing to see or do".

To help find the UK's most boring towns, historian Nikolaus Pevsner, obsessed with heritage, found dozens of urban centres uselessly devoid of distracting architecture during his perambulations.

The Telegraph also suggests that boring towns consist of  only having a Spoons and a dodgy wine bar and a lack of galleries, theatres, cinemas, and Michelin star restaurants.

But what makes Surbiton boring? The Telegraph says: "Don't blame Margo Leadbetter (The Good Life) for Surbiton's reputation. Snooty she might have been, but she was also saucy. Tom and Barbara were irritatingly cute at times, but they were forward-thinking. Jerry was a commuting suit, but he had a certain dry swagger. The Good Life did not make Surbiton boring.

"It was the metropolitan snob who furnished the myth in order to reinforce his/her own illusion of belonging to the inner-city "hood" – Elephant, Hackney, Kilburn, etc. A town beyond the Tube system, not as famously posh as Wimbledon or Richmond, and with a name that looks a bit like "suburb" was perfect for a lazy joke.

"The fact that Surbiton sits on the Thames, is close to Home Park and Hampton Court, is handy for the Surrey Hills, has decent bars and restaurants and a handsome conservation zone, and is close to Kingston, which has better shops than parts of central London, was overlooked. And, with Reggie Perrin living in Norbiton next door, the two burbs were always destined to be patronised by pseuds. Surbiton will be forever boring for those who don't know it at all."

The paper suggests that Surbiton's top tourist attraction is the station.

Taking first place is Stevenage with Alloa following Surbiton in third place.

     

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