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CCTV cameras are everywhere you look in London. Not just in public places like on buses and in tube stations, these days cameras are in every shop and every pub. Increasingly, they’re even used on private property by homeowners. All in all, one study reckons the capital might have nearly 950,000 CCTV cameras.
When guessing which London borough has the most CCTV cameras, most of us would, naturally, name somewhere in central London. But Greater London also has tonnes of cameras – in fact, one of the most camera-heavy areas of the entire UK is an outer London borough.
A new study by Get Licensed called ‘Big Brother Britain’ has revealed the areas of the country with the most CCTV cameras. To get its results, Get Licensed asked councils around the country how many cameras were trained on public spaces.
It turns out that London’s Big Brother capital is the borough of Hillingdon. Surprising, eh? On the outer edge of west London, Hillingdon apparently has a whopping 1,170 public space cameras. The study reckons that the borough’s relative affluence helps its council afford such an extensive camera network.
Hillingdon was the third-most camera-covered place in the UK, but fourth was another London spot: Greenwich. The southwest-central borough apparently has 911 cameras in public spaces. Another London borough, Hammersmith and Fulham, rounded out the top ten with 581 cameras.
Obviously, the number of CCTV cameras in these boroughs is likely to be in reality much, much higher. After all, these are just council-funded, public-facing ones. The study didn’t take into account cameras in private places like shops, restaurants, pubs, offices or homes.
So, Big Brother is watching you! And if you’re in Hillingdon, he’s watching you even more closely. You can read Get Licensed’s full study here.
Did you see that this famously grim place has been named London’s best commuter town?
Listen to Time Out’s brilliant new podcast ‘Love Thy Neighbourhood’: episode eight with Hans Ulrich Obrist in South Kensington is out now.
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