The Slowest Streets in the UK 2023

Author: Alex Tofts

Last updated: 30 April 2024

Have you ever wondered which are the slowest streets in the UK? If yes, you’re in the right place! We analysed over 265,000 speed tests from up and down the country to bring you the answer.

You may be surprised that not all are located in countryside, some may be closer to your doorstep than you think. A significant amount of people suffer with slow broadband and currently, there are 68,000 premises in the UK that can’t receive broadband speeds of at least 10Mb, what the Government considers a ‘decent’ broadband speed.

It’s not all doom and gloom, the country is moving in the right direction Gigabit-capable broadband is available to 73% of homes and 48% of homes have access to full fibre broadband.

Will your street feature in our study, read on to find out.

The slowest street in the UK is Morriston Close, Watford

That’s right! The slowest street in the UK is not in the deepest, darkest part of the countryside but in the outskirts of London. Morriston Close in Watford is the slowest street in the UK, with an average download speed of 0.6Mb.

To give you an idea what that would look like, it would take 40 hours, 37 minutes and 46 seconds, that's almost 2 days to download Avengers Endgame.

Residents of Morriston Close don’t have to suffer with slow broadband, gigabit-capable broadband options from Virgin Media and FTTP Openreach options are available to deliver speeds up to 1.1Gb.

Meaning, you can download the superhero blockbuster in 1 minute, 19 seconds.

The 10 slowest streets in the UK

Wade Court in Cheltenham and Leazes Lane in Bishop Auckland finish as the second and third-slowest streets respectively in the UK.

None of the slowest streets are above 2Mb, but residents living on these streets don’t need to settle for sluggish broadband. Superfast (minimum of 30Mb) is available to all of these areas. Ultrafast (300Mb and over) is available to 8 out of 10, only Wade Court in Cheltenham and Cefn Road in Bridgend don’t have access to speeds above 30Mb.

Full fibre or Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) is available to half of these roads. Head over to our broadband in your area page to see what deals are available at your address.

The fastest street in the UK is Meadway, Northampton

The fastest street can be found just up the M1 motorway in Northampton. Residents are enjoying broadband speeds of 896.3Mb.

This is 1,494 times faster than the speed recorded on Morriston Close. In comparison, residents can download our favourite Aladdin in just 45 seconds or Endgame in a speedy 1 minutes and 37 seconds.

The 10 fastest streets in the UK

Rolvenden Grove in Milton Keynes and Colville Street in London round out the top three at 711.6Mb and 626.6Mb, but Meadway in Northampton is in a league of its own.

How fast is your broadband?

To see how fast your broadband is, test your connection using our broadband speed test. For the most accurate results, use ethernet cables to connect your laptop or computer to your router.

If you’re using your smartphone or don’t have ethernet cables, follow these steps to get the best reading.

1. Close all running programs. Close all other programs running on your computer, games running on your consoles, or apps on your mobile phone. Don’t forget to check Netflix isn’t running on your TV.
2. Shut everything off. Disconnect or switch off any other Wi-Fi enabled devices in your home. Don’t forget any Smart appliances you might have like freezers or washing machines.
3. Get connected. Where possible, connect to your WI-Fi router with an ethernet cable.
4. Back off. If you’re using your home Wi-Fi connection, stand close to your router.
5. Avoid the boosters. Don’t connect to any Wi-Fi boosters.
6. Do more than one test. Collect the speed test results at different times of the day, including peak times.

How to improve broadband speed

After you run a speed test, check how your current performance compares to what you signed up for on your broadband contract. If it’s within your contract speed guarantee, and you still want faster broadband, you will have to upgrade to a faster broadband contract.

If your broadband is lagging behind what you're paying for, follow these steps to help improve the connection.

1. Router position and placement. Place your router as close as you can to the middle of your home, away from walls and other electrical devices. For more details, check out our guide on the best place a put router.
2. Switch frequencies. Modern routers will have a 2.4Ghz and a 5Ghz option. Switch it over to the 5Ghz option for faster speed. If it’s not done already, you will have to enable this from your router settings, and then it will be found in the Wi-Fi signals available to connect to.
3. Router security. It’s possible unwanted users could be using your Wi-Fi. You can check all connected devices in your router settings. Boot off anything you don’t recognise.
4. Updates. Update your device, browser and router software to optimise performance.

If your connection is still sluggish after trying all these steps, contact your provider. There may be an issue they can fix remotely, or they may send an engineer or new router.

If they can’t resolve the issue within one month, you have the right to cancel your contract free of charge.

What's the average speed in the UK?

The average speed in the UK for fixed-line internet is 122.2Mb.

What is a good broadband speed?

No one wants to be left with slow broadband, but with faster speed comes a higher price, so never pay more for what you need.

Here’s what you should be looking for as a guide, based on the number of people in your household. These speeds should be enough for everyone to comfortably stream high definition video at once:

• 1 person households: 10Mb-30Mb average download speed
• Up to 3 people: 30-50Mb average download speed
• Up to 5 people: 50-100Mb+ average download speed

Fastest and slowest streets in Scotland

The slowest street in Scotland is Hawthornvale in Edinburgh. It has a speed of 1.57Mb and is placed 8th for the slowest streets in the UK.

The fastest street in Scotland is Anne Arundel Court in Dumfries, with a speed of 453.57Mb.

The 10 slowest streets in Scotland

The 10 fastest streets in Scotland

Fastest and slowest streets in Wales

The slowest street in Wales can be found in Bridgend. Cefn Road has a broadband speed of 1.43Mb and comes 6th overall slowest in the UK.

The fastest street in Wales is Ffordd Kinderley in Deeside, it has a broadband speed of 384.6Mb.

The 10 slowest streets in Wales
 

The 10 fastest streets in Wales

Fastest and slowest streets in Northern Ireland

Ballymacombs Road, is home to the slowest street in Northern Ireland. It has a speed of 4.22Mb.

A silver lining for Northern Ireland is that no streets feature the slowest top 10, but a speed of 4Mb will only just allow you to stream Netflix.

The fastest street in Northern Ireland is Craigs Road in Carrickfergus, at 470.70Mb.

The 10 slowest streets in Northern Ireland

The 10 fastest streets in Northern Ireland

Fastest and slowest streets in London

London’s slowest street is Rocks Lane, and ranks 5th in the country. Residents receive broadband speeds of 1.42Mb.

It’s illustrates that built-up urban areas can also suffer from slow broadband. However, Super and Ultrafast Broadband options are in the area.

If you travel north on the District Line, you’ll be able to find Colville Street, home of London’s fastest broadband. It has a speed of 626.61Mb and ranks 3rd in the whole study for fast broadband.

If you live in London and want to know more about your broadband options, head over to our page for broadband in London.

The 10 slowest streets in London

The 10 fastest streets in London

• Methodology

  We took the average broadband speed at postcode level from 265,572 speeds tests from 2022.

  To qualify and be to included in the study, postcodes must have the following criteria:

  • A minimum of three speed tests from three unique IP addresses.
  • The test is from a commerical internet service provider.
  • The test is from a fixed-line internet connection.
  • At least 10 residential properties required at a postcode.

  Speed tests were measured using the Broadband Genie sister site Broadband.co.uk speed test.

  Avengers Endgame file size is based on 10.97GB through the Microsoft Store.

  Aladdin file size is based on 5.08GB through the Microsoft Store.

  Download time was calculated using the Broadband Genie broadband download time and speed calculator.