We focus on four complex health issues more prevalent in urban areas
With the Social Progress Imperative, we've developed the first neighbourhood level, health-focused social progress index of its kind.
With Wellcome Trust
We want to hear from you.
Our work
We work on urban health problems in the inner-city London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark, to make them healthier places to live.
The inner-city London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark are our home. They are central London boroughs south of the Thames, only two miles from the City of London.
The two areas are densely populated – twice the average in London – and on a par with Cairo or New Delhi. They have a rich social and ethnic mix, including large Black and LGBT+ communities.
We see a large amount of population churn and the boroughs currently have a population of around 600,000. This makes them roughly the same size as Athens, Stuttgart, or Boston.
In London, like in many other cities, affluence and poverty live side-by-side. This map shows levels of deprivation according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation.
We’re working to find solutions to complex urban health problems in our place. But we don’t just want change in London.
Where we work is like so many other places around the world. Using data from the UN-Habitat’s City Prosperity Initiative alongside diversity data, we’ve started identifying cities with similar characteristics to London and our boroughs.
New York, Paris, Melbourne, Sao Paulo, Shanghai and Mexico all hold similarities to London. Glasgow, Detroit and Birmingham hold similarities specific to Lambeth and Southwark.
We share our insights and practical learning to help others working on urban health. Working together, we can better understand how people in other cities are addressing inequalities and the health impact of living in urban environments.
With the Social Progress Imperative, we’ve created a set of metrics to assess the social progress of our boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark.
The Urban Health Index provides information on 68 neighbourhoods in Lambeth and Southwark and includes the most recent data available. We capture data on 42 indicators relating to basic human needs, foundations of wellbeing and opportunity, viewable as an interactive scorecard for different neighbourhoods.
Explore the ‘Urban Health Index’
Local Insight is a tool that shows neighbourhood-level data. This includes services available – such as schools, GP practices, care homes – as well as demographic and health data. We’ve used Local Insight to explore this data for Lambeth and Southwark.
Visit the Local Insight map
This report explores how cities around the world are addressing health inequalities and shares their real-world solutions to pressing urban health issues.
Read the ‘Global perspectives on urban health’ report
We work with local, city, national and international organisations to help urban areas become healthier places to live.
By 2050, nearly 70% of the world’s population will live in cities. We explore what distinct health challenges and opportunities urban areas have.
Who we are
Our focus on complex health issues that disproportionately impact people living in cities.