Private school fees by London borough, 2026–27.
The median private day school in Kensington & Chelsea charges £32,295 a year — £26,175 more than in Tower Hamlets (£6,120). Across London the median is £25,062, from 320 of the 556 independent schools we list in 33 boroughs.
Last updated 26 September 2026 · Download the data (CSV)
- £32,295
- Highest borough median (Kensington & Chelsea)
- £6,120
- Lowest borough median (Tower Hamlets)
- £25,062
- London-wide median day fee
- 320 / 556
- Schools with a published fee
Annual day fees by borough
Sorted by median day fee, highest first. A dash means fewer than 3 schools in the borough publish a fee — too few to call it a borough figure.
| Borough | Schools | With published fees | Median day fee | Lowest | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kensington & Chelsea | 35 | 23 | £32,295 | £22,110 | £51,633 |
| Westminster | 31 | 24 | £32,028 | £20,318 | £66,525 |
| Camden | 34 | 25 | £29,811 | £12,750 | £48,099 |
| City of London | 5 | 5 | £28,728 | £23,310 | £37,500 |
| Hammersmith & Fulham | 23 | 16 | £28,290 | £15,450 | £47,733 |
| Haringey | 15 | 9 | £27,570 | £8,055 | £54,000 |
| Bromley | 18 | 9 | £26,511 | £15,345 | £38,040 |
| Southwark | 18 | 12 | £26,400 | £8,536 | £32,118 |
| Wandsworth | 40 | 29 | £25,227 | £5,820 | £47,733 |
| Lambeth | 9 | 5 | £25,068 | £14,170 | £33,690 |
| Lewisham | 9 | 4 | £24,672 | £21,651 | £25,920 |
| Brent | 14 | 4 | £24,505 | £6,990 | £32,310 |
| Hillingdon | 7 | 6 | £24,266 | £5,964 | £36,000 |
| Greenwich | 14 | 6 | £24,195 | £12,900 | £40,000 |
| Barnet | 37 | 18 | £24,105 | £4,620 | £38,550 |
| Kingston upon Thames | 10 | 10 | £23,856 | £9,677 | £39,540 |
| Croydon | 28 | 13 | £22,950 | £3,600 | £51,633 |
| Merton | 18 | 12 | £22,934 | £10,789 | £34,212 |
| Hackney | 32 | 3 | £22,260 | £3,840 | £24,630 |
| Richmond upon Thames | 26 | 22 | £21,597 | £11,949 | £37,044 |
| Redbridge | 15 | 6 | £21,125 | £9,810 | £34,200 |
| Waltham Forest | 7 | 3 | £20,574 | £6,276 | £27,420 |
| Islington | 8 | 7 | £19,845 | £8,310 | £32,880 |
| Harrow | 13 | 8 | £19,512 | £5,115 | £47,310 |
| Enfield | 8 | 4 | £18,435 | £12,291 | £25,546 |
| Hounslow | 13 | 9 | £18,085 | £4,235 | £39,640 |
| Sutton | 8 | 4 | £17,999 | £13,800 | £26,187 |
| Ealing | 19 | 11 | £17,370 | £4,560 | £29,424 |
| Havering | 8 | 3 | £15,171 | £10,950 | £18,000 |
| Tower Hamlets | 16 | 5 | £6,120 | £3,750 | £18,756 |
| Barking & Dagenham | 5 | 1 | — | — | — |
| Bexley | 6 | 2 | — | — | — |
| Newham | 7 | 2 | — | — | — |
Methodology
- Schools — every live independent school Houseroom lists in the 33 London boroughs with a Houseroom borough guide, matched on the school's local authority. Closed or merged schools are excluded.
- Fee per school — the highest annual day fee in the most recent academic year the school publishes (usually the senior or upper-school fee). Nursery session prices, termly or monthly amounts keyed as annual, and figures outside a plausible annual range are discarded. Only fees for 2025–26 or later are used; 279 of the 320 are for 2026–27. For 2 schools with no itemised fee we use the headline day fee on their profile.
- VAT — fees are as published by each school. Most now quote fees including 20% VAT, charged since 1 January 2025; many do not say either way, and those are used as published. Where a school explicitly quotes its fee before VAT we add 20% (10 schools).
- Borough figures — the median, lowest and highest of those school fees. A borough needs at least 3 schools with a fee to get a figure. The London-wide median is taken across all schools, not averaged from borough medians. A borough with more prep schools will show a lower median than one dominated by senior schools. Specialist schools for pupils with special educational needs are included and account for most of the highest fees; small faith schools account for most of the lowest.
- Not included — boarding fees, extras (lunch, uniform, trips) and bursaries or scholarships. Boarding-only schools are left out.
How to cite and use this data
The data is free to use, republish and chart under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Please credit Houseroom and link to this page.
Source: Houseroom, “Private School Fees by London Borough 2026–27”, houseroom.uk/research/private-school-fees-by-borough, updated 26 September 2026.
Download the full table as CSV. Figures change as schools publish new fees, so quote the date you accessed them.
For individual schools' fees with extras, see the school fees calculator.
Questions about London school fees
- Which London borough has the most expensive private schools?
- Kensington & Chelsea, where the median annual day fee across 23 independent schools is £32,295. The least expensive borough we can measure is Tower Hamlets, at £6,120 a year.
- How much does a private day school in London cost?
- The median annual day fee across the 320 London independent schools with a published fee is £25,062. Senior schools generally charge more than prep and pre-prep schools, so the mix of schools in a borough moves its median.
- Do these fees include VAT?
- Independent schools have charged 20% VAT on fees since 1 January 2025, and most now publish fees including it. We use each fee as the school publishes it; where a school explicitly quotes its fee before VAT, we add 20% so that every figure is what a parent pays.
- Can I use this data?
- Yes. The data is free to reuse under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence — credit Houseroom and link to this page. The full table is available as a CSV download.
- How often is this updated?
- The page is rebuilt daily from Houseroom's fee database, which is refreshed as schools publish new fees. It was last updated on 26 September 2026.