Living in Dagenham
Suburban Green Spaces and Community Feel Close to the City Centre
About the Area
Dagenham is located in East London and is part of the Barking and Dagenham Borough, one of the six London boroughs that hosted the 2012 Olympic Games. It’s a very accessible suburban town, only 11.5 miles from Charing Cross.
It used to be an Essex parish and an underdeveloped agrarian village until 1921. That is when the London County Council started building the Becontree estate, which led to the first large increase in population. Dagenham has been part of Greater London since 1965.
Presently, Dagenham is a regenerated residential district that still holds the signs of its industrial past. The most iconic industrial site is the Ford plant that has been in Dagenham since 1931. It was designed to become one of the largest car plants in Europe, with a size of 500 acres. At its peak, the Ford plant was employing 40,000 people in a 4,000,000 square feet facility.
The southern part of Dagenham, adjacent to the River Thames is part of the London Riverside section of the Thames Gateway redevelopment area that will bring about many new projects bound to revive the area even further.
Transportation
UNDERGROUND – District Line
- Becontree
- Dagenham East
- Dagenham Heathway
C2C
- Dagenham Dock station
TFL
- Chadwell Heath station
Dagenham also has a planned extension of the Docklands Light Railway from Gallions Reach to Dagenham Dock and access to very good bus routes.
AIRPORT
London Airport – 15 minutes by car
AREA GUIDE DAGENHAM
Dagenham offers plenty of opportunities for fun, leisure, and shopping. It has vast green areas including a 208-acre nature reserve – the Eastbrookend County Park, a modern shopping centre – The Heathway, a manor house museum, and great multi-cultural dining experiences available almost everywhere you look.
Our Dagenham estate agents have put together a list of the most popular attractions in the area:
ATTRACTIONS – ARCHITECTURE – PARKS – SHOPPING
Schools in Dagenham
Dagenham has many schools. Here is a shortlist of the most well-ranked schools in the Dagenham area:
Hospitals
Residents can choose from several medical facilities in Dagenham. Here is a shortlist of medical care facilities you can find in the area:
The Beam Park Development in Dagenham
Beam Park is the most ambitious project being developed in Dagenham right now. The planning permission was issued in September 2018. The project comprises 3,000 homes providing 50% affordable housing. The development includes a new railway station, a medical centre, two schools, retail spaces, a gym, nursery, community facilities, a multi-purpose space, and two energy centres. The Beam Park will also feature a new transport station set to open in May 2022on the C2C line that will significantly improve the area’s direct links to the City Centre.
Prices for a studio in Beam Park start at £225,000. A three-bedroom house costs £465,000. Homes in Beam Park can be acquired through Help to Buy with a minimum deposit of 5%. Shared-ownership options for first-time buyers will also be available as of 2021.
Beam Park’s design is catered to by the well-known Patel Taylor architectswhich also worked on the projects at Battersea Power Station and Thames Barrier Park.Half of the entire space of the project is made up of green areas and there are also riverside walkways included. There are plans to include more facilities such as sports pitches, a gym, a swimming pool, pedestrian and cycle routes. Infrastructure facilities include schools, a nursery, and a health centre.
Photo by Tierra Mallorca on Unsplash
Other Developments in Dagenham
Apart from benefitting from the London Riverside regeneration plans and Beam Park, Dagenham has even more transformative developments underway.
In July 2020, the Barking and Dagenham Council’s planning committee unanimously voted to approve the plans for a Hollywood-style film studio in Dagenham. The £110 million project will create 1,200 jobs and will have a major impact on the area’s development. It will include production offices, sound stages, dressing rooms and workshops. The studio will be built on a 22-acre former pharmaceutical factory site at London East Business and Technical Park, on Yewtree Avenue.
Another one of these plans is the Ford £190m investment in the production of new low-carbon diesel engines at the Dagenham plant that will increase the plant’s capacity to half a million two-litre engines a year for cars and vans.The investment plan includes £8.9m from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund and is set to create over 300 jobs.
Dagenham is also home to Londoneast-uk Business and Technical Park – a multi-occupancy business and science park.It hosts small start-up businessesand larger corporate organisationsand has a wide range of serviced office and laboratory spaces. Recently, it started plans for a £3.8 million high-tech scientific research and development centre on the former Sanofi site with specialist laboratories and a post-incubator science facility. It will accommodate up to 15 businesses and create more than 90 jobs.
The former Barking Reach Power Station site is also on its way to being transformed. It was bought by the City of London as a potential location to consolidate three of London’s historic wholesale markets: Billingsgate, Smithfield, and New Spitalfields.
Photo by Aaron Huber on Unsplash
Dagenham Estate Agent Tips
Dagenham Estate Agents recommend the area for its lush and ample green areas and its very close-knit community feel. Dagenham residents are proud of their heritage and their neighbourhood. This is seen in the care they give to local community events and the level of attention they offer to local improvement plans.
The Barking and Dagenham borough has seen impressive increases in property prices in recent years – 51% over the last 5 years. Prices are set to continue their rise, so investors looking to make a purchase in this area shouldn’t wait too long to make a decision. Otherwise, they will end up regretting it. Buying now can guarantee you still benefit from the great value for money Dagenham properties can bring to first-time buyers, as well as the amazing return on investment it can yield for buy-to-let investors.
Photo by Hunters Race on Unsplash
Things to Do in Dagenham
Dagenham is ideal for people who want to live in a quiet, green area not far from the City Centre. It has a suburban feel, but the transport links it offers make it anything but suburban.
There is a wide choice of local pubs, bars, and restaurants and, if you want a more bustling scene, Central London is just a stone’s throw away. Young residents and families with children can enjoy the many parks and open green areas where they can practice sports, take long walks, or cycle.