The Harold Wood Elizabeth line station
(Picture: Crossrail)Perched right on the borders of London and Essex, Harold Wood is a classic Victorian railway suburb which offers buyers great value for money, a half-hour commute to the City, and plenty of wide open space to explore.
Crossrail is making travelling across London a breeze, and its open spaces are top notch. Sporty types will love Harold Wood Park for its tennis courts, football and cricket pitches, ad skate park, while Dagnam Park has ancient woodland and a herd of fallow deer roaming wild.
What the area really lacks is a real heart, although there are neighbourhood restaurants in the small parade of shops along Station Road. And last year Love Island star Kem Cetinay opened Array, a restaurant, bar, and lounge in Harold Wood, finally bringing a little Essex-style glamour to the area.
Love brought Rachel Grimwood, 53, to Harold Wood, 31 years ago – she moved there to be with her husband, Andrew, 57, who works in IT, and to raise their three now twentysomething sons.
Crossrail journey times:
Harold Wood to Heathrow: 75 minutes (including interchange at Liverpool Street and Paddington)
Harold Wood to Canary Wharf: 61 minute (including interchange at Liverpool Street)
Harold Wood to Liverpool Street: 35 minutes
Rachel likes the area for all the reasons mentioned above, but she agrees it is lacking on the café culture front. “There are not a lot of places to meet up,” she said. To try and counteract this problem she and a friend organised a Christmas market and with live music in December and were thrilled when almost 1,000 people attended.
“There is a strong sense of community and there are things to do here if you look – there are lots of clubs and classes for children, there is a cricket club and a football club, and my sons think nothing of hopping on the train and going up to London when they want to go out,” said Rachel, a life coach and community consultant.
Although property prices have continued rising during the pandemic, up nine per cent over the last two years, Jacqui White, managing director of Delaney’s estate agents, estimates you could buy a three bedroom period terrace for circa £450,000 to £475,000. Resale flats at King’s Park sell at around £400,000 for a two bedroom flat, but you could opt for one of the areas 1960s purpose built flats for around £350,000 to £375,000.
Renters should expect to pay £1,350 to £1,400pcm for a three bedroom house, and £1,100 to £1,300 for a two bedroom flat.
Average house prices since work on Crossrail started
2012: £197,670
2022: £359,160
Growth: 82 per cent
Source: Hamptons
“A lot of people come in from Newham and Waltham Forest,” said White. “We are on the same train line and the prices are quite reasonable,” she said.
For her the charm of Harold Wood is its peace and quiet. The schools are good, the open space is plentiful, and for more action locals go to Hornchurch or Romford. “People tend to stay in Harold Wood for a long time, so there is a really good sense of community,” she said.
The future for Harold Wood
The biggest change the area has seen so far in the21st century was the closure of Harold Wood Hospital. It has since been replaced by the £250m King’s Park development, 795 new homes by developer Countryside plus a campus for London South Bank University, completed in 2019.
There’s a lack of space for more really big new developments in Harold Wood, but there are plans on the table for several smaller projects which will together provide a few hundred new homes.
Last summer Bellway Homes was granted planning permission for Roe Wood Park, around 120 houses and flats – a third of which will be affordable – to be built at Havering College’s former Tring Gardens campus.
Work on Roe Wood Park is scheduled to begin in the autumn.
Weston Homes, meanwhile, is hoping to build almost 90 more homes on a supermarket car park on Gallows Corner, and plans have been put forward to demolish the King Harold, one of the area’s few pubs, and replace it with a couple of dozen new homes.
There is further bad news for those who like a drink. Harold Wood has its own microbrewery, the East Side Brewery, which opened last year. But its plans to open a tap room have been thwarted – so far – by Havering Council which refused a planning application in May.
Microbrewery founder Rashpinder Singh Mahal, a lawyer and beer fan who opened the brewery as a side gig, has pledged to appeal.
