Buying in Upminster - tips?

[ZaraBl]

Hi
We have decided to try and buy a house in Upminster after months of looking at a range of areas. We've done as much "internet trawling" and walking around as we possibly can, we've looked at the primary and secondary school Ofsted reports...but what we are hoping for now is honest opinions from local people about the best bits/streets and areas to avoid.
We aren't from the area and don't know anyone who lives there, I've seen/heard mentions of "estates" in online forums (such as the Upminster Park estate or the Racecourse estate) and have no idea which parts they are!
Obviously everyone has budget constraints so we can't just pick and choose like a millionaire, but does anyone know the area well and feel brave enough to say "north of Road X is a bit rougher than south of road Y" for example.
Thanks!

[goldierocks]

Hello OP

My DS went to The Coopers Company and Coborn secondary school in Upminster (we live in a different town, he was very lucky to get one of the places offered to out-of-catchment kids via a lottery). One of his closest friends lives in Upminster, so I'm happy to share what I know.

The entire town is lovely! It's the last stop on the District line into London and also has a very regular fast overground service into London Fenchurch Street. If you go in the other direction, it's about an hour to Southend-on-Sea.

The houses in the Coopers catchment area are more expensive. It's an excellent school, very focused on results. Discipline standards are high.

When my DS left, there were plans to put a new build estate in Hall Lane on the mini golf course. There were lots of objections, I don’t know if it went ahead. Apart from that, there has been very little development since the 50's and 60's. Most homes are either Edwardian or 1930's.

My DS's friend lived in Asburnham Gardens which is a 5 min walk from the station. The houses on that road are huge!

The Corbets Tey end of Upminster is also lovely. You might want to avoid the roads close to the crematorium though.

The cheapest part of the area is Cranham. IMHO it's still really nice! The whole area has lots of parks/open spaces and a golf course.

The Upminster Park Estate (Cranham end) is known locally as the Rivers Estate because all the roads have -you've guessed it- named after rivers. It's most definitely not what you'd think of as an estate. The area is in the catchment for Hall Mead, which is also a good school.

The town centre is more of a long strip of shops. There is an M&S (food) and a Waitrose. It's very easy to get to Lakeside shopping centre either by train (2 stops) or on the 370 bus.

I hope that helps.

[Sallycinnamum]

OP, all of upminster is nice so there's no reason to avoid really.

Cranham is good as it is the catchment for Halllmead which is also a very good secondary school.

Houses in upminster are far more expensive than cranham as I'm sure you know and has great links into London.

Upminster and hornchurch are IMO nice, family towns with tons of parks and great housing. It's not perfect by any means but we've always felt very safe here and both my DC have gone to good primary and secondary schools.

[Sallycinnamum]

That should've read no areas to avoid in the first sentence!

[ZaraBl]

Thanks everyone for your replies. There seems to be very few properties coming up at the moment even in Cranham, but more in Upminster Bridge...for visiting I can see it is less "pretty" but is there a local view on the area? Is it rougher...basically if we found a house there would be feel like Upminster's poor relatives!