Dartford / Welling - Any advice?

[Cheerfulgirl292]

Hi everyone

I needed some advice on areas in which I am looking to buy a semi-detached property. My DP and I are looking to buy our first house, with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. Proximity to a good school is important. We are an immigrant Indian family and therefore, would prefer a multi-cultural / diverse community to live in. Our budget is 550-600k. Both of us work in Central London and therefore, connectivity is important as well.

We have been looking at South East London – areas such as Bexleyheath, Barnehurst, Sidcup etc. However, we have no idea how good / bad other areas such as Dartford and Welling are.

Would you provide any insights into good and bad areas within:

• Welling
• Dartford

And any general advice about Dartford / Welling.

Thanks in advance.

Sorry but I really dislike those areas. You can get quite a bit of house but there's a reason for that. Secondary schools you're in grammar territory and the alternatives aren't good.

Also not keen on those....my mechanic was in welling....we had a vintage car so had to go over there....he said it was chavvy and its ukip territory....go and have a look in the evenings.....i think its hoodies smoking weed territory also....look elsewhere if i were you.

I live in Dartford and work in Welling.
Never had a problem in either area! I am white british though so couldn't speak about the experience of others ethnicities.

Dartford high street is really run down, however, and the proposed regeneration of the old coop building has been cancelled. Traffic wise it is an absolute nightmare because the infrastructure can't cope with the rapid rate of new homes being built.

I suppose the best thing about Dartford is that it is not Erith or Belvedere.

Don’t!!!! 😳

🤣 that did make me chuckle.

I’m not keen on those areas either. Have you considered beckenham or Bromley ?

I've lived in Welling (Shooters Hill end) for nearly 20 years now and- it's fine. Not a middle class area, but equally not an inner london hellscape. Transport is excellent and you've got a lot of green space around, from a huge common to multiple woods. Also very easy to get to places like Blackheath and Greenwich.

The downside is that you will want to go to Blackheath and Greenwich, at least if you want to buy anything other than supermarket food, fake nails and, oddly, baby clothes. Covid hit the high st hard and it wasn't that diverse to start with. Also bexley council are the absolute worst in terms of service- they started slashing services long before most, in order to keep council tax static. Now that there is a desperate need to save money, there's only the vital things left to cut... we're also enjoying regular bin strikes for the second year running.

In terms of ethnic diversity, there are a lot of immigrant communities established here (so you can at least get some decent interesting food) but they tend to be caucasian- Polish, Romanian and Turkish Cypriot mainly. This may be because of the previously mentioned political reputation, as the was the site of BNP headquarters for many years and is still rabidly Tory despite how atrocious the council are. So yes, probably more stupid, stubborn people than in many London boroughs.

In closing, Welling is a town of contrasts but probably not enough contrasts to be very desirable.

We were looking in those sorts of areas. DP is mixed race and absolutely would not have considered Welling or Dartford. Not Eltham either.
With that budget I would also suggest Bromley or Beckenham.

I live in Dartford and am South Asian. I like it here but traffic can be a nightmare when there are problems on the m25. It’s got good train links to London and close to Bluewater. Council are good, run lots of free events. I’d recommend looking at West Dartford and avoid Temple hill.