Living in Enfield Town

Enfield Town is a market town at London's northern edge that still feels like one. Its Market Place has held a market under a charter dating back to the early fourteenth century, and around it are a church, historic buildings, pubs, restaurants and a modern shopping centre. The New River, an artificial waterway built in the seventeenth century to bring water to London, winds through the town. Enfield also has an unexpected claim to fame: the world's first cash machine was installed here in 1967.

The area borders the Green Belt, and its green spaces are extensive. Forty Hall, a seventeenth-century manor house, sits in a large estate with farmland, woodland and a lake, and Trent Park, a vast country park with woods, fields and walking trails, lies to the west. Town Park and Chase Green are close to the centre.

Enfield Town station is the terminus of an Overground line to Liverpool Street, with journeys taking around thirty-five to forty minutes, and Enfield Chase station has Great Northern trains to Moorgate. The Piccadilly line at Oakwood is a bus ride away. Journeys into central London are long compared with inner areas, and many residents drive or use buses for local trips.

Housing is mainly interwar semi-detached houses, Victorian and Edwardian terraces, larger detached homes and some modern flats, often with gardens and more space for the money than in inner London. The area is popular with families, and schools are an important draw. Nightlife consists largely of pubs and restaurants. Enfield Town suits families and people who want a traditional town centre, green space and value, and who accept a longer commute to central London.