Living in Ilford

Ilford is a large, busy town centre in outer east London, and its fortunes changed with the arrival of the Elizabeth line. From Ilford the Elizabeth line now runs straight to Liverpool Street in roughly fifteen minutes, reaches the West End in half an hour and carries on to Heathrow, which makes a formerly overlooked commuter town far more practical for central London jobs.

The town has a large South Asian community, and Ilford Lane, running south from the centre, is lined with restaurants, sweet shops, jewellery and sari shops and grocers, while the main shopping area has a large indoor shopping centre and chain stores. Gants Hill, to the north, has a Central line station with a vaulted concourse inspired by the Moscow Metro.

Valentines Park, one of east London's finest parks, sits a short walk north of the centre, with lakes, formal gardens, sports facilities and Valentines Mansion, a restored seventeenth-century house. The River Roding runs to the west, and Seven Kings Park and Goodmayes Park lie to the east.

Homes range from Victorian and Edwardian terraces to interwar semis and a crop of new apartment towers by the station. Rents undercut Stratford and Forest Gate, and a budget buys noticeably more room. The town centre is busy, congested and sometimes chaotic, and green space immediately around the station is limited. Nightlife is modest, centred on restaurants rather than bars. Ilford works for people who want the Elizabeth line, excellent South Asian food, value and family-sized homes, and who are comfortable with a busy, workaday town.