Property for sale in Welling

Our area guide for Welling offers a brief overview of the town and its attractions, properties, schools, history, council tax and public transport links.

Overview

Welling is located in the London Borough of Bexley, although it does have the Kent postcode prefix of DA16. It’s bordered by Bexleyheath, Upper Belvedere, Falconwood, Shooters Hill, Blackfen and Plumstead. There’s a good mix of people in Welling, from young families to retirees, and this gives the town a balanced feel. Singer Kate Bush is probably Welling’s most famous past resident.

The Cannon - a 36-pounder Russian carronade located where Welling High Street meets Bellgrove Road – is the town’s most recognisable landmark. You will also find our Robinson Jackson branch on this corner.

Shopping

Welling’s High Street has been improved by the addition of a Morrisons and a Tesco supermarket, with the later having a Costa Coffee within its branch. There’s a nice mix of chain stores and independent shops along the high street, including a great butcher, a florist, a sewing/haberdashery store and two children’s designer clothes boutiques. You’ll also find a selection of banks, fashion stores, bakers, a Post Office, cafes, beauty salons and a couple of pubs. Most Welling neighbourhoods also boast their own parade of shops, where you’ll usually find a newsagent, a convenience store, a chemist and a selection of take-away outlets.

Attractions

Welling’s premium attraction is award-winning Danson Park. It is one of Greater London’s best open spaces, featuring a boating/fishing lake, a boat house with restaurant, a Palladium mansion, a public house, a swing and splash park, football pitches, tennis courts, mini golf, a lawn bowls club, duck ponds, a woodland area and a lake walk. It hosts the ever-popular Danson Festival in July and a firework display in November, as well as accommodating arts and craft fairs, circuses and fairgrounds. Welling has its own football team – Welling Utd – who play in the Blue Square Bet South league. A new paintball centre has opened by Welling train station, and Crook Log Leisure Centre and the Edward Alderton Theatre are located on the border of Welling and Bexleyheath.

Food and Drink

Most of Welling’s community pubs also serve hearty English food including the carvery restaurant in The Lord Kitchener pub in Wrotham Road. The Nags Head on Welling High Street, The Stables pub and the Boat House restaurant (the latter two located in Danson Park), all serve food. There’s a proliferation of eat-in restaurants and take-away outlets in Welling, offering Thai, India, Greek, Italian, Chinese and conventional ‘fast food’ food, amongst others.

History

Before the railway line arrived in 1895, Welling was a village on the main road between London and Kent. It had been a traditional staging post for coaches; the presence of three inns along the main road is the result of that. Legend has it the town’s name originates from the term ‘well in’ – meaning that once you reached Welling you were ‘well in to Kent’ and had survived the highwaymen that lined Shooters Hill. There was a boost to the local housing stock after WWI when 400 new homes were built and the sale of the Danson estate saw the village turn truly suburban.

Property market

The property in Welling is highly desirable as it’s mainly made up of good sized 1930s semi-detached homes – ideal for families. Some of the largest properties can be found to the rear of Danson Park and towards Shooters Hill, where the houses offer three and four-bedrooms. There is still some Victorian housing stock and a small influx of new flats in the area. The rental market in Welling is thriving as the town provides a good base for commuters into London, as well as families looking for good schools.

Council Tax

Welling is in the Bexley borough and these are the council tax valuation details for London Borough of Bexley for the year 2011/2012.

Education

Bexley Borough has four grammar schools and one of the best, Bexley Grammar, is located in Welling (close to Danson Park). Schools in Welling include:

• Bexley Grammar School
• Bishop Ridley CofE Primary School (formerly Westwood Primary School)
• Danson Primary School
• East Wickham Infants School
• East Wickham Junior School
• Eastcote Primary School
• Fosters Primary School
• Harris Academy Falconwood (formerly Westwood College)
• Hillsgrove Primary School
• Hook Lane Primary School
• St.Michael's East Wickham CoE Primary School
• St.Stephen's Catholic Primary School
• Welling School
• Westbrooke School

Hospitals

The nearest hospitals to Welling are Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup and Queen Elizabeth in Woolwich.

Transport Links

Welling has an over-ground train station just off Welling High Street. Trains run frequently to Lewisham (for the DLR), London Bridge, Waterloo East, Cannon Street, Charing Cross and Victoria. Journeys from Welling to London Bridge by train take 24 minutes. Welling is well serviced by buses, with routes to the O2 Arena in Greenwich (for the Jubilee Tube line) and to Bluewater shopping centre in Greenhithe, as well as routes to other local towns and districts. The A2 – running from Canterbury to Central London - runs on the edge of Welling and can be accessed via the Crook Log entry point.