Erith is a good place to live, a notch above average, for anyone who needs London on tap more than they need a spotless crime map. The trains run straight into Cannon Street and Charing Cross. Nine in ten addresses can get gigabit broadband, and every bus stop with a timetable runs at weekends. Recorded crime runs about a quarter above the rest of Bexley. The commute is the reason to come, and the crime figures are the reason to choose the street carefully.
Erith Rail Station and Slade Green Rail Station are on the same Southeastern line, with trains towards London Cannon Street and Charing Cross one way and Dartford, Gravesend and Gillingham the other. Belvedere and Barnehurst stations are close by for anyone living on that side of town. At the 2021 Census about 11% of working residents went to work by train, about 9% by bus and 38% by car, while 28% worked from home. There are 154 bus stops across the area. The 138 with service data average about 200 departures each on a weekday and around 11 buses an hour at the peak, and all of them have a weekend service. Gigabit broadband reaches about 89% of premises and superfast about 99%, and every postcode gets 4G or 5G from at least one operator. Day-trippers came here by rail in 1849 to enjoy the riverside. The traffic on that line now mostly runs the other way every weekday morning.
The Metropolitan Police recorded crime in Erith at about 99 per 1,000 residents in the year to May 2026, about 23% above the Bexley average of about 81. Violence and sexual offences make up about 35% of incidents, close to the national share. The difference shows up elsewhere. Anti-social behaviour is about 20% of the local total against 16% nationally, and vehicle crime about 7% against 5%. Across the whole Metropolitan Police area, about 10% of crimes ended in a charge over the same twelve months, compared with about 12% nationally. That is a force-wide figure and says nothing about Erith's own cases. The extra crime leans towards nuisance and cars, so the buyer who parks on the road has more to think about than the one with a drive.
The town is younger than most of the borough's picture postcards. The median age is 35. About 54% of households own their home, 27% rent from the council or a housing association and 16% rent privately. Gross household income averages about £73,000 a year on the Office for National Statistics' modelled figures for the financial year to March 2023. Northumberland Heath to the south and Slade Green to the east fill out the rest of the area, and both are more suburban than the riverside.
The Land Registry recorded 210 sales in the year to May 2026, with a typical price of about £369,000. Flats went for about £246,000, terraces about £375,000 and semis about £425,000. Three detached houses sold all year, also at a median of about £425,000. Detached homes are about 2% of the stock, so anyone wanting a long drive and a gate will be shopping in a very short queue. The area's house price index was up about 2% over the twelve months to May 2026. Band C is the most common council-tax band, and about 23% of homes are in bands A or B. Band D costs about £2,370 a year.
Bexley as a whole had a typical private rent of about £1,520 a month in April 2026, up about 7% on a year earlier. That is a mean from the Office for National Statistics' rent index for the whole borough, so treat it as a guide to Erith's rents and nothing more precise.
The council-tax valuation list counts every home. On that list about 34% are flats, 34% terraces, 26% semis, 5% bungalows and 2% detached houses, and about 21% were built before 1930. Energy certificates put about 61% of certificated homes in bands A to C and about 8% in E or worse. About 72% of homes heat with mains gas, and about 14% rely on electric heating alone.
Erith is on the Thames, and the flood maps show it. The Environment Agency puts about 16% of the area in its river-and-sea flood zone 3 and about 4% in zone 2. Measured by postcodes on at least one flood indicator, including surface water, about 16% carry a high rating. The Environment Agency holds 77 recorded flood events here. The most recent was in February 1953, when the sea came in through a failed defence. Put the exact address into the Environment Agency's long-term flood risk service and get an insurance quote before paying for a survey. In Erith a listing can call a home riverside and a flood map can say the same thing, and they will mean different things.
There are 11 listed buildings in the area, two of them Grade II* and the rest Grade II, and six conservation areas: Erith Riverside, Brook Street, Erith Road, Lesney Park Road, Oak Road and Woolwich Road. Inside those boundaries, changes visible from the street need more permission than they would elsewhere, and any work on a listed building needs listed building consent. The 1960s cleared most of Erith's old centre, and the council now guards the surviving fragments, such as the White Hart on the High Street and St John's Church, with some conviction.
At primary level, the eight schools in Erith's postcode district average 105 on the end-of-primary maths tests. The area's one secondary school has an Attainment 8 score of about 35. Attainment 8 is the government's average of a pupil's best eight results at sixteen. Primaries close to home include Christ Church (Erith) CofE Primary School, Northumberland Heath Primary School, Haberdashers' Slade Green Primary and Belmont Academy, and Leigh Academy Bexley takes secondary pupils. Of the 36 settings in the Bexley list that Ofsted has graded, 30 are good or outstanding and five are outstanding. With figures this mixed, parents should check the individual school and not rely on the town average.
Green space is the surprise. The average front door is about 170 metres from somewhere green and about 680 metres from water. The Riverside Gardens front the Thames, and the Green Chain Walk runs to Erith and joins the Thames Path. Erith is the only town in Bexley on the river, and it uses that waterfront well.
Ronnie Aldrich, the jazz pianist and band-leader, was born here. So was William Auld, a Scottish poet who wrote in Esperanto and presumably spent the rest of his life explaining both halves of that sentence.
Erith is right for London commuters and first-time buyers who want a house, a train and the river within reach for less than most of the borough charges. Anyone who needs a detached house, an untroubled insurance quote or the calmest crime figures in Bexley should look further south.
Erith is above average and earns that rating through its stations, broadband and buses. The crime figures still decide which streets are worth the money. Buy it for the trains, and choose your road using the crime map.