Gravesend

Gravesend is where Greater London finally runs out of streets, the last stretch of sprawl before the Thames widens and the marshes take over. It has the oldest surviving cast iron pier in the world and a clock tower built to look like Big Ben, which is a lot of ambition for a town most people only know as a name on the departures board. The high-speed train to St Pancras is why buyers come, and the name is why it took them three viewings to say it out loud to their parents.