Hayes has more green space close to home than most of London. Almost every house is a short walk from a park, common or patch of woodland. Ponds and streams are close by too. Most homes have a proper back garden. Bromley town centre and Croydon are close by, but much of Hayes is closer to the heath than to either of them.
The average home here is about 180 metres from public green space, and there are about 20 green spaces within a kilometre. The largest is the heathland and woodland of the common, protected within the Bromley, Hayes and Keston Commons conservation area. A walk to a park takes a couple of minutes.
Water is close as well. The average home is about 440 metres from a pond, stream or lake, with about 14 within a kilometre. The Bourne drains the area into the Ravensbourne, and the commons have their ponds.
Longer bike rides are harder. The nearest stretch of the National Cycle Network is about 4 kilometres away on average, and no postcode here counts as close to it. You can walk to the common, but you will mostly drive to the cycle routes.
Pubs and restaurants are present in roughly equal numbers. The rated-premises list counts 294 shops, 15 pubs and 16 restaurants in and around the area. The George on Hayes Street was first recorded in 1759 and is still the village pub. Station Approach has the newer parade of shops, with a pub of its own, The New Inn.
Air quality in the Bromley council area averaged about 8 micrograms of fine particles per cubic metre in 2024.
Hayes Street still feels like a village, with St Mary the Virgin, The George and Hayes Street Farm in the old centre, all inside the Hayes Village conservation area. Beyond them, the suburb that grew after the railway arrived in 1882 spreads towards Keston, Coney Hall and West Wickham. Two prime ministers lived here, and the house they lived in now survives only as a few street names. Most of today's houses date from the twentieth century, and most of the old village is still standing.
Most homes have a garden. Private gardens here add up to about 115,000 square metres per 1,000 residents. Gardens in Hayes are long enough for a shed, a lawn and somewhere to argue about the hedge.
The council's valuation list counts 953 business premises in and around the area. Shops are the largest group with 294, and offices come next with 132. These are premises on the rating list, and some may be empty or used for something else, so the counts don't show which shops are currently open.
Food standards are high. Of 213 rated food premises, 75% hold the top hygiene score and about 1% are at the bottom. Anyone choosing where to eat on Station Approach has good odds.
None of the area has a protected-landscape designation. It contains no area of outstanding natural beauty, no site of special scientific interest and no ancient woodland. The commons are protected in other ways, and they are used by dog walkers and joggers.
The surroundings are one of the best things about Hayes: there is a common at the end of most roads, a garden behind most houses, and a village pub that has been open since 1759.