This neighbourhood surrounds the convenient Dagenham East tube station, giving residents an easy commute into central London throughout the week. While the area has a bad reputation amongst many Londoners, those who live there know that others are missing out. While it might not be a wealthy neighbourhood, residents who live in the rows of modest and affordable terraced houses love the area’s community spirit. There are frequent community events held in the local green spaces, like Pondfield Park, many of which draw in huge crowds. Residents find that the neighbourhood has a vibrant diversity that more well-to-do London areas lack. Wandering through the town on a weekend afternoon, you’ll see that vibrancy - whether you find friends catching up over coffee at Santa Brava Limited, children buying sweets at Ma Bakers, or locals picking up floral arrangements at Bespoke Flowers. Seeing how much the neighbourhood has going for it, families looking to buy their first home would be silly to overlook Dagenham!

The neighbourhood of Dagenham possibly dates back to as early as the 600s. By 1205, it was a large enough settlement that a church was constructed. Later on, following the First World War, the neighbourhood developed into one based around industrial buildings. Being so close to the marshes along the Thames, the area attracted large factories. Once the Underground was extended to the area in 1932, the neighbourhood grew even further. With the influx of residents, the council was faced with the challenge of providing more housing. The 1970s saw multiple historical buildings get torn down and replaced with council housing. Since then, the remaining historical buildings have all become listed in order to protect the neighbourhood from further demolition.

The Dagenham East tube station was the site of a famous railroad crash in 1958. It was believed that the crash was caused by fog.

Unfortunately, there were reports of some violent but not fatal attacks in Pondfield Park a few years ago. While residents were concerned by these reports, they feel relatively safe in the neighbourhood though they don’t tend to enter the parks after dark.

The borough of Barking and Dagenham announced their ‘Be First’ regeneration programme. The programme will focus on improving the entire borough - not just Dagenham. Growth will be focussed on a number of growth areas, including Dagenham East. The Council also established its own regeneration company, Be First (sharing its name with the regeneration scheme), to facilitate and accelerate delivery over 50,000 new homes and 20,000 new jobs in the next 20 years. As part of the initiative, works began in early 2022 for the construction of a developing consisting of 32 one bedroom, 50 two-bedroom, 36 three-bedroom and six four-bedroom flats, with completion expected in Autumn 2023. Be First has also announced that it is looking for architects for a £132 million design framework to deliver 4,000 socially rented new homes; the deadline has been set for March 2023.