Skip to content
Mixroutes
Hornchurch
Town in east London, England

Hornchurch

Hornchurch is a suburban town in east London in the London Borough of Havering.

Plan a trip to Hornchurch→From London

It is located 15.2 miles (24.5 km) east-northeast of Charing Cross. It comprises a number of shopping streets and a large residential area. It historically formed a large ancient parish in the county of Essex that became the manor and liberty of Havering. The economic history of Hornchurch is underpinned by a shift away from agriculture to other industries with the growing significance of nearby Romford as a market town and centre of administration. As part of the suburban growth of London in the 20th century, Hornchurch significantly expanded and increased in population, becoming an urban district in 1926 and has formed part of Greater London since 1965. It is the location of Queen's Theatre, Havering Sixth Form College and Havering College of Further and Higher Education.

Get in

Getting to Hornchurch

On public transport, coming from the City of London the quickest route is a c2c train from Fenchurch Street to Upminster and then the District line. From the rest of Central London the journey is best completed by using the London Underground. There are three London Underground stations on the District line in Zone 6 around Hornchurch. However none are especially close to the town centre:

  1. 01
    Hornchurch London Underground

    Station Lane, Hornchurch, RM12 6LS (half a mile south of the town centre),.

  2. 02
    Elm Park London Underground

    The Broadway, Hornchurch, RM12 4RW (1.5 miles southwest of the town centre),.

  3. 03
    Upminster Bridge London Underground

    The nearest National Rail station is at Emerson Park to the north (served by London Overground).

See

Worth seeing

Hornchurch has a large theatre and an arts space. There is an annual Hornchurch Festival.

  1. 01
    Fairkytes Arts Centre

    Arts centre with occasional public events and exhibits.

  2. 02
    Queen's Theatre

    500-seat theatre with an active production company called Cut to the Chase and regular performances.

  3. 03
    Old Chapel

    Grade II listed restored chapel for Protestant Dissenters.

  4. 04
    Tithe Barn Museum

    Collection of 14,500 artifacts of domestic and agricultural use, ranging from Roman times to the present day.

  5. 05
    Upminster Windmill

    Grade II* listed smock mill that is being restored to be a working windmill.

  6. 06
    Rainham Hall

    The Broadway, Rainham, RM13 9YN, rainhamhall@nationaltrust.org.uk.

Do

Things to do

  1. 01
    Delta Force
  2. 02
    Hornchurch Sports Centre

    You can find several activities like swimming, squash, cricket and gym.

  3. 03
    Langtons House

    Langtons House is the register office of the London Borough of Havering.

  4. 04
    London LOOP
Eat

Where to eat

There are lots of restaurants throughout Hornchurch, both independent and chains. Many are around the high street area:

  1. 01
    Le Moulin

    Independent authentic French patisserie with good coffee.

  2. 02
    Da Vinci's

    13-15 Station Lane, Hornchurch, RM12 6JL (half a mile north of Hornchurch London Underground Station),.

  3. 03
    Ask Italian

    168 High Street, Hornchurch, RM12 6QU,.

  4. 04
    Havester
  5. 05
    Nando's

    18B Station Lane, Hornchurch, RM12 6NJ,.

How locals move

Getting around Hornchurch the local way

  • Get inUse Woolwich Ferry then for destinations in south London.

From Wikivoyage: London/East, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see Commons), Wikimedia Commons.