Harpur
Bedford 010 · 6 sub-areas · 9,293 residents
Bedford 010 is a mixed residential pocket of Bedford, home to around 9,300 people and sitting firmly in the more affordable half of the East of England's rental market. A typical two-bedroom flat lets for about £1,020 a month — noticeably below the national two-bed median — though rents rose around 4% last year. Nearly a third of residents work from home, making the rail link to London less central than you might expect.
Harpur is a commuter neighbourhood within Bedford — train into London runs in around 51 minutes, and the rhythm of weekday mornings is shaped by it. The rental market is active and turnover is high — people move through rather than stay.
Overview
What's it like to live in Harpur?
3 parks and 1 playgrounds are within five minutes' walk, so greenspace is reliably close at hand; food and drink within walking distance is workable but not dense — around 14 restaurants and 5 pubs in five minutes; Recorded crime is higher than the national norm — common for built-up urban areas, but worth weighing if you're looking for a quieter base; Public transport is genuinely strong; most errands and a fair share of social life don't need a car; rents are roughly in line with the national norm, at around £1,163 a month for a typical home; gigabit broadband is effectively universal.
Generated from the latest May 2026 data · refreshed automatically
Figures are aggregated across 6 sub-areas — population-weighted means for rates, sums for counts. Sources cited beneath each section.
Harpur in Bedford
Living in Harpur
Bedford 010 covers a stretch of Bedford where the housing stock mixes private rentals, owner-occupied semis and a meaningful share of social housing — the tenure split is unusually three-way, with roughly equal parts owned, privately rented and social rented. That mix shapes the feel: it's not a gentrifying hotspot, and it's not a sleepy owner-occupier suburb either. Around 60% of residents live within walking distance of green space, and the nearest park or open land is typically just 265 metres away.
Rents here sit well below what you'd pay in most of the South East. A two-bedroom home runs around £1,020 a month, and even a three-bedroom comes in at about £1,250 — meaningful savings compared to commuter towns closer to London. Median sale prices sit at around £236,000, and the time to save a deposit is roughly 3.3 years on a local salary, which compares favourably with much of the region. Council tax at Band D comes to about £2,470 a year.
The neighbourhood skews younger than Bedford as a whole — about 27% of residents are aged 18 to 34, and single-person households make up nearly half of all homes. The ethnic diversity index sits at 43, and around 68% of residents were born in the UK, reflecting a community that's meaningfully varied. Degree-level qualifications are held by about 37% of adults, above the Bedford average.
Practically speaking, the nearest mainline rail station is roughly 1 km away — about a 12-minute walk — giving direct access to London St Pancras in just over 50 minutes by public transport. Car ownership is high: nearly 40% of residents drive to work, while working from home accounts for almost a third of commutes. Gigabit broadband is available to 100% of premises, which partly explains why remote working is so common. See the streets and sub-areas below for more.
What you'll need on day one
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Frequently asked
- Is Bedford 010 a nice place to live?
- It depends on your priorities. The green space access is good — about 60% of residents are within walking distance of open land — and rents are reasonable for the East of England. Crime is elevated compared to the national average, and Ofsted ratings for nearby schools are below average, so families should check those carefully. The working-from-home rate is high, which suggests many residents find it a comfortable base.
- What is the rent in Bedford 010?
- A one-bedroom flat runs around £793 a month, a two-bedroom about £1,020, and a three-bedroom roughly £1,247. These are estimates scaled from council-level data using local sale prices. Rents rose about 4.3% over the past year. The two-bed figure sits below the national median, making this one of the more affordable options for a neighbourhood with direct rail access to London.
- Is Bedford 010 safe?
- Crime runs at around 164 incidents per 1,000 residents per year — roughly double the UK national average. That's a meaningful gap and makes it one of the higher-crime parts of Bedford. It reflects a mixed-tenure, urban neighbourhood rather than acute localised danger, but it's worth comparing against neighbouring areas if safety is a top priority.
- What's the commute from Bedford 010 to London?
- By public transport, London is around 51 minutes away — the nearest mainline rail station is about 1 km from the centre of the neighbourhood, a 12-minute walk. That makes Bedford 010 a viable commuter base, though nearly a third of residents work from home and only about 6% use public transport for their daily commute.
- Who lives in Bedford 010?
- A genuinely mixed community. About 47% of households are single-person, with a strong 18-to-34 cohort making up around 27% of residents. Tenure is split roughly equally between owner-occupiers, private renters and social renters — unusual for a single neighbourhood. Around 37% of adults hold degree-level qualifications, and the area has an ethnic diversity index of 43.
- What schools are near Bedford 010?
- There are 100 schools within 2 km, but only around 48% are rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted — well below the national average of about 89%. The nearest Outstanding-rated school is approximately 1.4 km away. Families should check current Ofsted reports directly, as ratings can change, and consider this carefully if school quality is central to the move.
- How affordable is buying a home in Bedford 010?
- The median sale price is around £236,000, and on a typical local salary it takes roughly 3.3 years to save a deposit. That's relatively manageable compared to much of the East of England and considerably better than commuter towns closer to London. The resident median salary is about £36,000 a year.