United Kingdom · England · Bexley
Crayford, Bexley — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Crayford is a town and electoral ward in the London Borough of Bexley, grown up beside the river Cray around a ford no longer used.
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Where to stay in Crayford
Where the beds are, and what that means for the visit.
Crayford is commuter ground. Beds are thin beside the river Cray, so many visitors take a room towards Bexleyheath or over the old boundary in Dartford and come back in for the day. The Crayford Arms and The Bear and Ragged Staff mark the older centre.
Anyone here for the Church of St Paulinus, Crayford or for Whitehill House can cover that centre on foot in an hour.
Find hotels in Crayford
Direct booking searches for these neighbourhoods.
Crayford centre
Old streets around The Crayford Arms and the crossing of the river Cray, with few rooms but short distances. Rooms are few around here — worth securing early.Find hotels in Crayford centrea wider choice of rooms west of CrayfordBexleyheath
The larger Bexley centre next along, with more beds and a quick run back to the river Cray.Find hotels in Bexleyheathtrips that pair Crayford with the old Kent sideDartford
Across the historic Kent boundary from Crayford, handy for anyone working both banks of the Cray.Find hotels in DartfordHotel links are affiliate links: booking through them may earn us a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never affects how places are ranked. How this works
About Crayford
What are the main landmarks in Crayford?
Six sites make the local list. Bowman's Lodge, Whitehill House and the Wellington stand on it with the Church of St Paulinus, Crayford, and two public houses, The Crayford Arms and The Bear and Ragged Staff, close the set. None sits far from the river Cray.
That gives a small town in the London Borough of Bexley more named buildings than its scale suggests, and it makes the older centre worth an hour on foot.
What is the history of Crayford?
A ford started it. The settlement grew by the river Cray around a crossing that has since fallen out of use, and Crayford stayed in the historic county of Kent until 1965, when the London Borough of Bexley took the town in. The county line moved, not the place.
That older Kent parish survives in the Church of St Paulinus, Crayford and in houses such as Whitehill House and Bowman's Lodge.
Where is Crayford?
The town sits in South East London, east of Bexleyheath and north west of Dartford, with the river Cray running through the older streets.
Common questions
What is the best area to stay in Crayford?
Crayford centre: the walk between St Paulinus and the ford on the Cray. Bexleyheath: a wider choice of rooms west of Crayford. Dartford: trips that pair Crayford with the old Kent side.
More areas in Bexley
Updated October 2026