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Living in Downham Market
Downham Market is a Fen-edge town whose railway reaches Cambridge in 39 minutes and London King's Cross in about 1 hour 40 minutes.
Downham Market is a Fen-edge town on the Great Ouse, and the reason to put it on a list is the railway: direct trains reach Cambridge in 39 minutes and London King’s Cross in 1 hour 31 minutes on the fastest train. The median house in the town sold for £260,000 in the year to June 2026.
Where it is: about 39 miles west of Norwich city centre as the crow flies, in the borough of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, postcode PE38.
Buy in Downham Market if you work in Cambridge, or in London two or three days a week, and want a town with its own sixth form, doctors and supermarkets.
Do not buy here if your work or family is in Norwich, 39 miles east by road. Evenings out are limited to a few pubs, and for more you go to King’s Lynn. The country around the town is flat Fenland, which some buyers want and others find bleak.
Property prices
HM Land Registry recorded 220 standard sales in Downham Market in the 12 months to June 2026, leaving out the villages that share its PE38 postcodes. The median price was £260,000 and the mean £274,254. More than half were detached houses. Eight were new builds.
| Property type | Median price | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £320,000 | 113 |
| Semi-detached | £233,500 | 51 |
| Terraced | £220,000 | 38 |
| Flat or maisonette | £127,250 | 18 |
For the borough, the UK House Price Index put the King’s Lynn and West Norfolk average at £265,715 in July 2026. That was up 3.0% on a year earlier and 1.8% on the month. In March 2026 the borough had been 0.4% down on the year. First-time buyers in the borough paid £220,675 on average, against a Norfolk average price of £269,185 for all buyers. The index adjusts for the mix of homes sold, so it will not match the town median.
The largest new estate is Persimmon’s The Willows, off Lynn Road and Bridle Lane. It has permission for 226 homes, 45 of them affordable. In September 2026 its three-bedroom homes were listed at £275,000 to £300,000 on the open market.
The ONS put the average private rent in the borough at £941 a month in August 2026, up 3.8% on a year earlier. A two-bedroom home averaged £848 and a three-bedroom home £1,053. There is no official figure for the town alone.
Schools
Downham Market Academy on Bexwell Road takes pupils from 11 to 18. It has 1,329 pupils. Ofsted rated it Good in every area, the sixth form included, after an inspection on 26 April 2022.
Of the primary schools, Hillcrest Primary School, also on Bexwell Road, takes ages 5 to 11 and was confirmed as Good at an ungraded inspection on 27 June 2023. Nelson Academy on Nursery Road, for ages 3 to 11, kept its Good rating at an ungraded inspection on 8 November 2022.
The nearest independent prep, Downham Preparatory School at Stow Bardolph, closed in August 2024. Its site is now Orchard Manor, a special school. For college courses at 16, the College of West Anglia’s King’s Lynn campus is about 15 minutes’ drive. See our moving to Norfolk checklist for school admissions.
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Getting around
Downham Market is on the Fen Line between King’s Lynn and London. On a weekday, trains run every half hour at peak times and hourly in between. Ely is 19 minutes away, Cambridge 39 minutes and King’s Cross 1 hour 31 minutes on the fastest train and 1 hour 35 to 1 hour 42 on most, all without a change. The first London train leaves at 05:01. The last one back from King’s Cross leaves at 22:48 and gets in at 00:24. King’s Lynn is 17 minutes by train.
By car, King’s Lynn is about 15 minutes north on the A10, and the A10 south reaches Cambridge in about 45 minutes. Norwich is 39 miles east, most of it on the A47. The A1122 runs east to Swaffham and the A47.
Buses are less useful than the train. Lynx 37 and Go to Town 47 run to King’s Lynn, Lynx 60 to Wisbech and Central Connect 67 to Swaffham. Go to Town also runs village routes to Welney, Fincham and Stoke Ferry.
Broadband
We do not have a town-only figure. Across King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, thinkbroadband’s September 2026 data shows 74.7% of premises can get full fibre and 96.9% can get superfast speeds of 30 Mbps or more. Outlying Fen properties are the ones to check. Use Ofcom’s broadband checker on the exact address before you buy.
Shops, doctors and pubs
The market runs on Fridays and Saturdays, 8am to 3pm, on the Market Place. The clock tower nearby dates from 1878. The town has four supermarkets: Tesco, Morrisons, Iceland and a Lidl on Bexwell Road that opened in December 2024.
There are three GP practices. Howdale Surgery is on Howdale Road, Bridge Street Surgery on Bridge Street, and The Hollies Surgery in Downham Market Health Centre on Paradise Road. The nearest A&E is at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn, about 15 minutes by car.
The Crown Hotel on Bridge Street is a 17th-century coaching inn with rooms. The Whalebone, a JD Wetherspoon, is further along Bridge Street in the old White Hart. The Live and Let Live is off London Road. The Castle Hotel closed in 2020 and has since been converted into flats and a shared house for the Purfleet Trust, a homeless charity.
Downham Market Leisure Centre, on the academy campus on Bexwell Road, has a 25-metre pool and a gym. Denver Windmill, a restored tower mill, is just south of the town. WWT Welney, on the Ouse Washes, holds swan feeds through the winter.
Parts of the town lie close to the Great Ouse and the Relief Channel. Check any address on the Environment Agency’s flood risk service before you buy.
Council tax
Downham Market’s Band D bill for 2026-27 is £2,543.76, and Band A is £1,695.84. The borough council handles planning and bins; Norfolk County Council runs schools and roads.
Moving services
How we produced this guide
Town sale prices are from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, standard sales with Downham Market as the post town and no separate village name, for the 12 months to June 2026. Borough and county prices are from the UK House Price Index, July 2026 release, and rents from the ONS. Population is from the 2021 Census. School details are from Ofsted reports. Council tax is from the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk’s 2026-27 charges. Train times are from the National Rail timetable for a weekday in late September 2026, and bus routes from bustimes.org. Drive times are typical times on the main roads. Broadband figures are from thinkbroadband. We update this guide quarterly. See our methodology page for source links.
Frequently asked questions
Is Downham Market a good place to live?
It is if you need direct trains to Cambridge or London at a house price below £300,000. It has a sixth form, three GP practices and four supermarkets. It suits Norwich workers badly and has little to do in the evening.
What is the average house price in Downham Market?
The median of 220 standard sales in the 12 months to June 2026 was £260,000 (HM Land Registry). Terraced houses had a median of £220,000, semis £233,500 and detached houses £320,000.
How far is Downham Market from Norwich?
39 miles by road, most of it on the A47. The trains run the other way: Ely in 19 minutes, Cambridge in 39 and King’s Cross in 1 hour 31 minutes on the fastest train.
What are the schools like in Downham Market?
Downham Market Academy, for ages 11 to 18, was rated Good in every area in April 2022. Hillcrest Primary and Nelson Academy are both rated Good.
How big is Downham Market?
The parish had 11,349 residents at the 2021 Census. It sits on the Great Ouse on the eastern edge of the Fens, 11 miles south of King’s Lynn.
Related guides
Data sources: HM Land Registry, ONS Census 2021, Ofsted, West Norfolk council, National Rail timetables. Sales to June 2026, UK HPI to July 2026; latest Ofsted inspections. Author: James Ward, Property and Money Editor.
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