Rope Walk Bedford

21 addresses across 4 postcodes (MK42), about 540 m (0.3 miles) long, classed as a a road. USRN 27301456.

  • Flood: 12 addresses on its postcodes are in areas at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers, the sea or surface water.
  • Council tax: Most homes around it are in council tax band B; Band D in Bedford costs £2,472 a year in 2026-27.
  • Broadband: Gigabit broadband is available to 0% to 100% of premises.
  • Transport: The nearest railway station is Bedford St Johns, about 300 m away in a straight line.
  • Green space: The nearest park or garden, Everard Meadow, is about 360 m away.
  • Air: Background air pollution in 2024 was 10.9 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.3 of PM2.5, within UK legal limits.
  • Height: It is about 26 m above sea level.
  • Noise: 21 of its 21 addresses are modelled at 55 dB or more from road traffic.
  • Doctors: The nearest GP surgery is London Road Health Centre, about 500 m (0.3 miles) away, with 4 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile).
  • People: About 1,010 people lived in the census areas around it in 2021; 44% of households owned their home and 30% of adults held a degree or other higher qualification.
  • Crime: 505 crimes were recorded within 250 m between September 2025 and August 2026, most often shoplifting.

Sales on this street

Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, sales registered up to 28 August 2026, loaded 28 October 2026. Sales reach the register two weeks to two months after completion, so the last two months are incomplete. Matched by postcode and street name.

No sales recorded on this street since January 1995 under this street name.

Energy performance certificates

Source: Energy Performance of Buildings Register (MHCLG), register as at 1 November 2026. Latest certificate per address; certificates last ten years, so the oldest here and some homes have none. Address data © Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail, shown for understanding the energy efficiency of buildings only.

No certificates found for addresses on this street.

Council tax

What each band costs in Bedford in 2026-27: Band D £2,472 a year on average, including the police, fire and any county and parish charges.

ABCDEFGH
£1,648£1,922£2,197£2,472£3,021£3,570£4,120£4,943

Homes by band in the neighbourhood around this street: most are in band B (53% of about 970 homes).

Sources: Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties, homes at 31 March 2026 (counts rounded to the nearest 10; some small counts withheld), for the neighbourhood (census area of about 700 homes) around it, not just this street; Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, council tax levels 2026-27. Bands are charged as fixed shares of Band D; the actual bill depends on the parish and on discounts such as the single-person discount. Check a home's own band with the official council tax band checker.

Planning and heritage

  • Conservation area: yes, Bedford (council page). Extensions, demolition, some windows and doors, and work on trees need consent.
  • Listed buildings on or by this street: 1.
  • Article 4 direction (removing permitted development rights): none recorded, though not every council has published theirs.
  • Tree preservation orders: none recorded, though not every council has published theirs.
  • Green belt: no.

Listed buildings

Brownfield land registered for housing within 1 km (0.6 miles)

Source: planning.data.gov.uk (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government), compiled from councils and, for listed buildings, Historic England's National Heritage List. Conservation areas, Article 4 directions, tree preservation areas and the green belt are checked at each postcode's centre. Listed buildings and protected trees are counted on or by this street. Councils publish Article 4 directions, tree preservation orders and brownfield registers to different standards, and some not yet. Planning applications are not here: there is no national open record of them yet.

Roadworks

No street works under way, planned or finished in the last three months on this street, in permits up to 31 October 2026.

Source: Department for Transport, Street Manager open data, permits and works up to 31 October 2026. It is published once a month, so works arranged or started since then are not shown, and dates are the ones planned unless the works have started or finished. Emergency works are often permitted after they begin.

Flood risk

Rivers, the sea or surface water: in this street's postcodes, 1 address is in areas at high risk, 11 at medium risk and 22 at low risk. Each address counts once, at the higher of its rivers-and-sea and surface-water risk.

Rivers and the sea alone: of the 27 homes the Environment Agency counts, 0 are in areas at high risk, 10 medium, 13 low and 0 very low.

High: 3.3% (1 in 30) or more chance of flooding a year. Medium: 1% to 3.3%. Low: 0.1% to 1%. Very low: under 0.1%. The rivers and sea figures allow for flood defences. Counts cover whole postcodes, which can include other streets.

Flood zone for planning: at least one postcode centre is in flood zone 2. Zone 2 is between 0.1% and 1% a year from rivers (0.1% and 0.5% from the sea), ignoring defences.

PostcodePlanning zoneAddresses at high / medium / low riskGroundwater
MK42 0XEzone 2 0 / 0 / 5 unlikely
MK42 0BTzone 2 1 / 8 / 13 unlikely
MK42 0DHnot in 2 or 3 0 / 2 / 4 unlikely
MK42 0DLzone 2 0 / 1 / 0 unlikely

Sources: Environment Agency Flood risk: postcode search tool data (loaded 29 October 2026), Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea: postcodes in areas at risk (loaded 29 October 2026) and Flood Map for Planning (loaded 28 October 2026). Flood zones are checked at each postcode's centre point. These are models of areas, which their publishers say are not suitable for showing whether an individual property is at risk, and they do not cover flooding from sewers or drains. Check an address on the official long-term flood risk service.

© Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2026. All rights reserved. Some features are based on digital spatial data from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, © NERC (CEH); the postcode data is produced in part from PAF® and Multiple Residence Data, © Royal Mail Group Limited.

Height above sea level

The street's addresses are about 26 m above sea level.

Source: Ordnance Survey, OS Terrain 50, July 2026: the height of the ground on a 50 m grid, read at each address, in metres above Ordnance Datum (mean sea level at Newlyn). It is the lie of the land, not floor or threshold levels, and is accurate to a few metres. Being low-lying is not in itself a flood risk; the flood section above says what the flood maps show.

Broadband

Source: Ofcom Connected Nations, data as at January 2026. Percentages are of premises in each postcode that can get the service, not take-up or speed achieved.

Availability by postcode (% of premises)
PostcodeSuperfast (30 Mbit/s+)Ultrafast (300 Mbit/s+)GigabitBelow 10 Mbit/s
MK42 0BT100%100%100%0%
MK42 0DH100%6%6%0%
MK42 0DL100%50%0%0%
MK42 0XE42%0%0%0%

Getting around

Sources: Department for Transport, NaPTAN (every public transport stop), as at 31 October 2026; Office of Rail and Road, Estimates of station usage 2024–25 (which stations are on the National Rail network, and their journeys: entries and exits in the year to March); OurAirports (public domain, kept by volunteers); car parks and charging points from Overture Maps Foundation, release 2026-10-21.0, which gathers business listings from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and others: not an official register, so some will be missing, private or out of date. Distances are straight lines from the middle of the street, not routes, and say nothing about how often anything runs. Stations opened since the end of ORR's year appear when ORR publishes the next one, each December; heritage railways are left out.

NearestDistance
Railway stationsBedford St Johns 176,000 journeys in 2024–25300 m
Bedford 3.8 million journeys in 2024–251.3 km (0.8 miles)
Kempston Hardwick 9,780 journeys in 2024–255.1 km (3.2 miles)
Bus stops17 stops within 400 m (0.2 miles), 47 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest St Johns Centre Bedford40 m
Bus or coach stationBus Station Bedford920 m (0.6 miles)
Car parks5 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Kazoku Car Park290 m
EV charging points22 within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Osprey Charging Station90 m
Airport with scheduled flightsLondon Luton Airport LTN29.2 km (18 miles)

Local services

Sources: NHS Organisation Data Service, as at 31 October 2026: GP practices, community pharmacies and dental practices with an NHS contract, open now, each placed at the centre of its postcode; hospitals are NHS trust and Welsh health board sites named as hospitals, and may not have an emergency department. Police stations and cash machines from Overture Maps Foundation, release 2026-10-21.0, which gathers business listings: not an official register, so some will be missing or out of date. Distances are straight lines from the middle of the street. Nothing here says whether a practice is taking new patients or a dentist new NHS patients.

NearestDistance
GP surgeries4 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest London Road Health Centre500 m (0.3 miles)
Pharmacies11 pharmacies within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Lotus Pharmacy500 m (0.3 miles)
NHS dentists20 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest London Road Health Centre500 m (0.3 miles)
HospitalBedford Hospital630 m (0.4 miles)
Police stationBedford Police Station1 km (0.6 miles)
Cash machines5 machines within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Nisa Cashzone500 m (0.3 miles)

Parks and green space

Source: Ordnance Survey, OS Open Greenspace, April 2026: public parks and gardens, play spaces, playing fields and allotments, with their entrances. Distances are straight lines from the middle of the street to a site's nearest entrance (or its edge where none is recorded), not walking routes; sizes are the area OS maps for each site. Some sites, such as school playing fields, may not be open to the public.

NearestDistance
Park or garden11 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Everard Meadow 10 ha360 m
Play area11 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Unnamed 260 m²390 m
Playing fieldUnnamed 2.8 ha1 km (0.6 miles)
Allotments1 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Unnamed 730 m²660 m (0.4 miles)

Within 800 m (0.5 miles): 11 parks and gardens, 30 hectares in all.

Landmarks

The nearest historic landmark is Church of St John and associated boundary walls and gates, a listed building (Grade I), 110 m north-west. 76 listed buildings are within 1 km (0.6 miles), 5 of them Grade I and 7 of them Grade II*.

Historic places
NameWhat it isFrom the middle of the street
Church of St John and associated boundary walls and gatesListed building, Grade I110 m north-west
St John's HospitalListed building, Grade II*140 m north-west
Trinity HouseListed building, Grade II*240 m north
Former Parish Church of St MaryListed building, Grade I290 m north-west
Bedford Castle motte and baileyScheduled monument570 m (0.4 miles) north
Medieval lime kiln off Castle Lane, BedfordScheduled monument630 m (0.4 miles) north
Site of Newnham PrioryScheduled monument1.5 km (1 mile) east
Bedford ParkRegistered park or garden, Grade II1.9 km (1.2 miles) north
Bedford CemeteryRegistered park or garden, Grade II2.1 km (1.3 miles) north
Natural landmarks within 5 km (3.1 miles)
NameWhat it isFrom the middle of the street
Rink IslandsIsland410 m (0.3 miles) north
Castle HillHill530 m (0.3 miles) north
Longholme IslandIsland1.1 km (0.7 miles) east
Priory MarinaLake or reservoir1.6 km (1 mile) east
Press MeadowWood1.7 km (1.1 miles) east
Priory LakeLake or reservoir2 km (1.2 miles) east

Sources: Historic England's registers through planning.data.gov.uk (MHCLG), and Cadw through DataMapWales (Welsh Government): World Heritage Sites within 10 km (6.2 miles), battlefields within 5 km (3.1 miles), registered parks and gardens within 3 km (1.9 miles), scheduled monuments within 2 km (1.2 miles), and Grade I and II* listed buildings within 1 km (0.6 miles). Ordnance Survey, OS Open Names, October 2026: named hills, valleys, lakes, woods, wetlands and coast (it has no rivers). Distances are in a straight line to the middle of each site, and being on a register does not mean there is public access.

Air quality

Source: Defra, modelled background air pollution, annual means for 2024, for the 1 km square that holds the middle of the street. These are background levels, away from the kerb: beside a busy road nitrogen dioxide in particular can be several times higher. UK limits are the legal annual limits for England and Wales; the World Health Organization's 2021 guidelines are much stricter, and most towns and cities are above them.

Annual means in µg/m³ (micrograms per cubic metre of air)
PollutantHereUK limitWHO guideline
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)10.94010
Fine particles (PM2.5)7.3205
Particles (PM10)11.94015

All three are within the UK legal limits; nitrogen dioxide and PM2.5 are above the WHO guideline, as in most towns and cities.

Road and rail noise

Source: Defra, strategic noise mapping Round 4 (England), modelled for 2021 and published in December 2023, and its airport maps of the same round for the fifteen largest English airports, published in April 2026: Lden, the average sound level over a whole day with extra weight for the evening and night, on a 10 m grid, read at each address. These are models of traffic, not measurements; they leave out smaller airports and airfields, industry and neighbours, and a room at the back of a house is often much quieter than the front. The World Health Organization's guidelines are 53 dB for road traffic, 54 dB for railways and 45 dB for aircraft (below the lowest level shown here).

Addresses by modelled noise level (Lden, dB)
LevelRoad trafficRailways
75 dB or more10
70 to 7410
65 to 6950
60 to 6490
55 to 5950
Under 55021

21 of the street's 21 addresses are modelled at 55 dB or more from road traffic, above the WHO guidelines.

Climate, daylight and earthquakes

Monthly temperatures and rainfall, sunrise and sunset through the year, and earthquakes recorded nearby since 1970 are much the same across the area, so they are worked out once for Bedford: see them on the Bedford page.

Nearest schools

Source: Get Information About Schools (Department for Education), 3 November 2026; Ofsted monthly management information as at September 2026. Distances are straight lines from the middle of the street to the school; catchments and admissions are not shown. Since November 2025 Ofsted gives report-card grades by area, not one overall grade; older grades stand until a school is re-inspected.

SchoolPhaseAgesDistanceInspection
Bedford Free SchoolSecondary11–16310 m Outstanding (Jan 2020, overall grade under the previous framework)
Bedford College16 plus16–99430 m (0.3 miles) No published inspection
Cherry Trees Nursery SchoolNursery2–5690 m (0.4 miles) No published inspection
Shackleton Primary SchoolPrimary4–11710 m (0.4 miles) Report card (Jan 2026): Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard; Achievement: Needs attention; Attendance and behaviour: Expected standard; Personal development and wellbeing: Expected standard; Inclusion: Expected standard; Leadership and governance: Expected standard; Early years: Expected standard; Safeguarding standards: Met
Peter Pan Nursery SchoolNursery2–5850 m (0.5 miles) No published inspection
Cauldwell SchoolPrimary4–11880 m (0.5 miles) Report card (Nov 2025): Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard; Achievement: Expected standard; Attendance and behaviour: Strong standard; Personal development and wellbeing: Strong standard; Inclusion: Strong standard; Leadership and governance: Expected standard; Early years: Needs attention; Safeguarding standards: Met
Priory Primary SchoolPrimary3–111.1 km (0.7 miles) No overall grade (Nov 2024, graded inspection without an overall judgement): Quality of education: Good; Behaviour and attitudes: Good; Personal development: Good; Leadership and management: Good
Castle Newnham SchoolAll-through4–161.2 km (0.8 miles) Report card (Mar 2026): Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard; Achievement: Expected standard; Attendance and behaviour: Expected standard; Personal development and wellbeing: Expected standard; Inclusion: Expected standard; Leadership and governance: Expected standard; Early years: Expected standard; Safeguarding standards: Met
King's Oak Primary SchoolPrimary1–111.2 km (0.8 miles) Report card (May 2026): Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard; Achievement: Expected standard; Attendance and behaviour: Expected standard; Personal development and wellbeing: Strong standard; Inclusion: Strong standard; Leadership and governance: Strong standard; Early years: Strong standard; Safeguarding standards: Met
Bedford AcademySecondary11–181.5 km (0.9 miles) Good (Mar 2023, overall grade under the previous framework)
Livingstone Primary SchoolPrimary2–111.7 km (1 mile) Good (Mar 2023, overall grade under the previous framework)
Queen's Park AcademyPrimary2–111.9 km (1.2 miles) Good (May 2022, overall grade under the previous framework)

Food hygiene ratings nearby

Source: Food Standards Agency, Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, extract of 3 November 2026. Each rating is shown with the date it was given; a business may have been re-inspected since the extract. Within 500 m (0.3 miles) of the middle of the street.

BusinessTypeDistanceRatingRated
Starbucks Coffee Company MK42 0DJRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen80 m5 Very good14 Mar 2026
Costa Ltd MK42 0XERestaurant/Cafe/Canteen90 m5 Very good10 Dec 2024
Currys Ltd MK42 0XERetailers - other90 mExempt
Ramgarhia Sikh Society MK42 9BTOther catering premises220 m5 Very good10 Jun 2025
Homesense MK42 0XERetailers - other230 mExempt
Lidl GB Ltd MK42 0XERetailers - supermarkets/hypermarkets230 m5 Very good2 Sep 2026
Home Bargains MK42 0XERetailers - other230 m5 Very good27 Nov 2020
Kids World MK42 9BJRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen240 m5 Very good11 Jun 2026
B&M Retail Ltd MK42 0NWRetailers - supermarkets/hypermarkets250 m5 Very good13 Feb 2015
Kazoku Restaurant MK42 0AHRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen260 m5 Very good11 Sep 2025
Caffe Pausa at Dunelm MK42 0NWRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen300 m5 Very good5 Oct 2025
Farmfoods MK42 9BARetailers - supermarkets/hypermarkets300 m5 Very good20 Dec 2019
Kings Arms PH MK42 0ASPub/bar/nightclub330 m4 Good7 May 2025
BITES OF PUNJAB MK42 9ADRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen340 m4 Good2 Feb 2026
St Marys Post Office MK42 0ASRetailers - other350 m5 Very good13 Oct 2026

Crime within 250 m

Source: data.police.uk street-level crime, September 2025 to August 2026. Police forces move every crime to the nearest of about 760,000 anonymised map points before publishing, so these are crimes near this street, not on it, and a busy point can collect crimes from a wider area. Counts are of records, not convictions.

505 recorded crimes by category
CategoryCrimes
Shoplifting223
Violence and sexual offences72
Anti-social behaviour69
Public order34
Vehicle crime29
Drugs19
Criminal damage and arson13
Robbery13
Other theft12
Other crime7
Burglary5
Theft from the person4
Bicycle theft4
Possession of weapons1

Most of these are attached to: On or near Kingsbrook Road (266); On or near St John'S Street (98); On or near Pilcroft Street (51); On or near Station Road (36); On or near St Leonard'S Avenue (35).

People and work

Source: ONS Census 2021, taken on 21 March 2021, for the 3 Output Areas (small census areas of about 125 households each) that this street's postcodes are in: 1,011 residents in 430 households. The census was taken during a lockdown, so working from home is high and travel to work low compared with now. ONS swaps a few records between neighbouring areas and adds small amounts of noise to counts to protect privacy, so small differences mean little. Industry is not published for areas this small.

Who lives here

Around this streetEngland
Median age3840
Children under 1518%17%
Aged 65 and over19%18%

Homes

Around this streetEngland
Owned (outright or with a mortgage)44%61%
Owned outright27%33%
Shared ownershipunder 1%1%
Social rented16%17%
Private rented40%21%

Work and commuting

Around this streetEngland
Adults (16 and over) in work56%57%
Unemployment (of those working or looking for work)7%6%
Retired (of adults)20%22%
Long-term sick or disabled (of adults)4%4%
Work mainly from home (of those in work)25%32%
Travel to work by car or van50%48%
By train, Underground, metro or tram1%4%
By any public transport, including bus3%8%
On foot or by bicycle19%10%
Work within 10 km (6 miles) of home (of those who travel to work)71%65%
Work 30 km (19 miles) or more away8%8%

Education and languages

Around this streetEngland
Degree or other higher qualification, Level 4+ (of adults)30%34%
No qualifications24%18%
Apprenticeship as highest qualification8%5%
Main language English (aged 3 and over)68%91%
Cannot speak English well or at all9%2%

Deprivation

The neighbourhood around this street is in decile 3 of 10 on the English Indices of Deprivation 2025, where 1 is the most deprived tenth of England's 33,755 neighbourhoods and 10 the least.

Source: English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government), by LSOA (about 1,500 people), through the ONS Postcode Directory. The index combines income, employment, health, education, crime, housing and living environment; it ranks areas against each other and does not describe any one household. Ranks in England and Wales are worked out separately and cannot be compared.

What has changed

Nothing new since the change feed started on 30 October 2026. New sales and energy certificates, and hygiene ratings, school inspections and flood figures nearby, will be listed here as the sources update.

Everything that has changed on and near this street

Postcodes on this street

Source: ONS Postcode Directory August 2026, ONS UPRN Directory September 2026, OS Open Linked Identifiers September 2026. A postcode can cover more than one street; the share shows how many of its addresses are on this one.

  • MK42 0XE: 17 addresses of 21 in the postcode
  • MK42 0BT: 2 addresses of 42 in the postcode
  • MK42 0DH: 1 address of 32 in the postcode
  • MK42 0DL: 1 address of 4 in the postcode

Nearby streets

A600 · Station Road · Kingsway · St Johns Street · Ampthill Street · St Leonard's Avenue · Kingsbrook Road · Pilcroft Street · Rays Close · St Marys Street · St Leonard's Street · St Leonards Mews

All the streets in MK42 and across Bedford.

What this page cannot tell you

  • Whether a particular house is at risk of flooding, subsiding or anything else: the flood map is a model of areas and there is no property-level data here.
  • What a home is worth now: sales are historic prices for the homes that happened to sell.
  • How safe the street is: crime points are moved to anonymised locations and many crimes are never reported.
  • Whether you would get a place at a school: distances are straight lines, not catchments.
  • Who lives on the street now: census figures describe the small areas around it in March 2021, during a lockdown.
  • How long a journey takes or how often anything runs: transport distances are straight lines to the nearest stops.
  • Whether a GP practice is taking new patients, or a dentist new NHS patients.
  • How loud a home is inside, or noise from industry, neighbours or smaller airfields: noise figures are models of road, rail and air traffic outside.

How each figure on this page is matched to the street and worked out: methodology.