Crime and Safety in Downham, Lewisham
Last updated: 07 Jun 2026
The most common crimes in Downham are violence and sexual offences, with 670 offences during 2026, giving a crime rate of 36. This is 3.6% higher than 2025's figure of 647 offences and a difference of 1.25 from 2025's crime rate of 35. Downham's least common crime is bicycle theft, with 6 offences recorded in 2026, a decrease of 14% from 2025's figure of 7 crimes.
Downham 2026 Crime Scorecard
2.7% higher, borough crime rate
London
32% higher, national crime rate
England, Wales & NI
Local Crime in Context
As of April 2026, the crime rate in Lewisham is 2.7% higher than London and 32% higher than the England, Wales & Northern Ireland overall figure.
Lewisham Crime Rate Over Time
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Downham Crime Map
Incidents mapped in Downham represent the time frame between January 2016 and April 2026. Each point on the map represents an area where crimes have been recorded locally.
Use Crime Map
Hover over a point to see a breakdown of crime types recorded at that location. You can also filter by individual crime types, or use a combinations of offences to visualise the data you need.
Introduction to Downham's crime statistics
This crime profile provides a detailed view of crime and safety around Downham up to April 2026, the most recent data release available. The crime figures and statistics have been calculated across each of Downham's 173 postcodes using three area sizes for comparison:
- Within a Five-Minute Walk
- Within a Ten-Minute Walk
- Within a Fifteen-Minute Walk
Individual crime risk scores and index figures are for the 12-month period ending April 2026 unless otherwise stated.
Crime Risk Scores
Downham • 12 Months Ending April 2026
The typical five-minute walk within Downham has a crime risk score of 666. This is based on analysis of 173 nearby areas within Downham, with "most" referring to roughly two thirds of the nearby locations.
Crime risk scores are on a scale of 1 to 1,000 and consider the severity of the crimes involved, as determined by sentencing guidelines. A score of 1 represents the lowest risk, and 1,000 the highest risk. This approach ensures that - unlike overall crime rate figures - bicycle theft is not given the same importance in Downham's risk scores as, for example, robbery, or violence & sexual offences.
Within a five-minute walk of the typical location in Downham, crime risk scores are typically around 666, while in Lewisham they are average 624.
Areas within a ten-minute walk typically see crime risk scores of 735 (697 for Lewisham), and scores within a fifteen-minute walk are most often around 776 (Lewisham 752).
Trends in Crime Risk
Downham
Calculated via Seasonal and Trend decomposition using Loess, the Seasonality Adjusted line represents the original data with seasonality subtracted, and the Trend line has been plotted unadjusted. Overall trend direction has been identified using the Mann-Kendall trend test, and rate calculated from the slope of the best-fit line identified from linear regression.
The 10-year trend indicates a decrease of 12% in Downham's crime risk score. This is potentially a strong signal of how the crime risk is evolving. Cross-referencing with major cultural events and Covid's impact during this time is advised.
Looking at the previous five years, the trend in Downham's crime risk score is up by 9%. While potentially a good indicator of the overall risk trend, analysis may offer further insight when combined with the checks mentioned above.
Over the last year, Downham's crime risk score has shown a downward trend of approximately 2.7%, indicating that the risk profile is going down. This is an extremely short time period for crime trend analysis, and caution should be exercised when interpreting this figure.
Crime Rates and Indexes
Downham
The CrimeRate Index shows how crime rates compare against the national average.
1.0 equals the average
2.0 is double
3.0 triple
0.5 is half and
0.25 a quarter.
Highest Crime Rates
Downham • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Excluding other crime and other theft because their geographic location is often not relevant, anti-social behaviour as its definition is too wide, and bicycle theft for its specificity.
Vehicle Crime offences have a crime rate of 11 reports per 1,000 people in Downham, which is 2.50 times the national average. This figure is calculated from 200 crime reports logged by Metropolitan Police during the 12-month period ending April 2026.
For the same period, Metropolitan Police recorded 52 reports of Robbery in Downham, resulting in a crime rate of 2.77 reports per 1,000, and a CrimeRate Index of 2.35.
The crime rate for Shoplifting is 2.12 times the national average at 15 reports per 1,000. This is from 282 crime reports reported to Metropolitan Police.
Most Significant 3-Year Increases in Crime Types
Downham
Excluding other crime and other theft, anti-social behaviour, and bicycle theft, and calculated with the same STL method described in Trends in Crime Risk, using CrimeRate Index figures to identify crime types that are trending above or below the national average, and the analysis timeframe limited to the last three years.
Shoplifting offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 2.44 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Shoplifting CrimeRate Index was 0.44 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 455% over this timeframe.
Vehicle Crime offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 3.37 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Vehicle Crime CrimeRate Index was 2.09 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 61% over this timeframe.
Robbery offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 2.10 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Robbery CrimeRate Index was 1.78 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 18% over this timeframe.
Most Significant 3-Year Decreases in Crime Types
Downham
Calculated with the same methodology as the largest increases section above.
Public Order offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.90 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Public Order CrimeRate Index was 0.59 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 53% over this timeframe.
Crime Type Breakdown & Heat Map
Downham • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Size and colour reflect the CrimeRate Index figures for each type of crime.
Downham | Lewisham | London | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Type | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| Anti-Social Behaviour | 305 | 16.35 | 1.16 | 7,237 | 23.04 | 1.63 | 235,985 | 21.68 | 1.53 |
| Bicycle Theft | 6 | 0.31 | 0.91 | 316 | 1.00 | 1.37 | 13,695 | 1.26 | 1.73 |
| Burglary | 54 | 2.90 | 0.93 | 1,475 | 4.69 | 1.50 | 47,359 | 4.34 | 1.39 |
| Criminal Damage and Arson | 136 | 7.30 | 1.16 | 2,021 | 6.44 | 1.03 | 54,098 | 4.99 | 0.79 |
| Drugs | 88 | 4.72 | 1.53 | 1,719 | 5.47 | 1.77 | 53,167 | 4.87 | 1.58 |
| Other Crime | 29 | 1.54 | 0.83 | 442 | 1.41 | 0.76 | 13,008 | 1.19 | 0.64 |
| Other Theft | 107 | 5.74 | 1.01 | 2,473 | 7.87 | 1.38 | 97,452 | 8.97 | 1.58 |
| Possession of Weapons | 20 | 1.07 | 1.67 | 327 | 1.07 | 1.26 | 6,443 | 0.60 | 0.71 |
| Public Order | 107 | 5.75 | 0.99 | 2,222 | 7.08 | 1.22 | 60,049 | 5.52 | 0.95 |
| Robbery | 52 | 2.77 | 2.35 | 1,011 | 3.23 | 2.74 | 30,804 | 2.83 | 2.40 |
| Shoplifting | 282 | 15.10 | 2.12 | 2,614 | 8.33 | 1.17 | 87,976 | 8.09 | 1.13 |
| Theft From the Person | 25 | 1.32 | 1.12 | 1,248 | 3.98 | 2.57 | 77,160 | 7.11 | 4.59 |
| Vehicle Crime | 200 | 10.74 | 2.50 | 2,502 | 7.97 | 1.85 | 81,755 | 7.50 | 1.74 |
| Violence and Sexual Offences | 670 | 35.91 | 1.18 | 10,720 | 34.15 | 1.12 | 273,434 | 25.12 | 0.83 |
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Total Crime by Year
Downham | Lewisham | London | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| 2026 | 1,776 | 95.17 | 1.34 | 29,090 | 92.69 | 1.29 | 896,400 | 82.39 | 1.14 |
| 2025 | 1,596 | 85.62 | 1.18 | 29,168 | 93.87 | 1.27 | 896,961 | 83.23 | 1.12 |
| 2024 | 1,704 | 91.87 | 1.25 | 29,489 | 95.41 | 1.26 | 900,986 | 84.38 | 1.12 |
| 2023 | 1,626 | 88.18 | 1.15 | 27,475 | 89.26 | 1.13 | 835,471 | 78.98 | 1.00 |
| 2022 | 1,516 | 81.98 | 1.08 | 26,674 | 86.58 | 1.13 | 795,646 | 75.77 | 0.99 |
| 2021 | 1,712 | 92.42 | 1.37 | 26,336 | 84.55 | 1.23 | 727,983 | 69.09 | 1.01 |
| 2020 | 1,674 | 89.60 | 1.25 | 26,844 | 85.59 | 1.15 | 819,467 | 77.66 | 1.05 |
| 2019 | 1,466 | 78.46 | 1.06 | 26,633 | 85.10 | 1.12 | 849,310 | 80.70 | 1.06 |
| 2018 | 1,389 | 74.84 | 1.09 | 24,573 | 78.96 | 1.11 | 810,063 | 77.08 | 1.08 |
| 2017 | 1,352 | 73.20 | 1.18 | 24,331 | 78.79 | 1.23 | 758,160 | 72.41 | 1.13 |
| 2016 | 444 | 24.11 | 1.29 | 7,760 | 25.19 | 1.32 | 234,565 | 22.42 | 1.18 |
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Downham Compared to Other Lewisham Neighbourhoods
12 Months Ending Apr 2026
| Neighbourhood | Total Crimes | Crime Rate | Rate Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grove Park | 988 | 66.57 | 30% safer |
| Catford | 3,314 | 82.23 | 14% safer |
| Bellingham | 1,161 | 121.36 | 28% more dangerous |
| Beckenham Hill | 826 | 128.85 | 35% more dangerous |
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Frequently Asked Questions
Crime in Lewisham