In England, you can learn a lot about a town or city simply from its name – if you’re in a ‘ton’, it’s likely that it was historically a farm or hamlet, places that end in ‘bury’ will have a connection with a fort and ‘stow’ refers to a meeting place of some sort.

Towns with either ‘upon’ or ‘on’ in their name, meanwhile, are an indication that you won’t have to look far to find the closest river. Usually these prepositions are historic, but occasionally they have been added more recently to emphasise a town's proximity to water: this year, for example, Staines-upon-Thames, pictured above, marks a decade of the addition of ‘upon Thames’ to its name – the change being first suggested by a business forum and coming into being after a vote from Spelthorne Borough Council.

For other locations, the addition of upon or on can be a necessary differentiator – Stratford-upon-Avon, for example, is easily distinguished from its close namesake in East London.

What's in a name? In most cases, an upon or on in a location's address also adds value. Our research team has ranked the top 10 ‘upon/on’ towns by highest average value. As the table below shows, Henley-upon-Thames tops the list with a premium of 75 per cent while in 7th place, with an 8.6 per cent premium, is the recently renamed Staines-upon-Thames.

Below are three of the best upon/on properties currently on the market.

Further information

Contact Steph Thomson 

Savills Residential Research