Located 16.5 miles (26.6 km) east-northeast of Charing Cross, it is one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan.

Historically a rural village, it formed an ancient parish in the Chafford hundred of the county of Essex.

[3] An alternative explanation suggests the upp could refer to the geographical relationship to a church at Barking or Tilbury in Anglo-Saxon times.

[6] Local industry included a tannery, gravel extraction and a brick works that was connected to the railway station by a tramway in 1895.

Delayed by World War I,[8] electrified tracks were extended by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway to Upminster and through services resumed in 1932.

[11] The parish council acquired the Clock House building on St Mary's Lane for use as offices in 1924.

[11] The area was served by good spring water, with mains supply provided by the South Essex Waterworks Company from 1836.

It is bounded in the west by the River Ingrebourne and there is a stream running east–west, just north of Corbets Tey that has been dammed to form a lake.

[5] It has formed part of the continuously built-up area of London since the 1930s[17] and is contiguous with Cranham to the east and Hornchurch to the west.

Upminster is a post town in the RM postcode area; it forms a long protrusion over the M25 motorway and additionally includes North Ockendon, also in Havering, and Bulphan in Thurrock.

All of Upminster is contained within these wards, however they also cover the connected settlement of Cranham and the rural outlier of North Ockendon.

[22] The level of home ownership is atypically high compared to the rest of London and England, with over 90% of housing tenure under owner-occupation in both wards.

[26] Upminster is identified in the London Plan as a local district centre with 37,000 square metres (400,000 sq ft) of commercial floorspace.

[32] There are Transport for London bus services to Hornchurch, Romford, North Ockendon, Lakeside Shopping Centre and Cranham.

Havering Council's urban strategy recognises that nearby Hornchurch is the main cultural hub of the borough with a large theatre and arts spaces, and Romford offers the largest regional concentration of entertainment facilities.

[38] The speed of sound was first accurately calculated by the Reverend William Derham, Rector of Upminster, thus improving on Sir Isaac Newton's estimates.

Derham used a telescope from the tower of the church of St Laurence, Upminster to observe the flash of a distant shotgun being fired, and then measured the time until he heard the gunshot with a half-second pendulum.

Measurements were made of gunshots from a number of local landmarks, including the Church of St Mary Magdalene, North Ockendon.