To think there must be somewhere lovely and unpretentious within commuting distance of London?

[Willthisdoo]

Is it possible to find somewhere to the southwest or west of London that’s still within commuting distance (and has a station) but is also very close to the countryside, not too full of over privileged people, somewhat diverse, has reasonable(ish) rents and house prices, and is also appealing and attractive as a town/village? Does such a place actually exist?? Or is this just a pipe dream?

Oxted and Reigate are both quite nice and have good transport links.

SIL rented a lovely 4-bed house in Oxted for £1,800 a month.

I know you said west / south-west, but there are some lovely countryside locations east of London that you could commute from in 1-1.5 hours... Chelmsford, Ingatestone, Billericay etc spring to mind.

I'd look a bit north - Peterborough itself is a bit of a dump but there are some lovely villages near there and it's only 50 minutes to kings cross. Grantham is a nice market town, 1hr 10 to kings cross. In both those places you'd get a mansion for that money.

@mayhew Want to be southwest/west due to our families mainly being in SW London.

Where counts as pretentious?

Do you drive OP? How close do you want to be to your family? Are they in Teddington? (I know it well I got married there! first time )

Reading or surrounds?

Bicester, 48 mins into Marylebone

Outside the box! But lots of places on the east coast Trainline are within an hour of London and very very reasonable for prices. Think Peterborough, Grantham, Newark, Lincoln. All countryside surrounded and very cheap housing. Just a thought

Caversham maybe, ? Posh Reading and pretty nice and Reading is pretty mixed!! And it’s an easy commute, also Maidenhead , both within budget, just

Anywhere in Hart district eg Fleet area is nice, not pretentious and wins awards for best area to live in eg this one a mile from the station www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-65039185.html, or this one half a mile: www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-54308826.html
Or try Twyford, Berks is cheaper than Maidenhead but also on mainline to Paddington (& crossrail), station is a short walk from everywhere in the village, good local schools, nice and friendly local community (see Facebook page for Twyford (Berkshire) : www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-64828147.html

@mrskoala We both drive but DH would rather not have to drive to station in the mornings. His family are in Kingston, mine in Hampton - would be good to be within an hour’s drive from them but would be happy for it to be further for the right place!

Lots of really interesting ideas for us to check out - thank you all! Definitely going to look at Twyford as a couple of you have mentioned it now.
We were looking at Godalming/Guildford/Farnham but what worries me is that the things that annoy me about Teddington would annoy me there too.

Eastleigh

They definitely would willthisdo. I lived in Guildford, working in Farnham for 5 years. We left due to not wanting dc to be like so many (not all, obviously!) of the ridiculously loud, over confident children, gym bunny mums and red trousered dads.

I was also coming on here to say Eastleigh!
Definitely not pretentious. Good transport links - train to Waterloo and near Southampton Airport.

On a more serious note, I would look around Fleet. Great place to live, and a different vibe to Godalming etc

Parts of Sutton (Cheam, Carshalton) or Worcester Park. London borough but green and easy to get out. Not massively diverse but not too insular either, and super family friendly.

Milton Keynes

not even slightly joking

Reading, no brainer really.

If you like Teddington I would consider Woking, Guildford, Godalming, Farnham, Cobham, Claygate, Leatherhead.

Surrey is more expensive as generally the links in to London are better (faster and more regular) than other counties, eg Kent.

Balcombe is a small village with a station with fast trains to London Bridge. Not far from Brighton but rural and lovely.

I lived j

I lived just outside Buckingham. Rented a 5 bed detached house for £1500 pm. 15 minutes to Bicester and 35 minutes into Marylebone from there.