To think there is nowhere within commutable distance to London that I want to live?

[Teacherprebaby]

Any advice greatly appreciated; if you commute to London, where do you live and what is it like? I have seen some less than desirable areas and don't want to make a mistake. I'm sure there are fabulous places, I just don't know them.

Must be within commuting distance to London Bridge/Victoria.

Depends what you've decided is 'desirable' - St Albans is nice and direct to London Bridge via Thameslink

You've left out a lot of details.

What's considered commuting to you? I live in London but people I work with commute all the way from Portsmouth.

What's your budget? Are you going to be buying or renting?

What's desirable for you? Are you wanting rural or live in a town?

When I was working near London Bridge people commuted from as far as the Isle of Wight! What is your max time and budget (further = more expensive).

You can commute to London from Wiltshire. Swindon to Paddington is only 55 mins on the 7:40 non stop train.

What's the budget and family situation?
How often do you need to commute?
I lived in London pre-pandemic and when we were deciding whether to move out to 'commutable' or stay in London we ended up in Balham which was amazing for our commutes to London Bridge and meant we could get an uber to nursery if the tube was screwed. This was a daily commute though and you might want more space/better schools. We had a lovely 3 bed terrace with a garden but were glad to have moved away to a bigger house when Covid struck.

The Estuary accent would be enough to put me off living in the South East, but having said that, if your salary is high enough you could commute from somewhere near a stop on the GWR main line like Didcot, Chippenham, or even Bath or Bristol.

My sisters partner commutes from Coventry every day. He's a bit of a train nerd, so loves it.

what budget? what things are you looking for in a place to live? how long are you prepared to sit on a train? there are lots of options.

How long do you want to the commute to be?

YABU.

Not everything on Mumsnet is an AIBU!

Why don't you tell us where you consider undesirable

You are probably looking best in South Lindon, Kent, Surrey, Sussex areas all with regular rail links to LB and Victoria. Is there really nowhere to suit? Budget, type of housing, schools, environment?

We are in Sevenoaks which is 24 min into London Bridge. I have colleagues who live in Totteridge and Edgware.

How incredibly rude!

OP you can commute from anywhere so you'd need to define your max acceptable commune time, property budget, amenities needed nearby (schools etc).

What’s your budget and for what kind of house?

What other attributes are you looking for?

Cheltenham, Stroud and Gloucestershire in General are becoming a new boom for commuters to London. And it's near Cotswolds! All have direct trains to London, very frequent too. And also have direct trains to SW and NW of England, and even Glasgow and Edinburgh!

My friend is at Sydenham and it’s quite leafy and lovely

I'm pretty sure westbury, wiltshire is an hour into London via train.

Lots of people commute to London from Lichfield,73 minutes.

Good grief… Are people really this snobbish and tone deaf?

Canterbury? Faversham? The Kent coast?

You’re going to have to put some more info on this OP, you can commute from a huge range of places. Do you want to be in London or outside it, what budget, what accommodation type, what’s your maximum travel time?

Seconding this. There are some lovely bits of SE London/Kent borders which most people don’t know about. Very green, good amenities and community feel, nice shops and cafes but without being grotesquely over-gentrified. Very good commute into London and (by London standards) relatively affordable. Schools are OK. Not the best in London but OK.

Sydenham
Forest Hill
Beckenham

And then a bit further out there’s lovely countryside in places on the way to Sevenoaks which are commutable. Shoreham and around those places.

Many nice places on the Portsmouth line that goes to Victoria. Haslemere, Petersfield, and on the other branch, Winchester.