where's good to live within 90 mins commute of central London?

[thewomanwhothoughtshewasahat]

Really need inspiration for a friend of mine. They'd like as much open space as possible - they're used to a country life. They'd consider any direction from London except for south, with a preference for sw-w-n. They reckon they can't afford St Albans, but personally I'm not convinced that there's anywhere that fits the bill that is going to be much cheaper. Any suggestions?

Wokingham is nice - it's expensive but possibly not as much as St Albans - it's 70 mins from Waterloo, or you can get a train to Reading (10min) & from there it's about 30 mins to Paddington.
Or Twyford is about 25 min to Paddington

There was a massive thread recently, I'll see if I can find it.

any good?

We live in Sidcup/New Eltham - not too expensive (about £250k - £300k for 3 bed house) and 25 mins on train to London Bridge or Cannon St - but we are SW9 so not north or west - what a waste of a post eh!!

another long N London vs Herts thread

we've just moved to milton keynes and have been pleasantly surprised - loads of nice green open spaces and lakes within the city plus lots of good countryside around, reasonable house prices and plenty of great facilities (shopping, ski slope, riding, adventure stuff, skating, restaurants etc etc) and all just 31 minutes out of Euston station. Well - that's if you get a fast train - if you end up on a slow train it can probably take nearly an hour...