Lovely places to live within commuting distance of London?

[Wombat33]

Hi all. My DH and I are looking to buy a house. We are currently just to two of us but are hoping to have a family sometime soon. We're looking for a location within commuting distance of London that is a lovely place for a young family to live, good schools, open spaces, things for the children to do and plenty of other potential mummy-friends. I also have my heart set on a period property, so not too much to ask for there then :)

Any suggestions as to where we should look? North and West of london are more accessible to family than south and east.

We live near Pinner and the area ticks your boxes I think. Good schools and lots on for little ones. Much better value than many other areas. Ruislip and Eastcote are also nice and all these places are on the tube.

Further out I've heard good things about Berkhamsted.

When you say commuting distance, how much time are you actually prepared to spend commuting?

You can look at the book "The telegraph guide to commuterland" - which looks at places and their distance by rail / rail station into london ... quite helpful if you know which station you would like to commute to.

That book sounds fantastic, will see if I can get hold of a copy.

Timewise - no more than an hour and a half door-to-door ideally. We are currently thinking about Beaconsfield or Marlow, Bucks, to give you an indication.

Also thought of At Albans or Harpenden. Anyone know anything about these?

Marlow is very nice.

Or closer in, Teddington. We used to live there and i'd move back tomorrow if we could afford it!

You can do Cambridge to Kings Cross in under an hour. I few of the women I work with do this commute every day.

Beaconsfield and Marlow are both lovely. I live in between the two, Windsor area is also good (but trains bring you into south of London). Marlow has more period property but train link to London is much longer. Both are nice towns though. Maidenhead is not such a nice town (a bit boring), but very popular with families and lots of good schools and clubs. You could also look at Amersham and the surrounding villages.

It is lovely for bringing up children round this way - lots of choice of schools (although don't underestimate the importance and cost of getting in the right catchments areas!). Lots of outdoor and indoor facilities. Our plan was to return to DH's homeland but I can't really see us leaving here!

Egham lots of open space about good schools nice people. I live just up the road in Englefield green and moved from Twickenham. about an hour on the train i think to waterloo but, not tested this yet.

I would go for a biggish town so that there is plenty to do, etc rather than somewhere that is essentially a suburb of London.

St Albans & Harpenden both have good schools & fast connections to London (20 mins from St A). Plenty of restaurants & pubs, close to the countryside, very popular with families or people starting a family. Both have got very expensive though in terms of property prices.

Berkhamsted is lovely too, more of a village feel & a longer commute.

Thanks all. I'll have to take a look at Berkhamsted and Teddington. We'd also thought of Cambridge and part of me would LOVE to live there, but it is the furthest one from family.

A vote for the Chilterns from me. We live in a village near Amersham - complete with duck pond, village green, period houses. Schools good - state and private. Train/tube is 10 mins away and just 30 mins from there to Marylebone.