Advise me on nice cheap London areas!

[MissHonkover]

Have only ever rented in London, and haven't lived there for years. Trying to weigh up 'travelable to London' with 'edge of London'. Also would now want to buy (for about 50p).

Here are my criteria:
Nothing urban and edgy - Hackney definitely isn't for me.
Green bits
Somewhere with decentish transport links
Naice shops

Does this even exist?

You need to specify exactly where you need to commute to, and then look out along those tube/train lines. Eg if you're working in EC3 then you should look in Essex, and there's no point looking out west.

train tickets from that far out are excruiating...

Don't know yet, both me and DP are freelancers who would get more work in London, so we're weighing up whether we should move. It's all a bit chicken and egg at the moment, trying to look at our options.

As Lareine said, watch out for the price of commuting. Can easily run £5k/year. Just be sure to budget trains into your plans, so you know what you're getting into. The fares increase every year.

We're selling our house. Outside of London BUT walking distance to Ebsfleet International (15mins) which takes you into St Pancreas in, like, 20ish minutes. Not an affluent area as such, but Bluewater shopping centre is maybe 15mins drive and it has green areas etc etc. Just a thought...

m.rightmove.co.uk/quickPage.html;jsessionid=4078EF9EDC7AB4DA70BA69D488868B82?page=19&cc=html5%2Fhomepage.html%3Fgoto%3DHOMEPAGE#details

If you want cheap then you need to look in South East London. Plumstead, Woolwhich, Eltham. It is v hard to find anything under 200k though.

There are places in London where you can buy a 3 bed house for less than £250k, Edmonton, Walthamstow, Southall, Harrow Weald among others.

Oh sorry I just saw the bit about nice shopping.

Chesham

3-bedroom flat in hemel hempstead. 25 minutes by train to Euston or 1 hour by bus to Victoria. www.primelocation.com/uk-property-for-sale/details/id/HHBG9499155/

Consider East Dulwich, plenty of green space, The Rye and Duwich park,no tube but overland rail links, very good community feel. not sure about affordability as prices have risen

Difficulty is that cheap usually comes with edgy - unless you go far out.

If you want cheap with good transport links then how about finsbury park? Zone 2, excellent tube, rail and buses. Near to all that Islington has to offer, but a bit dodgy at night.

Don't go to Leyton unless you don't mind getting mugged on the way home regularly - I say this knowing people who live there.

South Norwood! Still cheap(ish) but prices have risen lately. Lots of quiet residential roads with compact period houses. Excellent commute (12mins fast train to London Bridge), overground line. Within easy reach to Crystal Palace and Beckenham for a night out.

I cannot believe someone one here is suggesting area like East Dulwich - it is nowhere cheap!!

Was just about to say the same! East Dulwich is £££££

Why not rent OP?

Just leaving Dover House -I'm sure I must know you in RL Quint - now we're leaving, happy to out myself (live on corner of DH with Sw)

miss I would look east at Essex? Expensive commute but cheap housing.