Whereto from London? (Plotting the escape)

[eversomuch]

I increasingly dream of "escaping" London. I love a lot about living here but it's just becoming so expensive and although we are close to some lovely parks & green space, it's not the same as countryside.

I didn't grow up in the UK so am not that familiar with places outside London, so I'd love some suggestions for places that meet the following criteria:

• small to medium-sized town/city

• maximum 90 minutes from London by train (but ideally within 1-hour)

• good public transport as we'd like to avoid having to get a car for as long as possible

• progressive

• good schools (DD starts primary school Sept 2015)

• good cultural offerings

• lovely community (we're atheists, so non-church-based community)

• easy access to nature

• NOT ON THE FLIGHT PATH! It seems wherever we live in London, we are plagued by plane noise.

Places like Cambridge, Oxford & Bath come to mind, but I'm sure there are other places I don't know about that would be worth exploring. Any suggestions? TIA

Henley, Virginia Water, Marlow, Ascot...

These are my 'not' places. I think they are pretentious. Full of Boden's Army with no imagination.

Oxford will have a new train line to Marylebone from next year.

Charles - Canterbury is a bit of a dump in many places... ( grew up there and visit often)

Unfortunately Marylebone is utterly pointless because it's on the tube to precisely nowhere important. You have to change lines to get anywhere. Still doesn't solve the Oxford problem (unfortunately; would love to live there).

Thanks so much. Lots of research to do now!

We really do love London and may decide to stay after all. But it certainly doesn't hurt to explore options.

What about staying in London but further out? Harrow or Barnet or other outer borough?

Worthing

Berkshire. Goring? apple ford? Pangbourne? 30 mins to Oxford and easily into Paddington.

Celtic We used to live in Barnet (Finchley). It was a bit too suburban for us. Neighbours kept to themselves, not much sense of community and no good places to eat/takeaway (first world probs!). IDK, maybe it would be different now that we have kids...

Great access to nature (greenbelt), though.

Don't know Harrow at all but have often thought that we should explore it a little. Any particular area that would be a good starting point?

Some of the replies have suggested places west of London (Maidenhead, Reading, Henley, etc). We've pretty much ruled them out because of the Heathrow flight path. And there's always the threat of the third runway, which could alter areas that now get little air traffic ...

Really? You'd rule out Reading because of plane noise??

It is bad in Wraysbury, Datchet, Colnbrook but once you are further out than that it is pretty minimal. I think you are overthinking that particular aspect TBH.

Have a look at Bedford. Gets a bad rap online and on here but I just moved from Sw London and love it. There is a very crafty, cosmopolitan vibe, 37 mins to St Pancras. Fantastic houses at relatively (to London and the south east) reasonable house prices. Check out this blog I am involved in with other people who love living here www.bedfordblogandboard.co.uk

Surrounding villages Ampthill Olney Biddenham Bromham are nice if the Town is not for you and no plane noise!

Is one (or both) of you prepared to be commuting 3 hours a day and seeing less of the children or is there the option to work flexibly/from home/locally?
A work colleague recently resigned because the commute meant he was barely seeing his son during the week and his wife was fed up of trying to balance a part time local job with all the childcare.

There are lots of lovely places to live within 60-90 mins of London (particularly if you've a hefty budget) but that commute can carry a price for one or both of you.

If you're sensitive to plane noise then Harrow probably isn't for you.

"Unfortunately Marylebone is utterly pointless because it's on the tube to precisely nowhere important. You have to change lines to get anywhere."

fortunately, most of us are blessed with legs, so after arriving at marylebone overland, can take the very short walk to baker street tube, and thus access the hammersmith & city, metropolitan and circle lines, should your target destination not be on the bakerloo line.

there are so many towns of a commutable distance to london, that making a recommendation is nigh impossible without knowing more about the OP's target destination(s) for commuting in london - which would be the overland station you would want to arrive at?

i've lived in surrey, kent, and now buckinghamshire, all of which have towns which fit the bill - but it does hugely depend on where you will be regularly travelling to. in my opinion, oxford, cambridge, guildford, st albans, sevenoaks, beaconsfield, to name but a few, would all meet your criteria.

as i currently live in bucks, i'm very biased, but am delighted with the schooling system, and (provided they arent disbanded) the possible opportunity to have access the the grammar school system in due course.

plane noise has never been an issue for any of the places i've lived, and seems rather more relevant to west london, and a straight line out from west london along the M4, perhaps as far as bray.

i wouldn't really consider harrow to be an "escape from london"!

I suggested Harrow because OP didn't sound sure about leaving London altogether, it's got great transport links and is decent value for London with good schools. When I lived there I didn't notice plane noise particularly.

I would suggest Pinner, Harrow on the hill, west Harrow and Harrow Weald worth a look? But agree we need to know where you'd have to commute to.

I'm currently a SAHM and when I do start working again, will probably be looking at freelance opportunities and working from home as much as possible. DH is a self-employed consultant, so he can work from home much of the time. Client destinations change, so we wouldn't really be targeting one specific end-of-commute location for either of us.

Definitely a bit on the fence about leaving London. We love so much of what the city offers. We wouldn't mind staying if we could find a really lovely area that didn't cost a fortune to rent (not interested in buying here) and met all our other criteria.

I personally don't think I'm giving too much weight to plane noise. Have had them flying overhead from 5am (or earlier) til 11pm (or later) in North London and West London and have really had enough of it. If a third runway goes through, it's likely to make areas already affected worse and some that aren't now affected may find themselves in the flight path. Hence our reluctance to consider towns close-ish to LHR.

I was you six years ago. We lived in South London and loved it but I yearned to bring up the kids somewhere a bit less hectic and somewhere I would have more of a community.

We ended up moving to Cambridge and it was the best thing for us! Initially we lived off Mill Rd which is a brilliant, arty, diverse and vibrant community and walking distance to station. We commuted three days a week and it was ok but tiring.

After 3 great years we had DC3 so had to move to a bigger house so now live in a South Cambridgeshire village and I love it! Don't miss London at all and the kids really love all the brill outdoorsy stuff there is to do around here.

Oooh Tournesol you could almost be me except I've only got 2 dc. We lived in London pre dc, moved to Cambridge and lived just off Mill Rd, then moved to a South Cambs village to get more space.

I love the fact that from Royston station I can be in Kings X within 40 minutes, I can access everything Cambridge has to offer (museums, theatre, cinema etc) within 20 minutes, and can also do lovely walks from my doorstep. If I could just have a few more hills, it would be perfect

Ever so - I'm with you on plane noise, its in south London and parts of Surrey too and has definitely worsened. Looks like you don't have to worry about commuting, you could move somewhere properly out of London then (have heard good things about Cambridge) rather than a suburb like Harrow which you might still find noisy and congested.

We moved 6 months ago from south east london to cambridgeshire with 2 dcs. A 25 min drive from cambridge. It is amazing and i wouldnt go back at all. Cambridge itsself is lovley and we do the commute into london so its an hr and a half is each way. Cambridge itsself is expensive for property same as london but as you come out it begins to fall.

Million, it's so reassuring to hear from other people who notice and are bothered by the planes too. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who notices them (and DH and the DC).

I really appreciate all the suggestions. Cambridge seems to be a popular vote and a destination we might indeed want to consider. I think I'd really like a small city like that.

I've been having a look at the Underground map this morning. Does anyone have any thoughts on the Amersham area? Looks very green, but I think there are some RAF bases that side of London, so I wonder if it would affect that area and if so how much?

I know Amersham very well. It is lovely, although expensive. Bucks grammar schools for secondaries, which may or may not be in its favour from your POV. But I would urge you to visit and assess the plane noise for yourself. It is still on the heathrow flight path and there is some noise.

everso: I'd recommend contacting the Heathrow Airport Authority and asking about Noise Preferential Zones. The HAA can send you maps which show the routes planes usually take on take off and landing (there are different routes depending on whether winds are eastbound or westbound). Note though that flights can be redirected anytime anywhere so there are no guarantees.

If going north of London suggest also consider Luton airport. HA is the main offender though because of the sheer volume of flights and the frequency of 'stacks' building up while planes circle waiting to land.

Some of the London boroughs took the issue of night flights to the ECHR a few years ago and (initially) won a ruling that plane noise was a breach of human rights. The Govt appealed though and of course the ruling was overturned.

Thanks, Million. I do have the maps. Have you ever tried making sense of them? If you take all the easterly and westerly arrivals and departures into consideration, it basically looks like no where in London or even immediately outside London is safe. Sad, really. But I think visiting an area will be important to get a better sense of what the situation actually is -- and hope not to be there on a rare no-flight day.

Am also taking Luton, Stansted and Gatwick into consideration as well when thinking about where to go.

I'm not expecting to find a silent bubble, but I would really like to not hear planes every morning at 5 or 6am, then most of the day and late into the night.

Blimey, I must seem insane and completely OCD about this.

Really do appreciate all the suggestions.