Where to live near London - yes this one again...

[yellowbeads]

I know this has been asked like a gazillion times...

Where to live that's commutable to London (Notting Hill), good primaries and secondaries, gorgeous houses, lovely cafes and shops close by, and generally fabulous in every way?

Holland Park

Yep Holland Park is lovely.

Oh. Near London. Sorry. I have no idea about that.

That's the thing!

Occasionally people I know say they're moving to some lovely town or village outside of London and I think - they're so lucky that they know somewhere and like it and have decided.

Locations near rail routes into Paddington? Sorry, not much help but that's the nearest mainline station.

Yes Luna!

What's the budget?

Rainham village, Hornchurch, Upminster, collier row... all in the zones and Hornchurch and Upminster are on the district line. Lovely areas.

Emerson park

Chorleywood, zone 7, ChilternRail into Marylebone 30 mins and the met line on the tube network. Outstanding/Good primaries and highly regarded secondary. 5 mins to m25 and then m1, m40 and m4 from there. Lots of green space, can pop to Amersham/beaconsfield for nice restaurants or into London.

anywhere in essex which will be served by cross rail would be a good investment. the people we bought our flat from were moving to an amazing house in witham and were going to have an easy commute to central london, but i'm not sure what station they needed to get to.

Romford possibly (if you ignore the crime/stabbings and the news about a delivery driver taking a dump in a Romford garden ) I love Romford it has pretty much everything and we're getting CrossRail (once they've sorted out the building works)

GideaPark, Harold Wood out towards Brentwood , Shenfield .
Or into London - Chadwell Heath into Ilford and Stratford (Stratford is up and coming with the Westfield and regeneration after the Olympics but its not my cup of tea)

Romford possibly (if you ignore the crime/stabbings shock and the news about a delivery driver taking a dump in a Romford garden )
^^
I suspect this isn't what the OP had in mind

luna this cracked me up

Without knowing your budget it's impossible to say

Mid Bedfordshire - Biggleswade, arlesey, Langford. All close to 30 mins into Kings cross, loads of trains. Near nice towns but rural

Within an hour from Paddington:

www.visitgoringandstreatley.co.uk/

Very lovely, but also very livable. Not cheap.