Live super centrally or in a residential area with commute?

[silksheets]

Moving areas in London. Either fancy a nice flat in Kensington with a 40 minute tube commute to work. Or fancy living near Covent Garden with a 20 minute bus or 25 minute walk to work.

I hate the tube with a passion so it would be Covent Garden for me. Not being reliant on any public transport is a huge advantage IMO.

I'd do anything to avoid the tube if I could afford it.

We live 20 mins walk to work in zone 1, it's amazing. Not just for the commute but also weekends socialising and visiting places, it's easy enough to be doing interesting things every day and your local venues and restaurants are places that people travel miles for. Great for travel elsewhere in the UK and getting to airports too.

I think it depends on the various practicalities of each specific area. I live in a part of Kensington which is often overrun with tourists looking for the famous market.

I imagine Covent Garden is worse but with less parking, more difficult to get to the supermarket and so on. I used to commute from Kensington to Aldwych and walk from Charing Cross and seeing all the homeless people really upset me. It was overrun with tourists the rest of the day.