Best places to commute to London from….

moove2london on 26 May 2010

As much as we’re very passionate about living in London, we realise that it’s not for everyone. Some people prefer to live in a quieter location with more space and then commute into London during the week to take advantage of the wide variety of jobs that London has to offer. People commute into London from far and wide, with the home counties being particularly popular. It’s not only families and middle-aged people that live within a commutable distance of London. Plenty of people in their 20s live on the outskirts as they consider it to be a more affordable and relaxing way of life.

Here are 5 places that we consider to be amongst the best places to commute to London from.

St. Albans – a small city in Hertfordshire with incredible train connections into London. It’s a reasonably expensive town to live in as it’s so popular with commuters. The city has an old cathedral, a bustling market and some great, historic pubs including ‘Ye Olde Fighting Cocks’ which is one of on a handful of pubs claiming to be the oldest in England. Trains from St. Albans go down the Thameslink line into St. Pancras in as little as 19 minutes, before continuing to Farringdon, City Thameslink and Blackfriars. An annual season ticket costs £2668 per year.

Colchester – the former capital of Roman Britain is located in Essex, about 60 miles to the north-east of London and is surrounded by lovely villages and countryside. It’s a military garrison town although the army barracks are now located on the outskirts of town, leaving an exceptionally pretty and historic centre of Colchester, packed full of tudor buildings. Some claim that Colchester is the ‘safest town in Britain’. Trains connect Colchester to London Liverpool Street, with services taking as little as 51 minutes. A season ticket costs £3940 per year.

Maidstone is the county town of Kent, through which the River Medway runs. It’s an old town, which is extremely functional in terms of shopping and amenities. There are some really lovely pubs and bars in Maidstone, although travel the short distance to any number of neighbouring countryside villages just outside of Maidstone and that’s where the real treats lie. Trains from Maidstone East go into London Victoria in around 56 minutes. A season ticket costs £3208 per year.

Amersham - a market town located in Buckinghamshire amidst the Chiltern Hills. The town is divided into two parts, Old Amersham and Amersham-on-the-Hill, which is next to the railway station. The high street is filled with medieval buildings and two of the historic pubs featured in Four Weddings and a Funeral. Amersham is technically part of the London Transport Zone and is situated in Zone 9. Amersham Station is also the final destination on one of the branch lines of the Metropolitan tube line, allowing easy access into London. It’s also possible to get the train from Amersham to Marylebone in as little as 38 minutes. A season ticket from Zones 1-9 costs £2708.

Guildford - the county town of Surrey has it’s roots in Saxon times. It’s constantly named amongst the top 10 places to live in the UK and has also been linked with one of the safest places to go shopping in. It’s a very attractive town that has a monthly farmers market. Guildford isn’t exactly cheap to live in; in fact it’s one of the most expensive places to live in outside of London. However, if this doesn’t both you and you’d like to travel into London Waterloo in around 34 minutes, then it could be the place for you. A season ticket costs £2728 per year.

For further ideas on where to live within a commutable distance of London, take a look at the ‘The Daily Telegraph Guide to Commuterland’ which is extremely popular with many of our Moove2London followers.