What town near London offers a combination of reasonable house rentals, good schools and a viable commute?

I have to be honest, this isn't easy! What you want, i.e. a decent rent, 2 beds, decent schools, and this is the hardest bit, a one hour commute, is kind of what everybody wants. considering the commuting times in Central London, it can take take a couple of hours to get from one area of London to another at rush hour, which doesn't even really count as a commute as it's still in London, I think what you mean is a commute to outside London in the home counties or somewhere? So I can make a few suggestions based on my 25 years experience of working in London

Central London is way overpriced, but if you have children you may want to pay more so you have more time with them and your wife, as commuting will dig into this time heavily. It may sound like a fortune but it will save you hours of frustration on the trains and tubes. You can probably get a 2 bed flat for maybe 1200 a month in an area next to a 'nice' area - don't even think about a 'nice' area, with 2 kids you probably can't afford it so maybe consider on the edge of nice. Example, Hackney in the Islington borders is okay, but don't go into Central Hackney, maybe Stoke Newington or Newington Green? Not on the tube so prices lower but reasonablly frequent buses and cabbable from central London if you're desperate or drunk..

further out of town maybe try lewisham on the Blackheath borders, again not central lewisham but somewhere between the heath and Lewisham centre. It's a pain of a train journey but takes less than half an hour, assuming you can fit in a carriage and there are no delays. If you are nearer the Blackheath station or even if not, it's worth a walk to this station as even though it's a zone further out and costs more, you can often get on a train at rushour before it reaches Lewisham when it's almost impossible.

Further out even more, into Surrey and Middlesex, somewhere around Richmond, forget Richmond itself no-one bar rock stars can afford it but go to the slightly dodgy areas around there, Whitton just outside Twickenham maybe, and you may find something and there are lovely parks etc round there for weekends - the commute isn't bad, maybe half an hour into Waterloo if you can squeeze on a fast train rather than one that takes ages, again assuming no delays, and also add on your journey to the station which will maybe be a bus ride as accommodation prices near stations are impossible but it's also more expensive as you're looking at zone 4 or maybe even 5 so you're now faced with time commuting (you have to build in delays) away from the family AND higher travel costs.

Going further out, in a different direction, maybe Hertfordshire. Depends where in Central London you work as you have to consider travel at both ends to and from the station, in fact that is sooooooo important it will probably decide where you live. If you work near Euston or Kings Cross then Hertfordshire isn't a bad bet. Look at somewhere like Kings Langley which is about half an hour from Euston so mabye if you have to travel at the other and and in Central London it may take an hour(without delays). The rents WERE quite low here but recently as commuters are moving further and further out to try and find exactly what you are looking for, the prices have risen a bit. Evidence of this is they have extended the platform and number of trains as commuters are rising so much in this area. Property builders have sussed this out and are building like there no tomorrow and prices are rising quickly. this is what happens when a new 'find' appears on the horizon, you have to be quick before it goes off the scale of affordable like everything else.

The only other thing I can suggest is that you rent a nice house too far out of London to be effected by all the commuter hell, where your family can be based and where your kids can go to a nice safe school, if it's more than 90 mins from London then prices probably half. And you rent a weekday bedsit from which to work and stay in monday -Thursday. It sounds awful but I know a lot of people who did this when families came along, it was either that or moving out of London for good, which was the preferred option. you wil lonly see your family 3 nights on a weekday but you'll be a lot less frustrated and you will have a lovely house with a bit of space and safety to go back to.

sorry if that all sounds negative, but there is no answer to give you want if there was we'd all be there!! I hope this is useful

Blake.

I wtite after working in London for the past 20 years, living in Central London, out of London, renting, buying, sharing, you name it I've tried every comination and eventually, earlier this year I gave up and said, I want a better life than this I'm out of here.

Everybody in London wants a reasonable under 1 hour commute to a reasonablly priced home I'm afraid, that's why the prices are sky high up to about an hour maybe 90 mins out of London. If there was such a place everybody would be living there. You have to either pay the high rent (I paid almost £1000 a month for a one bed flat above a shop in fairly central SAFE area of London when I last lived there but I could walk to work and not get raped on the way) and save several hours a day commuting and the cost of a whacking great annual ticket cost, and an unbelievable amount of frustration at countless delays and crushed trains full of lunatics, OR you go somewhere more than 90 mins away and pay a decent rent, get a seat on the train if it's the start of the line, make sure you work near the station in central London so you don't have to do the tube, and spend maybe 15 hours a week less with your family and see your blood pressure rise to dangerous levels...

There's no way to win on this one, apart from "don't take the job in London!!" the pay is probably good but when you balance everything out your quality of life will be worse than you can ever ever imagine. DON'T DO IT!!!

From the present day Coca-Cola London Eye to the historical Tower of London, London has much to offer, see more with Hotelbye . In London you will also find the world-famous British Museum. British Museum displays the performs of man from prehistoric to modern times, from across the world. Shows include the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon statues and the mummies in the Ancient Egypt collection. Another place to see in London may be the London's National Gallery, a huge space filled with Western European paintings from the 13th to the 19th centuries. In that gallery you will see works by owners such as for instance Van Gogh, Da Vinci, Botticelli, Constable, Renoir, Titian and Stubbs. London is just a place where you could see the past and the further in exactly the same place.

Lindfield or Cuckfield near Haywards Heath, West Sussex. Really pretty villages with a commute to Victoria taking 45minutes from Haywards Heath. Rental for a 2 bed flat/ house about £650/£750 per month. Good schools, prosperous area.

When I moved to london it was great, I lived in Surrey and commuted then moved East and commuted, then lived in more central London and commuted. I can tell you the situation then:

I got on a train every time - and sometimes I even got a seat

Delays happened but were pretty infrequent

People were reasonably polite and unthreatening

I felt reasonably safe walking to and from stations

I could walk along the pavement without being pushed off into the road

I could get into a pub after work for a quiet drink

I could get a table in a decent restaurant that I could afford

I could get out of London at weekends for a reasonable price and see some greenery

I could get to meetings out of London at a reasonable cost and reserve a seat

I could nip into a shop and buy a pint of milk easily

Several years later the situation is quite different, London's population, despite 'statistics' is growing to unbearable levels and this is effecting everything, the situation now compared to above:

I have sometimes had to wait for NINE trains before one comes along that has has space.

Delays are the norm, even cancellations and extra time has to be built into the journey every day - transport is now reliably unreliable.

People are rude as hell, push past, knock you off the pavement or out of trains, are too busy to help and are so stressed that threatening behaviour is commonplace.

I can no longer get in the door of my back street local which used to be quiet let alone get a seat or get served at the bar.

It is impossible to get a table at any of the restaurants in my local area, so no ad hoc dinners out. and the busier they are the higher the prices go.

Getting out of London is a nightmare and not worth the hassle. Even when I have a seat reservation I have to stand as not only can I not get to sit down but I can't even get into the carriage I am meant to have a seat booked in, for people crushed like sardines in the aisles. I regularly stand for 2 hours outside the toilet coming back from meetings in Birmingham into London.

There are always about 20 people queued in any shop and some sort of argument going on at the front of the queue.

yellow police incident signs are on almost every street corner it seems like. Last year the person in the flat below mine was stabbed by a stranger in the street in Islington and died. Muggings are commonplace and what used to feel safe feels like a threat.

Trains are full of angry commuters, care in the community sick people, gangs, buskers, or pickpockets. What should have been a half hour journey on the Silverlink was taking me TWO hours each way due to hassle and delays and just the general commuting nightmare. That's THREE full days a week travelling, I was working 5 days and travelling for 3 - for a journey 20 mins away as the crow flies. It didn't used to be like that.

London is overpopulated, expensive, threatening, and pretty much the place to get OUT of nowadays not into. I have many many friends and colleagues who have made the move. 5 years ago I looked into an exchange to another city, and people were queueing to get into London, I was offered a 3 bed house in exchange for my 1 bed flat, when I moved earlier this year there was nothing, absolutely nothing, all the movers were moving OUT of London the same as me.

In a few years London will be full of 2 types of people - 1 the very wealthy who can afford to live in the city centre and don't need to commute and 1 the very poor who lived on estates and can't afford to move anywhere, and have to rob people for a living. the rest of us will have seen sense and moved as far away from the hell that is London as we can get.

Take my advice, look at other options,don't put yourself and your family through that!!

They are developing the river front area between Dartford and Gravesend in Kent and calling it the Thames Gateway. Lots of new houses and amenities been and being built. Getting into London is pretty quick (about 30mins) and should get even quicker with the opening of Ebbsfleet station.

http://www.thamesgateway.gov.uk/

Leigh on Sea in Essex is a nice place. Its a richer cousin to my neighbouring town of Southend.

Closer to London is Upminster/Chafford Hundred that's big commuter territory.

If money was no object - Harpenden in Hertfordshire. Some of the best public schools around.

Maybe Hertfordshire... where I live! It's just outside London...