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I could use the name of a town outside London and how far its from the central part of the city by car or rail. This is for a story. Thank you.
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Danielle, enter in your browser
maps.google.com then in the search bar type: London, England, United Kingdom . you now get a detailed map view of London and the surrounding areas. grab and move the screen around to see the nearby towns.
Sephrena
towns
Heres some for you to look at all by car, all if the roads are clear, London is one of the worst places for getting to the centre of
Hemel Hempstead 35 minutes
Stevenage 40 minutes
Welwyn 35 minutes
hatfield 35 minutes
luton 35 minutes
Milton Keynes 60 minutes
Dunstable 35 minutes
St Albans 25 minutes
Watford 20 minutes
Kings Langley 22 minutes
All north of london
Re: towns
Hello Samantha,
I assume you are referring to Welwyn Garden City? Not to be confused with the village of Welwyn (train station, Welwyn North, the first stop after WGC going north!) just to the north of WGC. Pronunciation = "Well-in", the second 'w' is silent!
Even though it's called a 'City' it's not a cathedral city!
Regards,
Dave.
True but ...
... Old Welwyn is a handful of miles (2 or 3) from WGC. I lived (in digs) and worked there for 3 years from 1957 to 60 when I was a teenager. There was only one pub, the Cherry Tree, and the Welwyn Stores was the Saturday morning hang-out for teenagers.
When I lived there the first question anyone asked was "Which side do you live on?". That referred to the railway line. The west side was posh and the east side (where the factories were) was plebeian.
Robi
London by car
Simple answer: don't.
London is a bit like New York in that respect - go by rail if you can. Most of those who work in London commute by rail, visitors use public transport as well. Those who don't use rail are close enough in to use tube (subway) or bus.
The problem with road transport is that once you've got there there's nowhere to park - unless you're a local and know the area like the back of your hand (in which case you're already there).
Or you have so much money parking is someone else's problem.
As a courier who used to go in and out by road regularly I repeat: don't.
Penny
London is far worse than New
London is far worse than New York tbh regarding transportation by car, but on the other hand the public transportation is far better in London (Even of it is cramped).
Train system is quite good. :-)
I live 25 minutes by rail from central London....
drop me a line, as I can definitely help.
Tanya
There's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes!
Reading Basingstoke Bracknell
Reading
Basingstoke
Bracknell
All within commutable distance to London.
as well as some smaller towns like Wokingham.
All these bloody northerners!
Bugger, my extensive answer has disappeared.
Can't be asked to type it all in again.
South of London (where stuff is so much nicer, prettier, all round better etc etc etc etc etc)
Maidstone,
Sevenoaks,
Four Elms,
Badgers Mount,
Green Street Green,
Tatsfield,
Oxted,
Dorking,
Abinger Hammer,
Redhill,
Reigate,
Leatherhead
and many many more.
Hugs
Julia
Try Chelmsford
Chelmsford is a medium-sized town in Essex, about 30 miles north-east of London. It's actually a city, but its cathedral is the second smallest in England so most people outside the area don't regard it as such.
The A12 is the main road from London.
Trains leave from London Liverpool Street, close to the City (by which I mean the financial district). There are 5 an hour during the off-peak part of the day, and the fastest - a service that ends up in Norwich - does the journey in 33 minutes. The slower trains go to Ipswich, Clacton, Colchester Town and Braintree.
The station is a modest affair, only one platform in each direction. It's built on a bridge that crosses a not very busy road about half a mile from the central shopping area. This thoroughfare is lined with specialist shops, take-away food outlets and a few olde-worlde pubs.
Despite lying well within London's commuter belt, Chelmsford has managed to keep a sense of its own identity. It has a relatively low crime rate, and the people are friendly to outsiders.
Hope this helps.
Rich (not an employee of the Chelmsford Tourist Board, honest!)
Every Option available
It doesn't matter train or car,
In England no town or city's ever far
Two hours North is Gods country
An hour South you're in the sea
If you go East, you're in the Fens
Three hours West you'll find Lands End!!
there's lot's of nice towns and villages for stories with different history, nice scenery and different types of surrounding countryside.
Oxford, Cambridge, Bath, Gloucester, Stratford On Avon, Basingstoke, Brighton,Hastings,York,Aylesbury,Cantebury, Cchelmsford,Tunbridge wells.
I live in Bromley, which is
I live in Bromley, which is 20-25 mins south of London by train. I commute to London every day so I have to strongly disagree at the comment "The rail system is quite good" The fairs go up every year, and the trains are still late and horribly cramped or cancelled altogether. Sorry... rant over.
The problem with picking a name out of the air...
...is that you know nothing about the place.
As a few people have said, there are significant differences in the style and make up of towns, which vary from area to area. To the north of London, (get ready to be offended) it's really one great big suburbia; to the south, there's a very definite green belt with the towns beyond it having much more of individual identity.
To the west, there's the UK equivalent of silicone valley along the M4, but get beyond that and there are some lovely towns and villages.
To the East, north of the Thames estuary, is Essex which no one likes to talk about; to the South, there is Kent which is very built up by the estuary, but a lovely county beyond.
If all you're going to do is to mention the name of a town, then just pluck one at random from Google maps. But if you're going to talk about car or train journeys, or perhaps the type of shopping, restaurants or pubs, then you're heading into danger. The best thing is to invent a town, as I did with Seacombe. It can then be whatever you want it to be.
Town North of London
I would suggest either Stevenage or maybe Letchworth Garden City. It depends on the type of place you want.
Both are on the A1M approx 35 miles north of London. Depending upon the time of day; Stevenage to the centre of London is 1hr 15 mins up to 2hrs in rush hour. For Letchworth add 15 mins.
By train, Stevenage normally 30 mins; Letchworth (which is on the Kings X to Cambridge and Kings Lynn line) is fastest 25 mins (Kings Lynn - Cambridge - Letchworth - Kings X) or slowest 50 mins and just about every stop.
Stevenage is a 'new' town (London overspill) (Here we go round the Mulbury Bush was filmed there)and Letchworth (Simon Peggs new film was filmed there)is the world's first Garden City built in 1905.