The prettiest villages near London ~ Conde Nast Traveller

1 ~~~ The prettiest villages near London ~ Conde Nast Traveller ~~~

If you have had enough of the Underground and urban sprawl, fear not: a world of cottage gardens, hedgerows and tumbledown pubs lies just beyond the threshold of the M25. 

Some of England’s prettiest villages are within an hour’s drive for capital dwellers, traffic permitting, and others are just a little further. 

They’re a diverse bunch, too: with Sussex inns among the contours of the South Downs; Berkshire townhouses beside the current of the Thames; Essex windmills soaring over East Anglian plains; and Surrey hamlets lost in the thickets of the Weald. 

It’s very possible to combine some of the villages below into a route for a busy day trip – Thaxted, Finchingfield and Castle Hedingham form an arch stretching eastward from near London Stansted Airport, while Mickleham, Shere and Ripley could be visited as part of a circuit off the A24 and A3.

www.cntraveller.com/gallery/villages-near-london