Question: town with open land near London?

[ariss_tenoh]

Hi, I am writing a story set in modern day UK/alternate history with dragons, and would like to know which town near London would a relatively middle-class family live in? With the caveat that it must have some open land/green space/fores(?) for the dragon

Comments

[sollersuk]

I would like to know more details, such as the occupation of the wage earner(s) which might affect acceptable distance from London. Also, more about what is needed with respect to the open space: all land in the UK belongs very specifically to somebody, usually with restrictions on what can be done there. For example, it is extremely difficult to find anywhere that camping is allowed other than commercial camping sites, a mindset that I don't think would be accommodating to dragons.

Traditional middle class areas around London include Wimbledon (with Wimbledon Common) and Richmond (with Richmond Park). When people of this class want to live significantly outside London, they are more inclined to look at villages than towns, but there tends to be less communal open space and I suspect there could be problems with livestock.

[ariss_tenoh]

It's a family of 3, 4 if you count the dragon. Father is a lawyer who commutes to London, while mother is a history teacher at a nearby school. Daughter is the dragon's "companion" and is currently working on Phd thesis.

I'd like an area where there's some open space or common land as you stated where ideally the dragon would be able to sleep or rest, since no house would be big enough to accomodate him.

I'm not British so feel free to advise me^^

[sollersuk]

Is the father a solicitor or a barrister? Barrister would be more likely if he was commuting any distance. I used to work for a solicitor who lived in the village of Pratts Bottom (I'm not making this up, honest!) which is just to the south of London (would need to check but I have a feeling it's actually in Greater London, but if not, only just outside) and she found the commute so stressful that she had a flat on the top floor of the 18th century house where the practice was situated.

Good train services would be important as the Congestion Charge makes it really expensive to commute into Central London by car (both Wimbledon and Richmond are on the Underground which would be convenient, if uncomfortable; Greenwich would be another possibility).

Would there be any potential problems with dog walkers etc? Open spaces tend to be heavily used, and common land comes with certain restrictions, many to do with grazing rights that may be somewhat academic now but still can be invoked.

[ariss_tenoh]

Had to google the definition but yes, father would be a barrister.

I'd assume all small animals like dogs, cats, and horses would shy away from dragons. I've added an explanation in the original entry, if you don't mind having a look above.

[hazeln]

My dad grew up in Harpenden where Harpenden Common might fit the bill for the green space http://www.harpenden.gov.uk/harpenden-common His family lived in a 3 bedroom detached house, his mother was a housewife and his dad was a doctor who commuted to London on the train.

[bogwitch]

I can second that Harpenden has a lot of green space around it, not just the common.

[ariss_tenoh]

Thank you! That sounds like it might do^_^

Little bit of background: It's a family of 3, 4 if you count the dragon. Father is a lawyer who commutes to London, while mother is a history teacher at a nearby school. Daughter is the dragon's "companion" and is currently working on Phd thesis.

[hazeln]

Can confirm that Harpenden has a lot of trains to London and is full of commuters. My dad and his older brother both also used to travel on the train to the nearby town of St Albans for school.

[bogwitch]

Maybe these people own a small farm (it doesn't have to be a working one) although if they are near London, they are going to have to be earning a good wage. Although if you are considering Kettering, which is not near London at all in our terms, you could go almost anywhere in the South of England.

[ariss_tenoh]

*headdesk*
Oh dear... maybe I can explain a bit? The background is it's a family of 3, 4 if you count the dragon. Father is a lawyer who commutes to London, while mother is a history teacher at a nearby school. Daughter is the dragon's "companion" and is currently working on Phd thesis.

Thank you for replying!

[anonymous]

Exactly, kent is quite far, but where you are looking in the south, there is quite a lot of green space. I visited surrey recently and i think this might have some as well, although the town i was in did not seem middle class at all... so depends what you want them to do and why they need to be near london

[syntinen_laulu]

Actually much of Surrey is heavily wooded, with small twisty country roads; much of it is very 'remote' and hard to get to, even though in actual distance it's very close to London. It's also very rich; if you follow one of these little rural lanes through the woods and fields, you'll often find a million-pound 17th-century Wealden farmhouse with a swimming pool and stabling for a dozen horses at the end of it.

[ariss_tenoh]

Thank you for replying.

the background is that t's a family of 3, 4 if you count the dragon. Father is a lawyer who commutes to London, while mother is a history teacher at a nearby school. Daughter is the dragon's "companion" and is currently working on Phd thesis.

[thismaz]

If you are writing a modern day UK/alternate history with dragons, then history would have diverged from ours, so the pattern of settlements would have formed differently. If people needed to accommodate dragons, there would be open spaces left near most settlements. If they were threatened by dragons, they would have clustered more tightly together and avoided having open spaces. I guess what I am saying is that you can invent, or build over existing, open spaces as you wish for the purposes of your story.

[emily567]

Yeah, that's definitely also true, I guess it's just easier to have a starting point though, and it depends wht you had in mind

[ariss_tenoh]

I'm assuming that London is out of the question for dragons. But that towns outside would have some open space at least. The dragons are sentient but are sort of an oppressed minority being used chiefly for war throughout the ages, and the Church and religious men questioning if the dragons have souls or are descended from the serpent in the garden of eden.

Since it's an alternate history/pseudo-modern world, I don't want to invent too much.

[philo7]

Could I ask why you assume London itself is out of the question?

According to an article in the Independent, 47/% of it is green space (I haven't put the link because this response is likely to be marked as spam, but it comes up if you google green space in London).

Although a lot of that will be small gardens, there are loads of parks and playing fields. I grew up in London, and there were parks within walking distance in every direction, plus school playing fields and local authority playing fields, etc and so forth! If dragons are sentient and a normal part of your society, they are likely to be acceptable in such places, if you need them to be, I would have thought?