London's suburbs are nothing really interesting in comparision with Central London but I think it's worth to take a closer look at them. There are some really beautiful and pleasant suburban areas.

All following pictures are taken by me in various places around Kingston Upon Thames, New Malden and surrounding areas in this part of Greater London.

New Malden - Richmond Park

Route map
http://img17.exs.cx/img17/9660/x2080y680s50w700h4003bh.gif

Starting point, New Malden fountain where the highstreet starts (currently it's under reconstruction)
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/3201/18282258fh.jpg


End of New Malden's highstreet, two 16-18 storey highrises are sticking out surrounded by a sea of suburban houses. There are 3 flags fluttering in the square in front of the buildings - UK, EU and S.Korean which is seen in the picture. New Malden is known as the home of UK's largest Korean community
http://img236.exs.cx/img236/1681/18181721im.jpg


Base of the CI Tower (one of the two towers)
http://img236.exs.cx/img236/8563/18181731nx.jpg


Going further towards the direction of Richmond park, very calm and green street
http://img26.exs.cx/img26/3185/18181767wl.jpg



http://img26.exs.cx/img26/3922/18181779dn.jpg

Leaving New Malden's towers behind...
http://img26.exs.cx/img26/6526/18181804sv.jpg


Even more greenery around...
http://img26.exs.cx/img26/1500/18181813wd.jpg


http://img26.exs.cx/img26/7224/18181836lj.jpg


Some narrow empty street which later occured to be full of expensive luxury houses :|
http://img26.exs.cx/img26/6756/18181859hx.jpg

You can't see the buildings, they're hidden behind high fences, I wasn't exactly wishing to photograph everything, security cameras were mounted on every building and watching each gate
http://img26.exs.cx/img26/7454/18181896oo.jpg


One of the happy residents :)
http://img61.exs.cx/img61/7274/18181914zu.jpg


Continuing the trip next to a highway
http://img61.exs.cx/img61/1006/18181996vr.jpg

View from a pedestrian crossing bridge
http://img61.exs.cx/img61/1229/18282027iy.jpg


And finally reaching the destionation point - Richmond Park. It was getting late and cold so didn't have much time to wander around. The most common residents of the park :)
http://img61.exs.cx/img61/5028/18282070lb.jpg


http://img61.exs.cx/img61/3338/18282104te.jpg


It was dark and there were no interesting views on the way home, the last picture taken in the New Malden highstreet
http://img61.exs.cx/img61/2610/18282222qt.jpg




Second trip: New Malden - Hampton Court Palace

Route of the trip
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/615/x2070y670s50w700h4001nw.gif

First shot, Burlington Avenue in New Malden
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/6914/18282238bg.jpg


New Malden highstreet seen from the fountain (we're not gonna turn here this time)
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/3201/18282258fh.jpg


Church close to the fountain
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/4439/18282288gk.jpg

http://img176.exs.cx/img176/5028/18282309us.jpg

Typical buildings in the area (or in the whoe Southern England? :|)
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/5594/18282326wq.jpg

http://img176.exs.cx/img176/2976/18282389ui.jpg

Berrylands train station
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/3060/18282414bu.jpg


Surbiton Cemetery
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/2958/18282442fe.jpg

Just a random building in Surbiton (or Kingston, there are no clear borders between all those "towns" )
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/3556/18282452tn.jpg


Walking along River Thames, Kingston Bridge seen in a distance
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/9351/18282488jy.jpg


http://img176.exs.cx/img176/4756/18282495ag.jpg

http://img176.exs.cx/img176/8569/18282515ml.jpg

Yacht parking
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/9253/18282535ak.jpg

Some random suburban houses, the only thing you could hear was bird twittering, it was very calm around
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/2197/18282546fi.jpg


I wasn't exactly sure if I'm going on a right way, the streets were very confusing and very similar to each other
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/3801/18282559yr.jpg

http://img176.exs.cx/img176/5626/18282599jx.jpg


I was on a right way. Hampton Court Palace on the opposite bank of Thames. It was closed for visitors though
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/4641/18282636nm.jpg


Bridge next to the palace
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/6628/18282670yg.jpg

http://img176.exs.cx/img176/9885/18282712pk.jpg


http://img176.exs.cx/img176/2020/18282743lc.jpg



Some interesting tree
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/1540/18282829gs.jpg

After a long walk along the riverbank reaching Kingston
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/1531/18282874qj.jpg

Kingston Bridge
http://img176.exs.cx/img176/9872/18282916vf.jpg

Im heading down to Kingston tonight so ill see if I can grab some shots

Great pictures by the way :cheers:

:eek: I never realised London's suburbs were so beautiful! Great pics. Must cost a bomb to live in those areas.

^^^
There are VERY nice areas, although not all suburbs look like that ;)

great pictures. looks pretty much how i pictured it. what zone is it in for the tube, or trains? how close to central london, so i can place it?

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nice pics!

great pictures. looks pretty much how i pictured it. what zone is it in for the tube, or trains? how close to central london, so i can place it?

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There's no tube in Kingston or New Malden (although I've heard there are plans to extend it, currently the nearest one is in Wimbledon which is 2 miles away). It's 4th to 5th zones in the southwest, check it on www.multimap.com , type in KT3 and search.

^ thanks. now i've got an idea from the map where it's at. maybe i saw some of this area from the train heading southwest.

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This is one of the good suburbs of London.

Awesome, thanks for the tour. :)

Richmond is one of the more amazing areas in London.

^^^
Actually the entire surroundings of Kingston are pretty nice. Though I'll have to make a tour to Richmond too, just didn't have enough time for that on my last trip. I love these areas :)

Very nice, and from what I remember seeing of suburban London, the areas were quite nice. These pictures also look very similar to the burb I stayed in.
How far is this from Bromley(spelling?).

I stayed at a Bed & Breakfast in the burbs during my visit. I really like this place, it was nice to and peaceful to go home to after spending the day in the city. Bromley had a nice outdoor pedestrian mall, and the two weekends I while I was there the area was very busy. The foot traffic and activity reminded me a lot of the Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade in the LA area. I can see why many Britains like Santa Monca. In fact the promenade in Bromley was set up a lot like Santa Monica's. There is also an indoor mall at the furthest end of it, just like SM. I found it very easy to reach central London by commuter train, but suburb to suburb was not all that great. It was best driving or in my case I took a cab to visit a friend since it would have taken too long and many transfers by rail. Anyway from the suburb I was in it only took about 30 mins to reach central London and the scenery was beautiful.

very nice. Might have to get some pictures of my local suburbs. Namely the Harrow, Pinner, Ruislip, Eastcote, Norhwood areas in the North West. Zones 5 + 6.

Nice change to the urban pics.

If I had to live in the burbs, that would be my first choice. Looks very pleasant, love the flora and fauna.

London's suburbs give some major American cities a run for their money. There's going to come a day when American suburbs are seen as a joke and will collapse in on themselves.

Hmm only have passed through it on trains but never really knew untill now

Hi Bromley is in South East LDN and Kingston in South West.

I've been to Santa Monica and its the only part of LA I'd like to live in --partly because of all the British pubs :) ...ye Santa Monico is the closest thing to a British High Street or what you call an 'out-door Mall'

@Michi - American 'burbs are new so nothing has been built there except houses. many UK 'burbs are older than your country and were once towns/villages in their own right. In the case of london its simply hundreds of towns which have grown and grown and the gaps between them have gone turning some towns into 'burbs of LDN's CBD.

US 'burbs have a charm of their own in a kind of dislocated quiet way.