Call me back

The best places to live for commuters: Cambridgeshire

Sun 14 Feb 2016

 

Grantchester

Commute: Cambridge (London Kings Cross/Liverpool Street, 52 minutes). Drive to station: about 8 minutes. Frequency of trains: 2 per hour (peak). First train in: 5.14am; last train home: 12.04am. Annual season ticket: £4,692. Annual car-park ticket: £1596.30.

The Country Life verdict: You’d never be short of inter-esting dinner-party guests here: it’s said to have the highest concentration of Nobel Prize winners in the world (most of whom will, no doubt, have gravi-tated the two miles there from Cambridge). Students like to punt here in the summer and have tea at the Orchard Tea Garden.

Best address: The Old Vicarage (once home to the soldier/poet Rupert Brooke, now home to novelist Jeffrey Archer)

Alternatives: Comberton (excellent state school), Histon

Cambridge

Commute: Cambridge (London Kings Cross/Liverpool Street, 52 minutes). Frequency of trains: 2 per hour (peak). First train in: 5.14am; last train home: 12.04am. Annual season ticket: £4,692. Annual car-park ticket: £1596.30.

The Country Life verdict: A beautiful but tiny city with a famously tight green-belt girth, which protects it from sprawling. A perfect combination of cosmopolitan and old-world charm.

Best addresses: Chaucer Road and Latham Road, says Chris Carey of Bidwells Cambridge, but beware the best houses go for £5 million upwards.

Alternative: Madingley, for great views.

Kings Parade, Cambridge.

Brampton
Commute: Huntingdon (London Kings Cross, 48 minutes). Drive to station: about 4 minutes. Frequency of trains: 3 per hour (peak). First train in: 4.25am; last train home: 12.04am. Annual season ticket: £5,012. Annual car-park ticket: £825
The Country Life verdict: Samuel Pepys lived here for a time. Home to Huntingdon Racecourse and an excellent collection of shops.
Best address: Pepys House.
Alternatives: Godmanchester, Hemingford Abbots.
Country Life, 14/02/16, www.countrylife.co.uk 

"To Roy and the rest of the team Thank you for all of your efforts on our behalf and for pulling the rabbit out of the hat at the last minute Best wishes"
Juliet