Living in Sutton

Sutton is an outer south London borough on the Surrey border, made up of suburbs and small towns including Sutton, Cheam, Carshalton, Wallington, Belmont and Worcester Park. It is known for its quiet residential streets, relatively low crime and highly regarded schools, including several grammar schools.

Carshalton has one of the borough's most attractive centres, with ponds, historic houses and Honeywood Museum, while Cheam has a village feel and the remains of Henry VIII's Nonsuch Palace in Nonsuch Park. Hackbridge is home to BedZED, one of the first large eco-villages in Britain, and Belmont has the Royal Marsden Hospital and Institute of Cancer Research.

Green spaces include Nonsuch Park, Oaks Park, Beddington Park, the River Wandle and the Wandle Valley Regional Park. The borough's population is more settled than inner London's, and family houses with gardens make up much of the housing stock.

There is no Underground in Sutton. Southern trains serve Sutton, Carshalton, Wallington, Cheam and Belmont, with services to Victoria and London Bridge, and Thameslink trains loop through Sutton, Carshalton and Hackbridge towards Wimbledon, Blackfriars and St Pancras. Tramlink touches the borough at Beddington Lane. Journeys to central London often take thirty to forty minutes. Few people move to Sutton for excitement; they move for schools, gardens and quiet, and the borough's grammar schools in particular draw families from well beyond its boundaries. Worcester Park and Cheam tend to cost more, while Wallington and parts of Sutton town centre offer more flats and lower rents.