Merstham is a village of Redhill, located outside the M25, which means that it is basically not in London, but could reasonably be considered a London suburb. Merstham itself is quite small, with a very small high street, but it is well located for what we need. From our house, it's about a five minute walk to the park, a five minute walk down to a path that runs around a lake, and about fifteen minutes to the train station (please note that all walking times are measured in J. approximations - which means that that's about how long it takes me - your experience may be different).
Merstham Station
There's a couple of pictures below of the road leading from the station (and which runs by Dalton's school), as well as of the high street. Dalton's school is somewhere between a ten and fifteen minute walk. The school itself (below) has been around for a while, and has been on its current site for over a hundred years.
School Hill and Merstham Primary
The high street itself has a reasonable number of shops, including a dry cleaners (kind of - they don't press your shirts), a hairstylists, the chemist (a.k.a. the pharmacy), and the Olive Tree, which is the one we frequent the most. The Olive Tree is basically a small grocery/specialty store, which is neat to visit for fruits and veggies, but you wouldn't want to depend on it for regular shopping.
The Olive Tree
Eating places are few...there's a Chinese take-away restaurant up the street, and a fish and chips shop on the other side of the park (about ten minutes walk), and the Hunger's End (a sandwich shop) closer to the train station. Otherwise, I guess you could go to one of the pubs, of which there are a handful - The Feathers, The Jolly Brickmakers, The Limes, or the Inn on the Pond, which we discovered this past week, to name a few. And that's Merstham. Small, yet close enough to Redhill that we're not far from what we need, and close to the countryside.
Merstham High Street
Down our street and a nearby pond
We're also about five minutes walk from the bus stop, which takes you into "downtown" Redhill. The bus stop is next to Canada Hall, so named for the Canadians who built it in WWII. Canada Hall is next to a Church of England where a monument to the service men of Merstham who died in the War has been erected.
Bus Stop and Church of England monument
You can walk into Redhill - we all made the trek back from Redhill this past Saturday. I figure it's probably about a mile and a quarter... if you make the right turns. Redhill itself has much more in the way of amenities than Merstham including a mall (the Belfry), complete with a bookshop (Waterstone's), toy store, and clothing stores. Redhill also has a theatre (the Harlequin), and the only real grocery store for a few miles (Sainsbury's). So, generally, when I say that we went into Redhill, this is why - there's certainly more places to shop, at any rate, and you can eat at McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, the pubs, or one of a couple of restaurants that are all congregated together close to the bus station. This past Saturday we went to The Sun, a family-friendly pub/restaurant in Redhill, where Mich & I got the "Beer and a Burger" combo, and the kids got fish sticks and chicken nuggets meals - all for less than 15 pounds. To understand how amazing this is, you have to realise that it costs us a little over 20 pounds to go to Burger King.
Redhill High Street and the Pubs
