Let's do the timewarp: West Ruislip

Dust off your twinset, grow a beehive, and send the kids off to school with homemade cookies.

Who lives here?
Stargazer Russell Grant, former Sugababe Siobhan Donaghy, pneumatic temptress Jordan and DJ Erica North.

How many stops to civilisation?
17 to Oxford Circus.

House prices?
£400,000 plus for a four-bed house, with flats starting at around £170,000.

What's good?
A popular area for commuter families, with the Thirties upmarket suburbia of Eastcote Park considered particularly desirable.

The whole area has something of a last-century feel, with summer fairs, large green spaces and a sizeable US military base.

What's bad?
With Bar Lula's, a hang-out of Jordan's being one of the exceptions, nightlife may feel provincial.

What do they say?
'People here are not Londoners. Middlesex goes back to 1710AD and we're proud that it is still not John Betjeman suburbia.' Russell Grant