Smaller towns outside of London, great for meeting the locals not the tourists?????

Try Ealing. Just stayed there with friends for 2 weeks. Easy 7 minute Great Western Train ride from Paddington. Or the Tube ride on District line is about a 30 minute ride into the city center. Used both. Went in for theatre evenings. Once to see My Name is Lucy Barton with Laura Linney at the Bridge Theatre and one night to see Hamilton at the Victoria Palace. Also trained to Paddington and then used the underground ( Circle Line ) to Kings Cross St Pancras to revisit Granary Square’s adjacent Coal Drops Yard which hadn’t been developed in 2017. Wanted to see what it had become. Very impressive development. Then had cocktails at the beautiful Booking Office inside St Pancras.

Ealing has nice pubs. Liked The Haven Arms ( a true local), North Star and the Red Lion. Loved the variety of restaurants. Bronek’s Fish and Seafood, Pho Saigon, Limeyard, Bill’s and Santa Maria for pizza were all good. Loved morning coffee and almond croissants at Ginger and Moore cafe. Also loved walking to Cafe Leemoo across the road from the Drayton Court Hotel. There was a small farmers market on Saturday mornings.

I also tubed from Ealing Broadway to Putney Bridge and discovered excellent coffee at the small Dr Expresso Caffetteria across from the station. Also found the nearby tiny and outstanding Hurlingham book shop. Ray, the owner, was pure joy. Then walked from Putney Bridge along the Thames Path to Hammersmith. All about photography, rowers, dogs, and being outside. Enjoyed a late lunch of sage and pumpkin soup at The Dove Pub.

I also liked visiting Turnham Green Terrace. Gorgeous leafy neighborhood. Nice Main Street.

Simply saying you can stay in London neighborhoods and enjoy the “ local” experience.

With no disrespect to Claudia, I wouldn't recommend Ealing, it's just an outer-London suburb. If you wanted that sort of thing, Richmond, or somewhere along the river around Kew or Chiswick would be better, but I think you're really after something outside of London. Your parameters are actually quite hard to hit, but towns not too far out and from which you can walk into the countryside would include Sevenoaks, Edenbridge or Westerham in Kent; Dorking, Haslemere, Farnham or Godalming in Surrey; Windsor in Berkshire; Amersham or Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire; St Albans in Hertfordshire; and Colchester or Saffron Walden in Essex.
They're all small to medium-sized towns not too far from London and fairly easy to get to, and you can walk, or take a short bus ride, into the countryside from all of them (you might need a slightly longer bus journey from St Albans, but still not too bad).

I agree with Pete, Ealing would be fine with friends (is it still a hotspot for Australians?) but it's not great for walking ( at least with somewhere like Richmond or Ham you have the wonderful,Richmond Park). I thing Pete has listed some good options, I'm also a fan of Wiltshire which you will be travelling through to get to Stonehenge, and Berkshire, so you could either add on a few days here with your car to make the most of exploring the area, or it's on the train line into Paddington giving you the choice of places such as Newbury (close to Dowton Abbey's Highclere Castle), Kintbury, Hungerford or Bedwyn - all on one train line, or try somewhere like Cookham, Henley or Marlow in Berkshire.

Ealing is just a nice London suburb with no countryside nearby.

Just a note - you will find people in the north of England to be much chattier and friendlier than those in the south!

Towns around London that haven’t already been mentioned - Tunbridge Wells, Tring, Berkhamstead, Rye, East Grinstead, Guildford or the New Forest.

I've just read through and see that St Albans has already been mentioned.

Lots of Roman stuff, plenty of locals, a fabulous and seriously old cathedral, good food, yet very easy to reach London from St Albans City station into St Pancras and the Thameslink stations of Blackfriars, City Thameslink, Farringdon, London Bridge and down to Brighton and direct access to Gatwick, and you can go north on Thameslink to Bedford which has a large Italian community who are now the locals and have been for generations. Real Italian pastry and only a short journey.

Although the cathedral has been a cathedral only since Victorian days the Abbey, for that is what most locals still call it, and which the church had been since around 300 AD until it was elevated to a cathedral (at the same time as the town became a city) the Abbey has long and very interesting history.

St Albans is referred to as a city (not a town or village). The population is around 60,000 which is not a lot.

A second train line (known as the Abbey Line, and the trains on it are locally referred to as The Abbey Flyer - despite the 6 stops and slow speed) runs down into Watford Junction from whence the Knight Bus takes Hogwarts afficianados out to the very popular and now expanded (as from April) studio tour.

A pretty good account of the city is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Albans

I too would vote for St. Albans. We have stayed in this interesting town for a month at a time. We never ran out of interesting walks, sites and quick trips into London the way Nigel describes. We usually went on the first train after 9:30 to take advantage of the off peak savings.

St. Albans is also a market town to there is a nice vibe on the high street several times a week.

If you decide to stay closer to London, the suburbs of Richmond, Chiswick and Ealing and all very nice in their own way. We have done nice long house exchanges in/near those suburbs and wouldn’t hesitate to go back to any of them.

We now often stay in Ealing (near Ealing Common) because it is a delightful London borough, affordable including breakfast (£67/night including breakfast at the end of March at the Doubletree), has the lawn tennis club, and it's 20-25 minutes to Central London on the Piccadilly line. it's a 10 minute walk to the Central line & the GWR and 3 minutes to the Piccadilly & District lines. Plus it's convenient to Heathrow.

If you want a town outside of London, Ealing is not for you as it's a borough of London! :-)

"Just a note - you will find people in the north of England to be much chattier and friendlier than those in the south!"

A bit of a myth put about by "the north", I've lived in both north and south and never found this to be the case, maybe in cities but I've found "unfriendly" people in cities all over the world. I live in Hampshire and have found the people in my area very friendly in general.

Folks I referenced Ealing as a suggestion simply because it IS a London neighborhood AND because you don’t find tourists.

As far as walking I walked from Dickens Yard to S Ealing Cemetary and over to Gunnersbury Park and back up to Ealing Broadway. Also used the tube to ride to Putney Bridge and followed the Thames Path to Hammersmith.

No it’s not the countryside but you can find interesting walks to enjoy and explore areas outside London.

Was merely mentioning another option for them to possibly consider.

Ealing is quite close to me as is much improved recently. It’s not particularly easy for even locals to talk to locals in London... we do tend to keep ourselves to ourselves... but as a tourist talking to a local, you are likely to get a much more enthusiastic response... assuming you pick your spots. Pubs and parks where people generally have time to spare, not outside tube stations for example, where people will almost definately be in a rush. People with dogs always seem to like a chat, and if you like dogs too, there is an easy convo starter. Towns by the river are a great idea too... like Kingston-upon-Thames for example.

Folks I referenced Ealing as a suggestion simply because it IS a
London neighborhood AND because you don’t find tourists.

Got it. I concur wholeheartedly as we love it.

Taking note of all these great suggestions. As anywhere, as soon as you're not in a big city, locals have the time and curiosity to talk with tourists. We've had nice chats – and several times have been invited in to people's cottages for tea – in villages in Cornwall, Lincolnshire, West Sussex, etc. A lady I met on a coach from London to Lincolnshire has been insisting I come stay with her in Grimsby ... now that is a place off the usual tourist path ;-)

We were treated to tea and a drink at the local pub (you're not a local until you've been kicked out of the pub several times, they told us, for infractions such as poking at the fire!) by a couple in Devon whom we met at a Remembrance Sunday observance. Before becoming sheep farmers in Dartmoor, they had been stationed in the U.S. for several years (the husband was a submariner) and had been the recipients of what they said were "great acts of kindness" by Americans. We are still in touch via mail; that was an encounter we will never forget. Best wishes as you look for a town off the beaten path!

Since my suggestion of Ealing in the London “ burbs” was given a thumbs down this link might be helpful.
I’ve been to none of them but plan a sojourn and stay at one of them next trip.

https://www.timeout.com/london/things-to-do/ten-chocolate-box-villages-within-reach-of-london

Claudia you’ll love this. I gave our 2 teenaged granddaughters the choice of spending our one 24h stay in London going to Windsor castle for their first time or going to Ealing and they chose Ealing. To be fair they spent a week in Ealing with us 3 years ago on a house exchange and they are so excited to go back to Pitshanger Ln to see our exchange family, the nearby park and our favorite family pub, the Duke of Kent.

Just proves they had a great time there. I also hope you all take the time to go and enjoy Pho Saigon.

Claudia, that was an interesting link, thank you.

Not sure about Brockenhurst Beach though. I've been there with the kids and I wouldn't describe it as sandy, it's mud and gravel but a great place to wallow about in the water during the summer although you need to watch out for herds of cows that like to cross the stream right where your kids are busy building their dam!

What's interesting to note is that it's an impossible job to come up with a definitive top 10, 20 or even 30 list of "chocolate box villages" because there are so many like the ones pictured in the article right across the country. I can drive the back roads to Winchester from my house (about 30 miles) and pass through at last twenty villages that wouldn't look out of place in that article. This is why some of us Brits wonder why so many people want to visit the Cotswolds when the UK is chock full of attractive villages.