Mole Valley Line for Box Hill
Under an hour from London (Waterloo or Victoria) and you can be in the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Box Hill & Westhumble station is, as you might expect, a handy starting point for Box Hill*, across the River Mole on stepping stones and then up 275 steps to the summit at 735 feet, where the view crosses the Weald to the South Downs. As fans of Jane Austen’s Emma may know, it’s a sweet spot for a picnic. Ranmore Common doesn’t make the station name, but its peaceful wooded contours are easily reached on foot too, where you’ll find the Hansel and Gretel cottage of Tanners Hatch youth hostel, and the grand house of Polesden Lacey.
‘Trains are wonderful... to travel by train is to see nature and human beings, towns and churches and rivers, in fact, to see life.’
AGATHA CHRISTIE