Surbiton's very name, despite ancient roots, seems to mark this south-western district of London as quintessential suburbia. As such, it was chosen in the 1970s as the stereotypical commutersville setting for the TV comedy The Good Life, in which a couple attempt to break free from the nine-to-five by going back to nature, cultivating their suburban garden in a bid to become self-sufficient. Surbiton was put on the map as a result of being on the path of the main train route from Portsmouth to London, And, on arrival by train, it certainly lives up to its place in Metroland, with an Art Deco rail station and surrounding streets containing Tudorbethan half-timbered and tile-hung houses. Many of the latter are fine Edwardian 'sweetness and light', Queen Anne and Arts and Crafts-type villas, ratherthan the thinner, more undernourished, mock-Tudor semis of the 1930s-by which time, 'suburban' had become an increasingly dirty word and suburbia an increasingly dirty environment due to the car.
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