Hayes, Hillingdon

Eric Blair became George Orwell while teaching in Hayes, then called the town one of the most godforsaken places he had ever struck, which is a lot of feeling for somewhere he kept coming back to. Hayes is where the BBC's first proper television system was built and where EMI pressed the nation's records, and it has spent the decades since being far too modest about it, mainly by turning the factories into flats. What it does best now is help you leave, with the Elizabeth line to Paddington, Heathrow down the road and the M4 along the bottom. People sneer at a town for being easy to get out of right up until they price a house somewhere harder to get out of.