Ruislip

Ruislip is what happens when a medieval village gets a Tube line and spends the next century politely pretending it didn't. The woods that once sent timber to the Tower of London and Windsor Castle now mostly supply dog walkers. The reservoir that failed at its one job, feeding a canal, was handed a sand beach and renamed a lido, the nearest thing to the seaside west London has managed. The hotel where Polish fighter pilots opened champagne for every German plane they shot down is now a Beefeater with a Premier Inn bolted on, and that one building tells you the whole story of Metro-land.