I have always been curious of the American definition and/or view of a village, many of the settlements posted would from a European perspective be viewed as small to large towns. There isn’t a specific definition of a village and there are some peculiar examples like Tiptree, Essex which isn’t a village but for all intents and purposes is a town. In general, a village is a settlement with a church (a village without a church is a hamlet), possibly a pub and village green, but no market, no town hall or mayor and generally possessing a small population, from a couple dozen to a few hundred.
The UK has thousands of villages, many of the picture postcard sort that attract tourists from across the globe, and many accessible from London, but I won’t be posting about them today.
What I will discuss though is the curious anomaly of villages inside London itself. There are two types. The urban villages such as Clerkenwell, Highgate, Dulwich, Walthamstow (and a multitude of others) that were consumed by the boom of Victorian London but which retain an identity and degree of quaintness. More curious though is the second type, these are villages that reside within the boundaries of London but which were preserved from urban sprawl due to the Green Belt, Downe shown below is 15miles from Central London.
Cudham
Downe
Harefield
Havering-atte-Bower
Wennington