Property: The Low-down

Prices: House sizes and styles vary enormously. In Poets' Corner, pounds 350,000 buys three or six bedrooms. Two-bedroom converted flats range from pounds 100,000 to pounds 150,000. At Cooper's Gate, pounds 99,950 buys one bedroom and pounds 132,950 gets two. Underground parking and CCTV are included with every flat.

Transport: Buses on Uxbridge Road link Acton to Ealing and Shepherd's Bush, and North Acton (Central Line) and Acton Town stations (District) are on the edges of Acton. Acton Central is on the North London Line, a semi-circular wonder between Richmond and Woolwich.

Council Tax: Band A on pounds 429 and Band H on pounds 1,286 put Ealing at the low end for London council tax.

Poets' Corner: Shakespeare, Milton, Chaucer, Cowper and Goldsmith roads are in Poets' Corner, the latter referring not to Oliver but to the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths

Shopping: "Lousy," is Ms Liddiard's verdict. Safeway and Homebase are the biggest, and the only, draws.

Outdoors: Acton contains many small parks and recreation grounds and is equidistant between Gunnersbury Park and Wormwood Scrubs. Golf, tennis, swimming and bowls are handy.

Estate agents: Bushells, 0181-993 6767; Rolfe East 0181-993 7755; Cooper's Gate 0181 896 9828.