Deciding on where to live in London

Hi everyone. I'm no stranger to London, but have mainly lived south of the river and am now looking west and northwest. It'd be great to have some suggestions from anyone more familiar with the areas.

I've just accepted a job in central London, near Russell Square but also close enough to Euston and Kings X. BF currently works in Maidenhead.

I'd say our max budget for rent (excluding bills) is about £1200 for a good sized one bed flat.

My current thoughts have been somewhere like Kilburn or Queens Park, but I'm not too familiar with the areas, and BF wants to live further west - like Ealing. To throw a spanner in the works, I'm claustrophobic and struggle with the Tube so bus and overground transport are really important for me (am working on this but it takes time...)

So, all that said, any suggestions? Or places to avoid?

If you are working in central London but won't be taking the tube I'd suggest not living in West London. We live in Chiswick and it takes almost two hours to Kings Cross by bus. Ealing is even farther west than Chiswick so it would be a hell of a commute.

Thanks! We ended up settling on the Queens Park area and have already moved into our new flat! I've been commuting on the overground line into Euston and so far so good - granted it has only been three days!