To want to leave London

I'm a born and bred Londoner. Never thought I would leave. I worked and loved my life until I had my dc's.
We moved to a kent village with great train links. Never thought I would say this, but I would never go back.

I hear what the pp is saying about how their view of London changed but it's so personal, it's always going to be horses for courses.

I think that (taking aside the very wealthy privately educated massive house contingent) those that stuck it out to stay in London throughout their DC whole childhood are going to have a particular type of outlook compared to those who choose to bring up their DC in, say, a town. Neither is better but they are different.

I left East London 2 years ago after almost 30 years and moved to a seaside town in Kent.

I am so much happier and healthier now. Everyone is friendlier and the pace of life much more relaxed.

I am still working for a London-based company but job hunting so I can find a completely remote role or something that only requires travelling back once a month because I hate the days when I have to commute back for work (hybrid role)

I still like visiting London for stuff like seeing friends and galleries and the odd shopping trip but I would hate to live there again.

Honestly I used to absolutely love London and thought it was the best place to live in the world but it has changed too much over the past few years: too expensive, too overcrowded and rampant anti-social behaviour. I feel like it became really soulless and corporate at some point and lost most of its quirkiness and vibrancy that made it such a cool place to live before.

I couldn't live happily in Brighton full stop.

That sounds perfect. Which Hampshire station is that?

I’ve lived in London half my life, the last 15 of which have been in Croydon. I love London to my bones, and would have defended Croydon til recently. It’s a inverted snobbery on my part - I’m not proud of this!

But now my dc are teens, I’m not so sure of my decisions. Raising teens in London had advantages, but I’m super aware of disadvantages too.

The younger your dc are, the easier it is to move. Moving is hard, settling into a new place will always take a couple of years. But it’s easier to make connections when dc are young. And really tough to move them once they’re approaching secondary.

Why don’t you spend a while looking round possible areas to move to? I’m afraid I haven’t RTFT, so don’t know if you need to be near London still? If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t move to a town in SE, but would be looking at smaller cities.

Agree London has so much feral scum preying on decent people. Every decade is worse than the one before and I am a Londoner that reluctantly moved but it’s better living outside of London, a different world and I could not move back now having seen the difference.

Go for a less well known area and you can get more for your money.

As for Brighton, agree, total urine smelling dump.

Ware, I'd live in Ware with a budget like that. Or Hertford. North Essex is the best bit but that might be too far out for you.

I was in London for about 20 years but moved to Surrey when we had the kids. Wanted then to be in an area where they'd see friends in and out of school locally, at scouts, activities etc- which is what is happening.
I wanted to be close enough to London so we could commute in- but did manage to find a local job in the end.
I love love loved London. But we're very happy in Surrey.

I agree with others who admire how beautiful Essex is in parts
Parts I have been too include

Saffron Walden
Manningtree (and Mistley)
West Bergholt

I would move to any of those places tomorrow given the chance
As it is I am in Zone 4 in SE London

We’re in zone 6 (Kingston upon Thames), DH works in central London and his commute is 45 mins door to door (fast train from Surbiton to Waterloo is 15 mins). Great schools, 5 mins walk from the river, close to Richmond Park and Bushy Park.

Downside is of course that the house prices are completely insane (although you could get a 4 bed for your budget of £800k).

Agree about Essex being underrated and not much like TOWIE. I lived in Boxted for a while. Definitely a lot more Land Rover Discoveries than white Range Rovers.

And I also want to point out that the vast majority of Essex and the people in it are NOTHING like TOWIE.

You can buy 4 bed houses for £800k in London. We're zone 5 in a large 4 bed semi with a huge garden worth roughly £800k. Fast trains to Euston take 14 minutes and to Marylebone 11 minutes. Within a 15 minute walk we have 5 different train lines to choose from. Crime rate is 2nd lowest in London. Good schools and plenty of green space around.
Because you've always lived in London you might actually find it difficult to adjust to a small town. I would be very cautious and it could be nigh on impossible to move back to the city once you've left.
I moved to London in the 80s for university, from a very rural part of East Anglia and I certainly wouldn't go back. I would possibly consider Cambridge or Norwich but that would be it.

Essex is absolutely lovely and very civilised, much to the surprise of many people who've only ever been to Lakeside and know the reputation of the dodgier parts of places like Grays and Basildon. It's a very, very underrated county. But like anywhere, there are some areas better than others.

We moved from zone 3 out to East Kent. Office is central, near King's Cross. My commute, door to door, is aboit 75 mules compared to the 10 miles it ised to be. It is more expensive than it was but takes the same amount of time. Totally worth it.

Just don't lol. I live about 3 miles from Brentwood and sick of the shite stereotypes that program has caused

You could live happily in Brighton without a car

I'm not sure the only way is Essex cast and crew would agree its undiscovered

Don't go to Brighton. It's London on Sea but with weirder, more self absorbed people. Almost as expensive, filthy, druggy, dodgy, noisy, anti-social behaviour a problem, and it's heaving. You can't park anywhere. The shops are shit unless you are a tourist, the council is shit, the beach is shit.

Oxford is not much better but at least they aren't quite so obsessed with gender identity and trans ideology as they are in Brighton. Their school system is practically run like a cult. Cambridge is truly lovely but eye wateringly expensive considering how far from London it is.