To think I’ve missed out on an exciting life by never living in London?

I loved living in Jersey City, NJ after living in London W4 for a couple of years. JC was warmer, friendly and people acknowledged recognising each other, 15 minutes from midtown Manhattan. I have lived in London and its suburbs a few times in my life, and never managed to create a community there.Friends have so I could possibly latch on, but I am not sure I want to bother.

I feel the same about Cornwall and the Lake District.

Life is full of things that can be missed out on, such as having a partner or a child, travelling, learning to swim...etc. Better to focus on what you have done and not on what you haven't done.

London was my least favourite place to live out of three Capital cities and another English city (which we moved to asap once I realised I disliked London) but I can see why others like it. If I was super rich and lived in Zone one I might have felt differently.

I love living in London, things are there when we want them, but we don't use them anything like enough.

I know all my neighbours (zone 3 Victorian terraced street) and bump into lots of school and nursery parents in the local high street.

I absolutely hate being talked to in the streets beyond my immediate area though- the anonymity of big cities is one of the things I love about them!

Love a bit of people-watching too!

When I was renting in London, I didn't know (m)any of my neighbours but after I bought my flat, I slowly got to know people and now I know lots of neighbours and various people working in local businesses etc. This is inner London (zone 1/2 border).

Londoners are generally nice, friendly, helpful people. But they're not going to stop in the street and speak to you if they don't already know you - with 8 million people, it would take forever to get anywhere!

The councils starting with Westminster have got better at closing them down. As they started spreading out of central London.

You still see some that have randomly just been closed down with stock and shelving in them but generally if you wait a couple of months they go completely.

Odd.

I've always known my neighbours in the different parts of London I've lived in since childhood.

I even ended up knowing some of the neighbours of my older siblings who I visited a few times a month. This is in both North and South London.

DS has a uni friend who is from Manchester. She much prefers the London life.

And I mean culture, diversity, experiences, the shows, the life and buzz

Yes, you have missed out in that living there gives you the opportunities to experience all that frequently. But for some of those things you need a hefty amount of disposable income, and we all know how expensive housing is there. A friend who's also a former Londoner said London is a playground for the rich. That's an exaggeration, but to survive and thrive there, you need to be financially in a good position. It's one of the reasons I left - always single and having an average income, I could never afford to do as much as I wanted, let alone buy property. So for a better quality of life I moved to another big city up north. My life is better, but oh my days I often wish I had those fabulous London-y experiences a 20 minute tube journey away - a talk at the BFI Southbank, seeing my favourite actor in a play at the National, a picnic on Primrose Hill, an exhibition at the V&A - but you can't have everything. But another decision were the crowds, which were increasingly anger and anxiety-inducing.

"Manchester is better, imo."

Better for people who don't mind the cold and rain. I've been to Manchester several times but cannot name a national landmark there. Can you refresh my memory?

This was my experience of Edinburgh when I lived there in my 20s. I couldn't get out fast enough.

I think your impression of London and mine of Edinburgh are probably related to the stage of life (and salary) we were in, rather than the cities themselves.

I live in London and not a single thing you wrote holds true for me. It's the friendliest place I've ever lived and I would not live anywhere else.

I love visiting London but I couldn't live there. I don't feel like I miss out...

may be but only if you have plenty of money

Zone 5 is a big ring. Any way to tempt you into declaring which quadrant of it is so lovely? I like London and would return for my retirement years, but my DH wouldn't. I'd have a small dog and enjoy being close enough in (probably NW6) to see and do London life again. But DH is all about big space, large dogs and wild country. Heaven knows how we have been happily married for 30+ years.

I'm not sure you'd call it London but I've lived in leafy zone 5 for over 20 years and would never live anywhere else. I've never lived or even worked in central London, so I suppose I've avoided the grind/commute to an extent. Instead I have green space and good state schools on my doorstep but in less than an hour I'm in the West End when I want to be. I never get tired of the buzz and the fact that I'll never run out of places to discover. I don't ever plan to move, even though I see people around me make plans to move further out when their kids leave home. I love not needing a car, and having so much culture and diversity here. In my street - distinctly suburban in many ways - there must be 30+ nationalities and I feel like I fit in just fine as I'm not from around here either. I moved here in my 30s and I have some regret I didn't spend my 20s here, but my life's not over yet :)
FYI I've lived in other capital cities and I prefer London by far.

I will have a read thanks . One was raided and closed by police last year I think. Then it reopened the next day!

There seem to be loads of cheap nasty looking shops selling garish rubbish everywhere now and they never seem to have much custom I was sure it was a racket of some kind. I will have a read at that later thanks!

Nope, I don't feel that way at all. I love fresh air and wide open spaces.

I feel I have dodged a bullet by not living there, tbh...

I thought this was interesting on them, because I’ve also been mystified by their rise.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/04/us-sweet-shops-rip-off-customers-business-rates-owners

I do wish they would ban those sweet shops though. They are just so depressing.

It was a bit better when I last saw it. My impression is that big names feel that they should have a physical presence there.

I'm actually reading a book about the "London life" at the moment it is called "An Experiment in Leisure" I pounced on it in the library!

That’s true about oxford st. Exorbitant rents and online shopping have killed it. I feel sad when I think about my great shopping experiences from the 90s.