Ridiculous question about living in London

[Skunkandnancy]

I’ve just come back from a few days in London. We stayed in Paddington (Sussex gardens), just across the road from the station.

I LOVE London and when I get back I’m always a bit fascinated and think about it a lot. Where we stayed there appeared to be ‘normal’ flats just along from Sussex Gdns where people were just living.

I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous but I can’t get my head around being able to live right in the middle of London like this. Surely it must cost a fortune. It was noisy at night (all night partying it sounded like) so how do people just live alongside this.

We walked up Whitehall, around Covent Garden, Fleet Street, St Paul’s etc and am just fascinated at the thought that people live amongst this. I look at people on the tube and imagine just being able to travel around like this so easily.

London history is so fascinating too, so much to see everywhere. Do ‘ordinary’ people live right in the centre like this? How is life? I bet it must be amazing 🤩

I lived between zone 1-2 for 18yrs. Now living between houses, as renovating outside London to move into it eventually. I love the transport there, work opportunities, the buzz and entertainment. Yes, some things are expensive, but others aren't. Our high street had nearby markets and multiple stalls and shops selling fruit and veg for £1 a bowl. Sometimes cheaper than the shops, sometimes not. We had a car, but barely used it. We did go to both Billingsgate fish markets and Smithfield meat markets to fill up the freezer with far superior meat/fish than the supermarket and a lot cheaper too. I think there are more parks in London, that any other city. Don't quote me, but there are lots of green spaces.

At our new house, we drive 90% more often than in London and use the car daily, whereas in London, I might have used it once a month if that. I don't have easy access to Indian/Thai/Chinese/Vietnamese type grocery stores, but can find most things. I do, however, enjoy seeing the stars, hearing the birds, walking to the beach and not hearing the sounds of tubes/drunks and buses.

Good and bad in both.

I lived in a top floor flat in Charlotte St in 1991 for the princely sum of £25. It was fantastic- I could walk to work and was right in the thick of it. I also have a friend bought a flat in Waterloo then. My first - large- four bedroom Victorian terrace in South London cost 90K. What’s happened since is nuts and is going to ruin London.

I once rented with a boyfriend around Roupell street (think Call the Midwife) right next to Waterloo station. I loved it but can’t imagine living there now. The roads were really quiet but clogged daily with commuters twice a day walking from Waterloo to the city and back. I shopped at a Sainsbury’s local opposite the station (didn’t need to do a big shop) and even had my car parked outside- it was before the congestion charge. It was a dream for going out as I always could either walk, share a taxi with anyone going south, and all night buses went there. I could even hear Big Ben from my bed!

I also worked really close to a state school in Covent Garden- sir Clement Danes- the kids had their playground on the roof!

I used to work for a woman who lived opposite Hyde Park. She would send a limousine to get me 😂

I used to live in mayfair. In dover street. My aunt very wealthy woman and ask me to take care of her flat there. I’m live there for 3 years rent free. Its amazing. I love live in central london. But then again its because of my wealthy aunt. I cant imagine if i need to pay rent there. Must be cost a fortune.

back then i’m still single. Its good for single young adult. But now i’m in my 30’s with two kids. I dont think living in central london its best idea. Its not very family friendly

I lived in Zone 1 until a year ago. Huge Sainsburys with a car park within walking distance. Half hour walk to work (City) and half hour walk to central London. Did love living there and during lockdown it was amazing to walk round central London when it was completely empty. As shit as lockdown was I am grateful to have experienced that as you will never see London like that again

Have now moved to the border of Zone 2/3 and paying pretty much the same as I paid in Zone 1 in rent. Bit longer to get to work but only go into the office one day a week so not so bad and more friends are local to me now than they were before so much better for spontaneous catch ups

East Dulwich per chance

The centre is lovely it’s also expensive, polluted and busy.

One of my best friends lived in around Sussex Gardens in the 80s when it was a red light district. We used to get kerb crawled all the way home.

Funny that you mention specific areas. I live in Eltham and moved here about 8 months ago but spent the previous 16 years in a flat in Victoria, 2 min walk from station and 5 min walk from Buckingham Palace. All through lockdown St James Park was where we took the kids for daily exercise. My kids went to school (state school) in Chelsea just off Kings Road and 5 mins walk from Sloane Sq.

Loved living there but lockdown in a 2 bed flat with 2 kids was rough. Time to move to suburbia.

Most Londoners avoid the tube? I lived there over 20 years ,I never got that memo🤣

Why don’t you move somewhere more convenient?

I don't know any londoners who avoid the tube. All the ones I know avoid buses. And walk really fast haha

The only tube I avoid is the central line in summer 🥵

I live in zone 4 so very quiet but often dream of living in central London I love the hustle and bustle I actually hate where I live being so quiet 😬

Well people DO live in central (zone 1) London - including some of my colleagues and friends but mainly near the city like saint Paul’s, Barbican or near London Bridge. They pay a fortune in rent or their parents bought their flats for them a long time ago. Very few people can afford to buy a place in zone 1 now - or would bother to. By the time they may be able to earn enough to do so they usually go into zone 2 or more likely beyond (suburbs/Home Counties) to get more space for money.

thats my experience anyway (being a Londoner with lots of Londoner friends)

The only tube stations londoners avoid are those where it take forever to switch between lines like waterloo, green park.

Yeah Dublin is insane. D4 more expensive than Holland Park.

I rented a flat share near Farringdon/Chancery Lane in the late 90s. I was a new graduate with a decent enough job - most of us lived in zone 1/2 and I could walk to work. Young graduates today would never be able to afford the areas we lived in. London was so much more varied then - normal people absolutely could live in the centre and places like Shoreditch and Dalston were a bit run down so all the skint artists could live there.

Further back in the 90s places like West Hampstead were still quite cheap and bohemian. My friend’s mum (out in the burbs where I grew up) had arty friends with big Victorian houses - they’d be worth absolutely millions now.

It will be difficult for my kids to have that opportunity, which makes me a bit sad - it was a brilliant time to be young, in the thick of everything, and able to walk around everywhere or cab it home for a fiver.

It’s complete nonsense. Born Londoner, I avoid the bus due to traffic and get the tube/train everywhere.

I like Waterloo station, I’m there regularly. Wasabi, M&S and Pret and you can nip into Boots.

I know people who live in zone 1. When I moved here, I started in zone 2 and have crept out to zone 4. The main driver for where I have lived in London has been good, local green spaces, well connected to the city as, much as I like it, I grew up in the sticks and need the space, more than the convenience.

Which sort of bring me to my point. Being a solo female, who wanted good connections, it's meant always living very close to main roads for night buses, stations etc. This includes living on the south circular with a 24 hour bus stop under my window. So there's always noise, but you really get used to it! So much so that I find it a little odd when I go back home and there's nothing.

A guy I dated at a small town Uni lived a few doors down from the police station, all night we'd hear sirens as they went out and came back (the old 'put the kettle on' blast). That was more annoying than anything I've dealt with here.

High earning people
Or ordinary(ish) earning people who are willing to sacrifice space for location
Or social housing
Or students (in student accommodation blocks)

But yes, I get you;all the flats above shops etc, you wonder where the entrances are.

I should also say, I have triple glazing in my current flat so it's only really when the windows are open at night that I hear traffic. And my living spaces are away from the road so it's much calmer there

@factfile

its needed when you have a bad hair day. 😅

I rented a flat in Marble Arch in the late 90s - quietest place I ever lived in (it was a tiny no-through mews) and it spoiled me forever. I could get to Hyde Park in minutes and the kebab shops and proper Middle Eastern juice bars were fab after a night out. Then Tony Blair moved in to the neighbourhood and all its charm was lost. I'm still zone 1 though (just)