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 live 30 seconds from Tate Britain
Its actually a relatively cheap part of London to live in
Rent on a bed is about £2000 and a 2 bed about £2600
To buy from about £450 for a small I bed- £650k for 2 bed.

Main issue is the helicopters and the royal family motorcades. To drive their children to school takes 6-8 motorcycle riders and 2 cars and they stop the traffic and pedestrians walking and every single junction. Luckily they are moving it seems and the people of wherever they move to can enjoy the pleasure!

@ManAboutTown

I agree with the roles you listed as being "key". Most would struggle to find private rentals which are affordable in zone 1 except a lawyer maybe. Which is the reason why intermediate housing is needed. All would qualify for intermediate rent as long as they meet the criteria.

The main criteria to live in an intermediate rental where I live is:

• work in the area
• earn less than £90,000 as a household

There are a fair number of new/newish build shared ownership in central London as well.

Fine for a weekend when you are splashing out on holiday but day to day it was tough, so expensive. I got out

Waitrose delivers to pretty well all of central London.

An acquaintance of mine has a council flat right in the middle of central London. Holborn I think. I find that really strange to get my head round. He's lived their for years. It must be worth an Absolute fortune. No idea what the rent is. But he had too go along way out to do his shopping at ab actual supermarket.

My friend is a Londoner born and bred. When he moved up to the East Midlands, he was amazed by the amount of playing fields and outside space that schools had.

This is one of the reasons I wouldn't like to live in central London...I'd rather live in the suburbs where I can get in my car and drive to a large supermarket

My ex has a 3 bed council house in central London, when his mum died he got to keep it even though he was a single man living there alone. It’s worth a lot of money.

I lived near the British library for a few years, in a dodgy sublet. Rent was so cheap and I loved just using a square as my garden and being a regular at central London restaurants. I live in zone 3 now and it feels like suburbia.

I also found it fascinating to see kids football training in Hyde Park. I was like you don't even know how cool it is that your local park is Hyde Park do you 👀

Just people doing daily/weekly tasks in central London, like school pick ups etc is so cool to me. It might be because my hometown is nowhere near as exciting.

I'd rather live in the suburbs where I can get in my car and drive to a large supermarket

But surely you don't need the large supermarket as you can shop small & regularly plus the markets.

If you are in the right bit of London why would you want to waste time going to a big supermarket? Delivery is normally £1-£2 (or free with a pass), saves loads of time, and with things like Zoom you can get groceries delivered less than an hour after you order! Same amount of time as going to get the shopping yourself, perfect for emergencies (it is a limited choice for obvious reasons), but perfect when you realise you forgot milk say, and no need to drag a whinging child out 😂

There is no way I would give up the benefits of living close to central London just so that I had the option to drive to Tesco 😂

I live in reasonably central London and have a massive Sainsburys 10 minutes’ drive away! We rarely go to it though - we got into the habit of online deliveries during lockdown.

I lived in London for a few years, in cheap houseshares but I absolutely loved it. I lived with live in landlords mainly and most bought their homes before the ridiculous increase in property prices, or in areas that were really run down that have been regenerated and so they were affordable back then. It is different when you're doing every day type stuff like working, food shopping, errands and stuff as you don't usually have the time/money/energy to see the sights as you would on a trip; but there was something really special about having so much on your doorstep.

@Skunkandnancy

When we return in November we are staying at Marble Arch and have two full days free. Anything we shouldn’t be missing? We’ve seen / done all the big attractions so will now hunt out the quirky / smaller places. Good food / drinks recommendations accepted please.

There's the Alexander Fleming museum in St Mary's Hospital which is where he discovered penicillin and still had cigarette butts in his ashtray last time I visited. Very limited opening hours though. The Photographers Gallery in Soho often has really good exhibitions.
The Satay House on Sale Place is a great little Malaysian restaurant. Not far from Marble Arch the Wallace Collection has a lovely airy restaurant that does afternoon tea if that's your thing.
Agree with pps both the Duke of Kendal and the Victoria are worth a visit. The 100 Club further along Oxford Street is another place that's worth checking out, as much for the sense of history as for the music.
The Real Time clock is on the other side of Eastbourne Terrace from the station, north of the corner that the Pride of Paddington is on.
My favourite London trip is a river trip from Westminster to Greenwich on one of the tourist boats with the commentary. Same price as the Uber boats I think but the guys who do the commentary really know their stuff and bring the river alive.

I always wonder where the people who work in places like McDonald’s or Costa in the middle of London live. The wages can’t be good enough to afford to live nearby and surely you wouldn’t travel too far for that job.

Council houses?

I walk along Sussex gardens very early in the morning on my way to work and the prostitutes are still out looking for customers and the pavement is littered with used condoms. . Can't think of anywhere I'd want to live less.

We're zone 4 and avoid the Tube because we're London enough to feel confident finding our way around the streets and love the novelty of being on street level. I once suggested to a tourist that they walked along the river from London Bridge to the Tower of London instead of getting the tube and there was real fear in their eyes. 😅

I would love to live more central but I think I've got the best of both worlds now. Especially with the Elizabeth Line so fast. I worked in the Morrisons in Camden for a short time. It was fab!

I once suggested to a tourist that they walked along the river from London Bridge to the Tower of London instead of getting the tube and there was real fear in their eyes. 😅

Blimey! You can see the bloody Tower (or Bloody Tower) from London Bridge. Probably take longer on the Tube, and be more at risk of having your pocket picked. And there are interesting things to see on the way if you walk.

Walking, or the top of a bus, is the best way to see London.

@N1C - very true. I earn enough to live in Central London but for me it is about the area I would like to live in. Russians and Saudis tooling around in Bentleys and Ferraris don't do it for me.

My best neighbour are Dennis Waterman types who live in a council house

Main issue is the helicopters and the royal family motorcades. To drive their children to school takes 6-8 motorcycle riders and 2 cars and they stop the traffic and pedestrians walking and every single junction

@MiddleAgedTraveller what a palaver. Is traffic stopping really necessary? Thought the children were supposed to be living normal lives.

They live in outer London with their parents/family or in shared houses...or.perhaps they're students living in student accommodation. My guesses.