What’s it like to be a teenager in London?

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Does anyone have teenage DC’s in London and how do they find it? Fun, exciting, safe? Boring, busy, unsafe?

I grew up in a small town and now live in London, I can’t decide if relocating back will mean my kids will be totally bored as teenagers. I remember mostly working and public transport being expensive! But… maybe being a teenager in London isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?
We live in South East London.

Have a 20 year old and she loved being a teen in London. Lots of great opportunities for young people in London e.g. CYM for music, museums (yes, she'd go with friends as somewhere to escape the cold). Public transport cheap for teens. Loads of people to meet up with and always free stuff going on.

My kids are Londoners born and bred. They love it.

So much to do, people to meet. Amazing public transport that's free until 18 (if in education). Parks , plays, gigs, parties, galaxies. Lots of it free or cheap.

We are lucky to live in a relatively safe borough though.

I chose to move here before kids (from a small town ) and haven't regretted it at all. And neither have they 😊

I'm glad people see the is as a positive. I've lived in London 9 years and have a 2 year old. Keep debating whether to move away but it's likely we will stay. I feel like my son will have lots more opportunities living here. Shame about the cost of properties though. We do live in a cheaper area though.

I have teen step kids in south east London, and I’d say it’s great. Lots to do, lots of opportunities and a good education in tolerance and multi-culturalism. Obviously I am assuming you aren’t in a really troubled area, but overall I don’t think it’s unsafe.

I grew up in the middle of the country and although I love to visit it’s not great for teens - no transport, harder to find work, hard to see your mates often enough, not enough things to do. My family now live in a nice small town in the same county, it’s definitely better for my nieces and nephews than it was for us in the middle of fields.. but it’s humdrum and they are restless. The country is great for little kids, big ones not.

I moved from London to the suburbs in the Home Counties.
One child often complains that we left London. She's gone to a uni in another city and loves the advantages of city life.

The other two are happy where we moved to. It's a mile stroll to school and there's lots of places to kick a football, basketball, drink alcohol without being seen and it's a short bus journey to amenities like shopping and cinema. They've never complained about leaving London and rarely take the train there. It's an easy place to get around on bikes too.

I grew up in London. I couldn't wait to leave (now live in the Yorkshire countryside), but what I had was complete independence and freedom, zipping around on public transport by myself and opportunities for... most things! And my London upbringing certainly made me very broad minded.

In contrast, my dc are 11 and 14 and I drive them pretty much everywhere - even though DS should take the bus to school, it's a bit hit and miss on whether it turns up. It's a bit green and leafy here, I worry that they are not exposed to much diversity of people. It's something I am trying to work on.

We live outside London but with an easy train journey in. My teens love going in (on their own/with each other/with parents/with friends) and find plenty to do. I can see if we lived in London they'd be off most weekends to do things.
I grew up in a ruralish place that I had to beg my parent to give me a lift anywhere and the only thing in the village to do was Guides, Scouts or the library for secondary school age.

Depends where you live in London. For a lot of teens there really isn't much as everything is so expensive. Yes you can hop around on busses and mess about and look at things but it's also you looking at all the things you can't have.
There's a lot of areas with huge social problems and youth centres and funding for free half term programmes are almost diminished.
If you are a middle class family that can spare £20-50 every weekend for your kid to make the most of living in London, it's brilliant. The opportunities for music, sports, academics are amazing, but you either need money or family that knows about them and will apply.
That's not the reality for most though. However, the opportunities are there, if that is what you're asking.

I grew up in London. I couldn't wait to leave (now live in the Yorkshire countryside), but what I had was complete independence and freedom, zipping around on public transport by myself and opportunities for... most things! And my London upbringing certainly made me very broad minded.

This. My dcs can get around on public transport by themselves from 15 years old with their friends. I have to use the Find My app to figure out where they are sometimes. London is amazing for teenagers if they like to go out and socialise or have hobbies. They can do everything on their own steam and arrange with their friends to meet up on messaging apps. Some parents may not be comfortable with this level of freedom so soon but for teenagers, it is liberating. Put my dd in good stead for when she moved out to university accommodation.

I used to share my home in London with aupairs (18-24 age group). They want to come to London if they were not already in London. I have never heard an aupair say they want to move out of London. If anything, they wanted to live as close to central London as possible.

London is a fantastic place to be a teenager. You can get around in your own on public transport, loads of cool places to hang out (not necessarily expensive) - so much better than living in their parents' rural idyll where you have to be driven everywhere and are constantly monitored

I was a teenager in London and it was brilliant. So many free things to do and see, easy to get around and meet up with friends. Didn’t have to rely on lifts from parents. Not sure why people think it’s expensive, free museums, galleries, concerts etc. public transport is quick and cheap.

I'm a born and bred Londoner, now a country bumpkin! My eldest (born here) moved to London for uni and has stayed. She went to uni at 19 and is now 25 living in Islington and working in Covent Garden. There is no way she'd come back. She has a lovely life. It was fun for me as a teen and I had a blast but it became a noisy drag and I'm happy to be out in the (relative) sticks now.

Mine are now 18 & 20 and have enjoyed the freedom of being a London teen with so much on their doorstep and free bus travel which meant that from secondary onwards they've been able to get to and from their friends houses independently. There's so much free and cheap stuff and they and their friends are pretty savvy at finding a bargain (eg getting a too good to go bag from a coffee chain and sharing it for supper before a night out). They all also found it easy to find work when they turned 16. There was also masses for them when they were younger - an amazing playground with a nature garden and adventure play where I could drop them for 50p a day in the summer holidays - be hard to find that sort of childcare elsewhere.... all the major museums are free when they had school projects to do and loads of free or nearly free sports and music activities eg half term tennis camp for £10 a week, orchestra course for £25 a week etc etc. They are now pretty confident about finding their way around anywhere including travelling alone to change railway stations in Paris last summer.

I think it depends where in London you live. We lived in a very safe area. Just a hop and a skip away was precarious.

Similar to PPS - DD was born and raised in London. Great for a child, brilliant for her now she's a teenager. She also seems much more independent than my friends' dcs who have been brought up in smaller places and aren't used to travelling alone etc. She's streetwise (though not as much as she thinks!) and thinks nothing of hopping on the tube and going to meet friends or going places.

I was a teenager in London and loved it, made me very Independant and I did actually
go to galleries and the theatre for free or cheap and usually out of the way not the obvious ones. Multi cultural, so many different festivals and food, an indie film scene and more music than I knew what to do with, open and loving LGBT culture etc

however I did start clubbing at 14, smoking at 15, took my first E at 16 and was regularly taking E and coke and smoking weed by 17. I would get the night bus at all hours to all places. No idea if people in the countryside had this kind of easy access to drugs but it was a cinch for me and is why DH refuses for us to bring up our DC in London

@Citygirlrurallife I grew up in the countryside and was into all that much younger, there's nothing else to do! One of the reasons I was keen to raise DD in a city, there's more to do that isn't just sex, drugs or alcohol.

Fair enough @MyBloodyMaryneedsmoreTabasco but access to other things to do certainly doesn’t stop you from making the most of very easy access to sex and drugs and alcohol either

Having said that I do wish we were bringing up our teens in London. I bloody loved it

I was born and bred in London and it was awesome as teen with so much independence. I still live here, in another part of London and intend to stay with kids 10 and 5. So much to do, converse to what @Nevermindthesquirrels says there is a ton of free stuff for teens. We have an awesome youth centre here with amazing free activities going on. Many of my friends who have moved out to small towns are either taxis for their kids or their kids are very bored.

It's a tricky one. I'm from Norfolk and was always so sure I wanted to bring up kids in London, where I have lived for the last 25 years. DH is from here. We live in a not particularly leafy area, although like most people in London we have lots of green space nearby and great transport links. DH bought our house with family help when he was very young so we don't have a mortgage any more, so we wouldn't move. We have a 3 bed ex council house.

We adopted the DC 8 years ago and they are now aged 16 and 12. 14 yo is pretty sensible and lives going shopping with friends, and to the cinema. DS is 16 and has been in all kinds of trouble with going missing and smoking weed, some shoplifting. We always ask ourselves if we would have been better moving out of London but there are drugs everywhere and in market and seaside towns it a a big problem too.

DD is in a very good school and DS is in a specialist provision so moving them would be a big upheaval at this point, but we still think about it. My kids are not like the ones on this thread who are happy catching the bus to the NHM for the day with a packed lunch to research homework topics. That is what I had hoped it would be like though.

I would have loved to do it, if we could have afford a big enough house in London. If you do move out, at least consider teens being able to get themselves about - we moved from London to semi rural market town when I was 11, it was actually quite good place to be a teen but there was good public transport and lots going on locally

My kids love London- so easy to get around, so much going on. DD goes regularly to galleries (doing art gcse) and we all go to theatre etc- it’s wonderful to have so much on the doorstep. London also has some really excellent schools. I wouldn’t think twice.

transport is free, they have the oyster card

I grew up in the sort of place MNers talk about when they talk about ‘living rurally’ and there was all of that and more. In fact I’d say it was worse in country/village locations as there’s so little else to do.