To wonder why people struggle to live in London.

[m1nniedriver]

Just honestly wondering what it is about London that makes people on, as I see it, huge salaries want to live in tiny flats just because it's london? The cost of living there seems riduculous. Some of the posts on here about the cost of housing just beggars belief! A tiny 1 bedroom flat for 300k?? If that's what you want then power to you but I do see posts with people say they are struggling and stressing every day to get by. Why would you not move to another part of the country that would enable a much better quality of life?

I'm not great at putting things across on posts so I hope this doesn't offend anyone its is meant as a genuine question, not having a go.

[limitedperiodonly]

Where are people driving to that it takes 20 minutes to get there?

It's our secret Cleaty But it's also the reason why many of us look so young

[merrymouse]

Box hill, devil's punch bowl, frensham ponds, all under an hour from Putney. Just follow the A3 (but not at rush hour).

I'm not claiming that these places are 'proper' countryside if you want to go fell running or something, but they are massive great big splodges of green.

(although you could just spend the whole day/weekend meandering along the river to Hampton court, or walking from Wimbledon common across Richmond park, along past the old Deer park to Kew, or maybe walk from Kew to Chiswick to Hammersmith and spend the rest of the day sitting by the river.)

[limitedperiodonly]

I was horribly car sick while going over The Devil's Punch Bowl.

In fact, I have been spectacularly vomitous in many of the beauty spots in England and Wales and also in France, Germany, Austria and the former Yugoslavia.

Yet another reason for me to stay in London.

[Ubik1]

God's Own County of Essex

Essex? Are you sure?

[JassyRadlett]

But why are you all so worried that, God forbid, someone doesn't want to live there???

We're really not. Just responding to the question asked by the OP, really, and all the follow up about how awful London is and why would anyone want to live there. Really, it's fair enough to respond to all the comments about house sizes and how dreadful flats are by pointing out the compensations, and that an extra bedroom and bigger garden might not be the be all and end all of quality of life for everyone.

I'm quite pleased that there are at least a few people who don't want to live here. Better chance of a school place.

[Ubik1]

Yup we are just chatting and perhaps winding each other up very slightly. You know -socialising.

[longtimelurker101]

"Gods own county" is applied by people in Northumberland, Yorkshire, Cumbria and god knows where else. Seems God had a lot of favourites.

[cleaty]

I was in Hackney, it would have taken me a lot longer than an hour to get to those places.

[JassyRadlett]

Yup we are just chatting and perhaps winding each other up very slightly.

NEVER.

[Ubik1]

Anyway,

London's shite. You are all deluded.

[JassyRadlett]

But sunny. Sometimes.

[limitedperiodonly]

I'm pretty fond of the North and South Downs. Fairly gentle - no denying that the geography of the South East is different from the more rugged landscapes you mention! - but some lovely walks.

jassy I just want to know where the car park is and the loo and the gift shop

[cleaty]

I liked living in London, but I began to long for much easier access to countryside. I went to all the places in London that people said were like being in the country, but they were all simply like the places in any decent City.

[JassyRadlett]

I liked living in London, but I began to long for much easier access to countryside. I went to all the places in London that people said were like being in the country, but they were all simply like the places in any decent City.

Eh, the Hampstead Heaths and what not aren't like being in the country, at all. If that's important to you I can totally understand why London - and especially somewhere like Hackney - wasn't right for you.

[cleaty]

I didn't think it was important as I like living in a City, but I also like easy quick access to countryside.

[Ubik1]

Damn

[limitedperiodonly]

cleaty in a car you could get to Epping Forest from Hackney in about 15 minutes depending on where you started and where you wanted to end up and the time.

You'd make Chingford in that time but I'd definitely say that 40 minutes would take you to the very pretty High Beech area with or without rush hour traffic.

Your driver could park up and have a walk.

Granted, you might be in the boot and your remains might not be found until the leaves cleared in spring, but never let it be said that East London/Essex doesn't have some very attractive spots.

[merrymouse]

Can't help you with North London, (I think I went there once?) but many green bits of London are better than some parts of the countryside because they are so accessible. You don't need a car to reach them and you can pretty much just walk for miles and miles, without crossing A roads and without having to find a foot path. I have lived in other cities and the options for walking were limited without a car.

Pretty sure there is countryside in Hertfordshire.

[longestlurkerever]

I do agree about the countryside actually. The trouble with London's location is that the SE is not full of dramatic natural beauty. Pleasant rolling countryside, yes, but not the stuff that enriches the soul like the Lake District or the Western Isles. In a parallel universe maybe I'm living somewhere like that and having a lovely life too. I'm not sure I could do anywhere in between though. Just fields with sheep in leave me a bit bewildered.

[cleaty]

The City I live in has some country parks with lakes, that many people can walk to from home. I can walk 15 minutes from my house to a canal, that soon leads to open fields. But we can easily drive to proper beautiful countryside.

[JeffyJeffington]

You have missed out! Believe me you have. A few years in London broadens the horizons

this reminds me of a girl i met at uni who told me my experience of the world was totally limited because i hadn't taken a gap yah. I live in London and enjoy it on the whole, but I can accept quite happily that it's not everyone's cup of tea. Many comments here about the 'provinces' are very condescending.

[m1nniedriver]

All you Londoners head up to the Western isles of Scotland in the end, no point fighting it. You'll buy a couple of sheep, some pigs and put fishing bhoys randomly around the garden as ornaments. You will wear sandals with socks and brown cord trousers while complaining about the local shop that doesn't open on a Sunday

[ArcheryAnnie]

I like that it takes me about a minute and a half to walk to a decent food shop, and about two and a half minutes to get to a bus stop where there are four buses on offer at very frequent intervals. Within a ten minute walking radius is four tube lines, within a twenty minute walking radius is another tube line and an overground. If I wanted to go to a cafe, a gym, a park, a museum (lots of them) a theatre, a market, they are all easy to get to.

I don't need a car. I don't want a car. London really works for people who don't want to top and tail every bloody activity they do with getting into the driving seat of a car.

[JassyRadlett]

Oh no. Not bloody sheep again. Sheep are too bloody thick to deserve to live.

Cattle if you must.

In fact, my apocalypse survival plan involves Bushy Park and some deer. Assuming I can figure out a way to snare the buggers, I'm quite good at home butchery. I reckon I'll be ahead of most of my neighbours.

Of course, they'll all probably turn out not to be the stereotypical soft-handed types as well.

[limitedperiodonly]

Oh my m1nniedriver. My east London/Essex mum took a singles holiday in her 70s all on her own on a coach trip to the west coast of Scotland.

She'd been widowed about five years.

When they got somewhere or other she couldn't persuade anyone else in the tour group to branch out from the town so she took a local train one day on her own to see what could be seen.

I know it seems ridiculous and made up, but I promise it's not, she met a lovely widower called Angus.

It's not going to have a really happy ending, because he wanted more than she did. But he wasn't pushy or nasty. He was the perfect gentleman.

They were friends and he came to meet her in London when he was visiting his daughter in Richmond which is a very nice place just west of London.

Like Terry and Julie they met at and had a fantastic day. And then they came to stay with me. Strictly in separate rooms.