to ask people who live in a house in Central London what it's like?

[manicinsomniac]

I mean an actual family 2+ bedroom house, not a flat or an apartment or a divided up house etc.

I'm absolutely fascinated. Living in London is my absolute pipe dream but, even though I'm on a good salary, I am a single mum of 3 and would only be able to afford a tiny shoebox in an area of London that would make it worth moving to (I'm only 35 mins on train now so now worth going to zone 4+). Whereas I can rent a lovely little 2.5 bed house where I am.

I don't see much in the way of full houses when I walk around central London (we go a lot) but was walking down a street of them today and the people looked so normal. Not rich at all. And the houses looked pretty run to be honest. It made me think.

This is pure curiosity but, if you do live in a zone 1/2 house, can I ask:
Which area it's in
What the area is like to live in
Whether you think it's worth any sacrifices you may be making

and, if it's not too personal (sure it is for many and I completely respect that) whether you consider yourself affluent and, if not, how on earth you manage it?

I have to admit I'm so jealous!

[Waitingsanta]

applesetssail living side by side with poverty is part and parcel of being in London for me and it's not a negative. If you want to live somewhere where everyone is on the same level and similar background, move to Bucks . My comment about not always feeling affluent works both ways, I can look at the uber wealth surrounding me and feel average or at the ever increasing number of people sleeping rough in Camden and feel incredibly rich. What worries me most about London is the expanding void in between, where high earning (by most standards) people are forced to move out to have a good standard of living property wise.

[AppleSetsSail]

Or, I could move to Knightsbridge?

I probably could have better said 'seedy' e.g. drug dealing, drunk football fans, men with scary dogs, etc.

[Waitingsanta]

Hmm...then you'd probably see no neighbours at all..ever (because they'd be in their actual, real homes in UAE/Malaysia . Possibly scarier!

[AppleSetsSail]

It's true, Knightsbridge is a ghost town. It's become surprisingly empty in the past five years.

[originalmavis]

Where I am we have the £45m homes (not me I may add) right next to ss hostels and halfway homes, and tbe area has been targeted by the gangs of eastern European beggars for the past few years. And a lot of bag snatchers.

[SW1ite]

We live in a 6 bedroom house in St James. We bought and completely refurbished a few years ago and we also have a connected apartment for personal office and housekeeper etc.

I love living here, so close to everything and we can do so much but I couldn't do it full time and we are out of London at the weekends in our home in Gloucestershire, where we have a very different life. I know lots of families who do the same. We are usually away for the summer (July and August) in Southern Europe (won't say more definitely where as don't wish to provide too much information). London is definitely home and I've worked so hard to be able to afford to live here, I won't be moving! Age wise, we are both in our early thirties and are self made money wise.

[originalmavis]

Self made how...? (She asks nosily). Is the queen a nice neighbour and does she pop over to borrow sugar?

[SW1ite]

My DH works in the debt sector and I work (not as much now we have DCs granted) in creative/interiors type area. Sorry I can't be more specific, DH is somewhat of a wunderkind in what he does and hates publicity so won't say more.

[BikeRunSki]

I grew up in a 4 bed house in Zone 1/SW1. Tall thin house, weird layout - 4 storeys, 1 or 2 rooms on each floor. Lots of stairs, not enough toilets. It was a terrace, but "town house" rather than the wee terraces of South Wales and the Yorkshire Dales. Tiny back yard.

I guess we were pretty well off to live there, but nothing like as well off as our neighbours - lots of MPs, politicians, U.S. Expats and a judge. I used to deliver papers to the Speaker of the House of Commons! My siblings and I were all state educated for a start, and the house was our only one!

I hated living in London by the time I left school, and went to a deliberately distant and rural university. But in retrospect growing up in London was wonderful. My primary school faced the Natural History Museum; my secondary school was 10 mins walk from The Tate Gallery. Tons of freedom once old enough to use buses and tubes alone. Lots of museums, galleries and arts going on. Less so sporty stuff, at the time. Great markets in Brixton and Notting Hill. But there was lots of stuff we didn't do because we couldn't afford it; I only every remember going in a black cab once, and to see a West End show once, and, with 4 DC the house was really a bit small.

[smellsofelderberries]

I worked as a live-in nanny for years so got to live in some amazing houses in amazing places. The main thing my bosses had in common was at least one half of the couple brought some sort of family money to the table. I've known couples in their early 30's who have bought multi-million pound properties (quite often while owning other properties). They quite often have good jobs, but not all of them have been on stupid money. In fact, one family I worked for, both my bosses worked with my husband!

Some of our friends also own very expensive property and (aside from one couple where the wife works in investment banking) they all had sizeable deposits given to them from the BOMAD after leaving college. Owning a £700k property when you are 30 is much easier if you're given £200k for a £400k flat when you're 22 and have 8 years of capital gains behind you.

Living in a house in zone 1 is incredible if you can afford it. Cabs are super cheap from a night out and I would go weeks at a time without using my oyster because I could walk everywhere. I was certainly much fitter then!

[ZeViteVitchofCwismas]

Waitingsanta Sat 19-Dec-15 21:10:49

I adore that part of London.

Of all the posts, is your life that makes me feel I would also love to live in London.

Perfect with all the greenery and all the best L has to offer.

[counthedays]

Thesebedroomwalls - someone who is interested in living in zone 1 /2 just isn't going to get excited by living in the countryside breathing in the air. I'm a city girl, I can't think of anything worse than living in the country,

[Maybejustme]

Moonriver, possibly I'm the wrong person to ask, sorry, as ours was a sideways shuffle rather than a big move. Five years ago, we moved from a house in west London out to a village in the home counties as DH and I are quite outdoorsy. We also bought a small flat in town to live in during the week for work. We have been living in the countryside at weekends for a few years and the long term plan once we had DC was always to move out there. We thought about staying in town a bit longer as I really did like the area, but as I say, the schools aren't great. That said, we have just driven back from an afternoon in London and it was really easy so am hoping we still carry on visiting regularly.

[BeaufortBelle]

That's just it. London is fabulous for parents and children. But schools can be precarious so you can only really stay if you have about £20k per child, post tax to spend on education. We were very fortunate to have an exceptional primary and money for fees. I am sure there are better choices outside London education wise.

In London, regardless of property wealth an extra £40k for school fees helps.

[HowBadIsThisPlease]

The really counter intuitive thing about living in central london is that in some ways a lovely life is very cheap.

www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/aug/07/london-gets-24-times-as-much-infrastructure-north-east-england

you have to either insanely rich or middle aged to afford your house in zone 1 / 2, but once you have, there is so much cheap and free stuff to do. London has 24 times as much tax payers money spent on it than Newcastle. What this means is that if you can afford to live in a place in London (that you like) and have a bike (or don't mind walking) you can do something different and free every day.

I cannot afford to live in a place I like (any more). I need more space and more silence than I will ever get in London. Even if I could afford a place that felt big enough for my family of 4, it still always feels much much closer to other people's gardens, terraces, stereos, roof gardens (legal or otherwise) than I can stand. the density of occupation means that statistically there is always some dickhead standing near an open window shouting and smoking at any time of the day or night.

[imip]

howbad that's true. So much is available for free, entertainment wise.

And yes, population density has it's drawbacks - I'm sick of living in party Central (East london), but it's handy to walk everywhere!

[AppleSetsSail]

Yes. When my kids were toddlers we were at the Science/Natural History/Imperial War Museum and Harrods toy department 3 out of 5 weekdays.

12 years on and in my early 40s I am now more than ready to leave London, but now we're wedded to it by way of kids' schools.

[BeaufortBelle]

Apple completely agree with you. I thought I'd never leave London. Our plan was always to move further in and smaller when the children left home (we weren't far from you - just over the river) and to have somehere way outside London and divide our time.

We compromised because we couldn't find what we wanted as soon as mansion tax was mooted and bought something was to manage in zone three. It was soulless and we had neither the bustle nor the peace so we moved to Surrey. All I can see this morning is our garden and all I can hear are the birds. We did it the minute we unplugged from schools and I don't know why we didn't do it in the first place.

[AppleSetsSail]

Oh. The mansion tax. Now that was something. I was never so glad to see the back of anyone as Ed Milliband.

My husband wants to have an extreme rural existence like Wiltshire with a London bolthole (his parents have a ghost-town empty flat) but I would be quite content in Zone 3. I feel that it's time for me to love London from a distance, but I have at least five more years here.

[Redskyatnight01]

I can't get over the prices of houses in London. I live in the countryside, surrounded by open fields, forests, mountain lakes and the freshest, cleanest air you can imagine....I stand outside gulping it in! I see hot air balloons floating above us during the spring and summer months, and love autumn walks down tiny, leaf covered lanes, with complete peace and privacy.

Our gorgeous four bedroom house with gorgeous mountain views cost £110,000 pounds last year. I wouldn't swap it for a mansion in London

Same, except I just live in the countryside, not on a mountain but I just can't understand why people want to fight so hard for this London Life. Our counties bright, vibrant city is a 20 minute drive from where we live. It really takes no time at all to go in and be immersed in the bright lights, shops, restaurants, bars, clubs etc and there are good bus and train links to the city, a taxi is also only about £15. I go to the city a lot to shop, socialise, have nights out etc. However, I love waking up every morning in a lovely house, surrounded by countryside, fresh air, forests etc. I love the fact that I don't have to worry about gangs, or gun and knife crime. Or noise. I love the fact that in the winter I can get all cosy by the fire and look out at the landscape and that in the summer we can have BBQ's in the (ample) garden and have a big group of friends over because there is SPACE.

I also love that we don't pay a huge amount of money to do all of this, therefore spare cash can go on horses and designer clothes

[Narp]

We live in zone 2, in a great area. The house is a 4 bed terrace - nice but in need of lots of upkeep. Tiny garden

Living here is like living in a nice town that is vibrant, multi-cultural, friendly and has access to really interesting cultural and sporting pursuits. excellent public transport. It can be claustrophobic because so many people know each other (mainly through children). Sometime to level of 'hipness' gets me down. Pretentious types

It's very busy and noisy - which you get used to until you go away and come back. But our road is mainly settled families - privately renting/owned/Local Authority, so there is no anti-social behaviour

We are very very lucky, and so are our children.

[Narp]

One of the biggest draws for us is that i walk to work and DH cycles. We drive once a week to the supermarket

[originalmavis]

I walk when DS isn't at school!

[Backingvocals]

A mansion tax would actually have been better for me than the changes to stamp duty. A move in London now to a similar or slightly better house than the one I am currently in would cost me over £150,000 in stamp duty. So obviously I can never, ever move.

I don't know why there was so much bitching about the mansion tax when this is equally hard to deal with for people who have valuable properties but no other wealth. I'm not moaning, btw, just pointing out the issue.