To hate this Kind of sneering attitude to places outside London

[wasonthelist]

"many things in life would be better and cheaper if we all just gave up and moved to that six-bed detached in Ashby De La Zouch. But could you really subsist in a place where the height of culinary pleasure is unlimited smarties on your ice cream at the local carvery?"

I am not sure if the author, Caroline Mginn, who wrote that in Time Out -
a) Really believes that Ashby has such limited culinary offerings (it doesn't)?
b) Thought she was preaching to the converted and no-one outside London would read it?

Different strokes for different times.

I've lived all over UK, moved 31 times now. Lived in deep countryside, small towns, other cities, by the sea.

About to enjoy my 40's living in Zone 2 now my children are going to uni. I want to go to the theatre most weeks, do specific workshops, do courses - all of these happen on a much more limited basis outside London.

The stuff I enjoy with dh at the weekends won't fundamentally change - we go for long walks, eat lunch/cake, go to the pub. But we will be able to bring the stuff we do occasionally (like theatre/comedy shows) much more into weekly life. We currently only get to do those every couple of months.

MiddleAgeMiddleEngland ha! A bloke I knew when I lived in London once said to me incredulously "did you know in some places in England they don't have North, South, East or West in their postcodes?"

I said "Yes. EVERYWHERE ELSE."

He said "but then how do you know where in the city you live?"

well, how indeed.

I know, we even get through life without having a particular zone to live in too

Don't encourage spoilt people to move out of London. Let's keep it a secret that there are far nicer places to live!

I live in a very unfashionable new town, in a fantastic house that I've managed to pay off in my mid-forties. With no mortgage, I can afford to work only 3 days a week. It takes me under an hour to get from my front door to get to central London, and an off-peak travelcard is under £14, so I'm usually in London one day a week. In the last month I've gone to the opera, to a couple of gigs, a perfume workshop, an art gallery and two lectures, plus a couple of meals out, including a supper club. Metropolitan hipster living at it's finest. Again, my decision not to live in London is what allows me to afford to do such things.

Many Londoners are often visibly horrified when I'm chatting to them and tell them where I live. It's so funny, their faces kind of freeze in a "but I thought you were one of us!" kind of way. Then they moan about how poky their flat is and how it's going to take them three hours to get home and how this is the only time they've been able to afford to go out for ages. But oh god, no, they couldn't possibly live where I live. I laugh at them and go get the fast train home.

I lived in London as a kid - it was great. My dad was always taking me to interesting places. Mind, my mum had access to too many branches of M&S, resulting in many a boring hour. So, swings and roundabouts.

I now live in a little town. I don't understand the view that decent food is available only in London. The best meals I ever had were in Wales and in the North of England.

I am just amazed that there is a place called Ashby-de-la-Zouch .

Where does the de-la-Zouch bit come from?

Has no one heard the song Ashby de la Zouch by the sea? It's on youtube.

Misses point of thread entirely and waves to fellow Ashbiens (or near Ashbiens). I know who I won't be sharing my extra smarties with if she happens to call by.

It's all so personal I think. I miss, achingly miss London. Can't wait to go back.

What do you miss?

It's called Ashby de la Zouch because a French Aristrocratic family lived (I believe) in the castle there.

And the song "Ashby de la Zouch" by the sea is a play on the fact that Ashby is actually the furthest town in England away from the sea. It (apparently) was used in the war to confuse the enemy as to its location (I'm not sure how true that is) and another explanation has been that it is because Ashby is next to the "C" in "Leicestershire" on a lot of maps.

I'll scuttle back into my hole now

I miss London to the core of my soul but I know we cannot live there again. That is why we chose to move somewhere completely different.

When I sit in my cottage and look out to sea, watching the lighthouse flashing in the distance and fishing boats bobbing about, I miss my lovely city slightly less.

There is joy to be found in many places. Tearing places apart with 'witty' commentary does no-one much good.

Ashby de la Zouch is where Walkers Crisps come from, isn't it?

My dad always says he's glad people in London sneer at the countryside as it stops them moving out & annoying us

We call that 'Woolworth's Cafe'.
I couldn't understand why so many people would always be in Woolworth's Cafe when there were a number of good independent cafes near by. I guess they liked it and they were happy and it was their choice.
Also it means that if everyone is is Woolworth's Cafe then it means there is more space in the little independents for us.

Ha ha! I haven't RTFT, but I live in Ashby Doobydoo and I love it! I was brought up here and chose to come back because I lived in London and didn't really like it. Not sure about the smarties, but we do have an awesome (according to my DSs) milkshake bar. We also have several Michelin starred restaurants which are as quick to get to as any commute across central London.

Waves at Reasonably

Dh used to be very sneery about London, and Londoners. Then he had to spend most weeks working there, coming back up north at weekends. He truly changed his view, he loved the museums, restaurants, running by the river(flat! Not like that round here) and the vibrancy. He wouldn't want to live there, but I think he now understands why people do.
He was just ignorant of London's charms. The journo is ignorant of Ashby de la Zouch's charms, more fool her. I have never been but always wanted to, sounds so exotic!

I once read a restaurant review in the guardian about a restaurant up north, local to me. The critic spent half the article moaning about her 'liverish' train journey up from London and concluded by saying something like 'the restaurant is ok for Manchester but she wouldn't make the journey especially '. Who the fuck would do a 2.5 hr train journey just to visit a restaurant!! Nob! Really pissed me off and I've never read any of her reviews since Marina o' whatsherface

Didn't Adrian Mole come from there?

There are places outside London????

Edinburgh - you get on the train at King's Cross and get off 5 hours later. You can ignore the bits in between.

You will have no difficulty getting lunch at 2.30. (Sorry tribalism at its worst)

I do like London.

It really bugs me.

I lived in London in my 20s. Loved it. Met H who had a job in the NW, moved in with him, still here.

My sister is still there.

Yes her house was more expensive but she earns more for a similar job. My NW council tax is more than hers, my commute on the metro is more expensive than her tube journey. My supermarket shop is the same price, as is my dinner at a local restaurant. My cocktails might be slightly less than hers ☺. The whole massively different cost of living and we all have 5 bedroomed houses ooop North for the same price as a London shoe box makes me really cross!!

I liked London, I like it here. My life is not materially different.

The article cited in the op was clearly exaggerating for comic effect. But it's a version of a train of thought that I and probably loads of middle class Londoners have had often, esp when visiting friends in other towns: "if I moved to Manchester/Liverpool/Birmingham etc then I could have a much bigger house and have lower living costs and I'd have way more pocket money. But oh yeah i like eating out and going to the theatre and opera and galleries." There just isn't anywhere else in the uk that even approaches london for any of these things. Not snobby, just true. And pretending there isn't a huge cultural divide between london and say Barnsley is just ridiculous.

But do you not see that it's a myth theycallme that you can't eat out and go to galleries and the opera in any of those places you mentioned? I live in one of them and regularly do them all!! I know, shocking.

Of course there's a difference between London and Barnsley, but so is there between Manchester and say Harpenden. You have to compare like with like.

No sorry, I grew up in halifax which is close to several towns with theatres and operas - Manchester, Bradford, Leeds, Wakefield, and spent my teen years spending weekends and evenings shuttling around seeing things (sad). There is nowhere close to the vast choice of excellent productions that you have in london, even if you take all the towns I mentioned together. And in london you can get a bus home in half an hour rather than having to take an entire two hours on public transport each way like I would have to do to get to Wakefield etc as a teenager. I'm not saying there aren't good local and touring productions, but for theatre and opera there is nothing close to london.