Please tell me why anyone would want to live in London

[Lloyd46]

I love London to visit, but I am glad to leave. Please tell me why anyone would pay extashionate prices to live in an over crowded, expensive place, why not live on the out skirts and pop in and out when you feel like it?

Because it's the kind of place that voted against brevity. End of.

I have no idea why people wouldn't like to bring up kids in London.
Living in London (zone 4 though) all the people I know are happy to bring up their kids in London.

My kids state primary school got good results, ds1's state secondary school is outstanding.
There are loads of extra curricular activities offered.
They have great results.
This year, my kids have been to the theatre twice including an amazing outdoor theatre, 4 different museums, national gallery, ghost and historical walks through different areas of London, st Pauls, and various restaurants.
They've also been on regular bike rides and walks through woods, parks and country parks, fruit and vegetable picking, city farms where they've fed goats and watched meerkats.
We ve also jumped on the train and had days out in Brighton and Cambridge.
Many of the things I mentioned are free or inexpensive and public transport in London is free for kids.

Obviously I'm not speaking for everyone but London kids have a certain open mindedness, are streetwise and have an attitude to life that an all around London life education provides.

OP, why on earth do you keep a flat in London if you dislike it so much? We bought 24 years ago, and for the last 10 years our property in this 'awful overcrowded' place has made more than twice the average national wage on a yearly basis. One day we will sell up and buy in the country and have enough change to buy a dozen horses, but I can't personally see the attraction of owning and riding horses. Carry on shit stirring....

why on earth do you keep a flat in London if you dislike it so much?

Because it's made up and you can have a fake house wherever you want?

Exactly Queenbean it's all bullshit and the OP knows that, hence the interphone silence.....

LyndalaHughes yy to this. If I went to visit a friend in another town, and whilst sitting in their house in said town, came out with "God, how can you live here, it's a right shithole", they would quite rightly think me rude and obnoxious. Yet those of us living in London have to take this, smilingly, from our visitors who come to avail themselves of all London's attractions but who couldn't bear to live in such a dreadful place..... RUDE.

As PPs have said, the simple answer is jobs.

It's my home?

I do love London and I can appreciate it offers things you just can't get anywhere else. I love visiting and I'd love to have a little bolthole there but that's never going to happen.

I do find it quite exhausting though. The traffic, the people everywhere, the overcrowding on the tube, not really being able to get places by car because of congestion, paying to park everywhere - even in many residential areas. I think to live in London I'd just have to change gear a bit - live my life in fifth gear to keep up. At my age I can't be arsed, but I probably could've if I'd bothered to move there in my 20s. I guess you just get used to it and the great things outweigh the other stuff.

I live in the countryside and hate it. It's really bloody boring.

Some people were actually born and raised here; it not about it being the capital, jobs, blah blah.

It's our bloody home!

God, not another London-bashing thread.

I love living here because it's the greatest city in the world. It has culture, great food, wonderful parks, interesting buildings, layer upon layer of history, excellent transport links, good schools, and a diverse range of people. What's not to love?

Because I grew up in the provinces, and never ever would I impose this on my daughter.

I'd love to live in London again. Not centre-centre like Soho, but in one of the just-out-of-centre places, like Kennington, Clapham, Islington or something like that. The main reason is that when you work in London and have friends there and things to go to all over the place, it is so much easier to be somewhere relatively central with good access to all parts of London, as opposed to potentially having an hour plus long journey on public transport to go and see your friend on the other side of London, or go to the concert you want to go to, or the restaurant you heard was really great.

Also, I love the atmosphere of the hustle and bustle. Being at the centre of things. I guess it's one of those things you either love or hate.

Harley street and simple street for example? I wasn't the original poster but I love that area. Loads of the doctors live in the houses and have surgeries in them as well.

Yes Harley street is a lot quieter than Oxford Street, but doctors have lived their for decades!
Marylebone high street and the surrounding streets are lovely as well
And a few blocks south of Oxford street, the back streets of Mayfair are beautiful. Shepherds Market is a world away from the shopping and crazy

The history. I loved walked around this amazing city. So much history. Lots of green spaces. Lots of little villages really. Never been to oxford street more than once in our 8 years if living there as thats not the real london

Because it's the most awesome place to live and you are free to be who you want to be. Choose the right area and it's an adventure each and every day. Big and ll as it is it's filled with great people.

Great, another one of these threads - Londoners state what they like about living in London - culture, diversity, brilliant restaurants. Then loads of non Londoners pile in with their opinion that lots of other places in Britain have all those things, and Londoners are snobs for assuming their city is the only place with them.

I lived there for 6 years in my 20s and loved it. I'd move back in a heartbeat if it was practical. It just feels so alive and important, for want of a better word. My heart beats faster there.

Do you mean central London? I live in zone 5, and love it. Good transport links to town but villagey vibe. Property is ridiculously expensive though,

Liz Jones is that you? I love London's bustle, diversity and vibrancy.

I am from the North but lived in london for a few years. I find London has more life to it, the after work scene, the theatres, the museums, the parks. I enjoyed it. I moved back North with my job and whilst I love the more sedate pace of life, I have found a lot of people here are just interested in getting home, getting their PJ's on and watching emmerdale and Corrie. Both places have their pluses and minuses

I am a born and bred Londoner who moved away seven years ago.

For me personally, it was the best thing that I ever did but as a pp said, each to their own. I know plenty of people who have moved away as they hate it now. There are others who I know who have stayed there as they love it.

You can get anything you want at any time. The choice of everything is excellent.

I miss living there :(