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?

I'm not talking about alcohol or drugs. I don't know why you would think I was. To be honest your aggressive tone is much more the kind of thing I was thinking about.

Oh for goodness' sake

Living on the outskirts of London is much worse than living in London, IMO. Its a pain to travel in, you live in a dull suburb where nobody is around during the day, because they all work in London.

Another London thread! Has anyone brought up soil contamination yet? My tomatoes this year are massive, putting it down to being under the flight path

I have lived in London all my adult life, and raised dd 8 here. The range of activities for both adults and children is incomparable. We love it. It is personal preference. Yabu

Hum.
Born and bred. No longer live in the country but I love it.
Why would anyone want to live in [wherever you live]?

Personal choice, isn't it? :)

It had the best culture in the world. I live in zone two and can be in Oxford street in twelve minutes door to door where there is the best shopping in the world. I love the theatre so go to see the best plays every couple of weeks. There's generally more choice of everything especially restaurants and you can go to fancy amazing places or diverse street food. I love the "feel" of the place. I like seeing tourists enjoying my home. My favourite place in the world is standing on Waterloo bridge contemplating the world and thinking how lucky I am that I managed to make something of myself and live in such an amazing place where there are so many opportunities. If I had stayed where I'm from id be living in a boring suburb, as it is I feel the world is my oyster.

Plus from my own experience it is not a great place to bring up children. They grow up faster in London and are a lot harder.

Just like my husband. He grew up here and is bad to the bone.

What a silly question. You do realise that different things appeal to different people?

Fwiw my answer is because I was born here so it's all I've ever known .

I left London last year and I regret it every day. I don't understand what people do with their spare time if they don't live in London. I used to go to a different gallery/museum/guided walk/tour/talk/market/outdoor event pretty much every weekend.
Living in London is expensive but you can do fun stuff for free. Most other places, there's fuck all to do except spend money.

London? Where's that?

I live in Barcelona. So, obviously I win.

Living in London is expensive but you can do fun stuff for free. Most other places, there's fuck all to do except spend money.

This x 10000

thinking how lucky I am that I managed to make something of myself and live in such an amazing place where there are so many opportunities.

Haven't read the whole thread, just first and last pages. As pp have said, because it's home. I must tell you though, that as well as all the galleries, attractions, shows, activities, we live a normal and relaxed family life. We have lots of local friends as well as family and we are involved in community groups and events. It isn't non-stop excitement but it can be

I have been having more of a think about why I think London is a great place to be especially for older children and teens. My eldest is just at the stage where he can make the most of the city independently. There are about 5 buses from the end of our street and they are all free and that's without the tube which is heavily subsidised. I don't worry about the safety of him either. Obviously the terror threat does bother me, a lot, but on a general basis, I don't worry as they are never in a silent area.

They have no prejudice, they are so used to mixing with people of every race, nationality and religion that it doesn't even register on their radar. They've eaten food from every cuisine and it doesn't have to be cost prohibitive.

There's so much they've done at school which comes alive and because of the free transport and museums doesn't even cost. Likewise, they've been lucky enough to see so much theatre too - often at heavily subsidied prices. They don't roam the countryside, that's true but they pick up their skateboards and get off to a skatepark, they take their bikes out into the parks and they are never bored as they always find something to do and they don't need any money to do it.

As they get older they will be able to access so much work experience and they'll be able to afford to take on low paid grad jobs in whatever industry they like because they won't have to pay rent, they can live at home.

Oh but they've never ridden a horse and neither have I

Yes there is lots of free stuff going on. We have an adventure playground (Sydenham) which is free. Loads of free stuff on the south bank (20mins by train).
My kids go on brilliant school trips,next week DS is going to the science museum. My DD will go on a resident school trip to a farm later on.
There's always stuff to do which is free or cheap.

Oh and free train/tube and bus for my DC. It's nearly a fiver to get into the local city by bus in my home town (Somerset)

Just like my husband. He grew up here and is bad to the bone

It's not a matter of being 'bad'. It's general attitudes and the fact that I find children stay children a lot longer in other places. I grew up having to be very aware of safety around the stabbing of teens as it was a genuine problem and it's just not something even on the radar where I am now and I prefer that.

I grew up in London too. While I think there are lots of great things about it I don't think it's necessarily the best place for children to grow up in terms of welfare and emotional development.

Apparently I am not alone in thinking this given the numbers of people like me who had a London childhood who've decided that it's not the place they want to bring up their kids. And I am a bit about people who didn't have a London childhood themselves holding forth about how wonderful a London childhood is because they didn't have one. My parents did the same and frankly I think they were very wrong.

London is like anywhere else: not perfect. It does frustrate me when people who've come from elsewhere and chosen to live there insist that it's paradise when that's not everyone's experience, particularly those of use who were just born there rather than choosing to live there.

And I am a bit hmm about people who didn't have a London childhood themselves holding forth about how wonderful a London childhood is because they didn't have one.

I did have one.

No it isn't paradise. But it's quite offensive to say that it's not a good place to bring up children. I don't say that about those who bring up their kids in suburbia, because you know what - both have their pros and cons and are right for different people.

And whether or not kids "grow up faster" in London depends entirely on what kind of family they come from. I grew up in a gritty part of East London (stabbing aplenty btw) and I was still playing with my little pony aged 13.

My cousins outside London also had sex and started drinking much earlier than I did.

I did preface my post with 'from my own experience'. And it does seem to be a point of view that a lot of people who grew up in London share. Plus from your own posts you appear to have had a very sheltered upbringing and that is specifically something I didn't want to do. I live in a very working class area now but it's safe for my children to play out on the streets without having to worry about dealers hanging around or fighting spilling on to the streets and I don't have to spend my time looking out for needles if I take them to the play park.

I actually intend to encourage my children to spend time living in London when they're young adults as I think it is the most amazing place to live in at that time of your life and in a lot of ways safer because of the great public transport and fact there are always people around. But to bring up children it's not for me.

Gowgirl Oh yes, I remember the soil contamination loon PP. I live right next to an allotment and have put up posters warning allotment holders not to eat any veg they grow as it will almost certainly kill them.

Plus from your own posts you appear to have had a very sheltered upbringing and that is specifically something I didn't want to do

Nope. Played out in the streets, went to a "rough" school, had "rough" friends.

Upbringing wasn't remotely sheltered. Mum was a single mother working nights so we had a lot of independence.

Where I live in Lewisham I have genuinely never seen a drug deal taking place or a needle in any of the parks I take my son.

There are stabbings but, as they were when I was growing up, they are all within gangs. There are not youths roaming the streets stabbing any poor unfortunate who gets in their way.

I had a London childhood. It was fine, but it was all I was used to. All of my family were there, and we were fine. We moved out basically so we could cash in on our house and work freelance and set up our own business. The most striking difference I have seen from bringing up children in London and doing g it where I am now is the competitive parenting. I was virtually seen as bordering on neglectful by the mummies at my DS's old school because he didn't go to a million piano lessons, learn a language, tutoring etc etc by the age of 7. The school was competitive and results driven to the extreme. I told one of the mums my DS was crying when he had to do his homework and basically was told that was par for the course. I think that comes from us living in a grammar school area though, and a place with massive pressure on school places. No idea if it's the same elsewhere. Here, I am the pushiest mum in the school, because I bought him a Carol Vordeman book! His confidence has grown, I don't have any trouble getting him to do his homework, my kids love school. Now maybe he will be completely uncompetitive when he's older, but I really think he would have cracked if we'd stayed in that atmosphere, and so would I tbh!

Also, out of 10 cousins who grew up together in London, only one (my brother) still lives there