You know you're ready to leave London when...

[highinthesky]

....you feel like greeting everyone that crosses your path on the pavement with a "Fucker, fuck off out of my way!". I felt the same way at 5.30pm as I did at 8am

But being the reasonable person I am, I realise that London needs tourists more than it needs me.

[alohaimnew]

standard for london though, is'nt it? I would miss it if i left. Along with the morning train shouting - 'can everyone please move down the carriage please, we all want to get to work you know!'. Hahahaha. I love london.

[paxillin]

... you land a job in Tokyo or New York and London begins to look a bit provincial?

Otherwise, never I hope.

[HiJenny35]

Never, love London, privileged to live here and I will never leave. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. The noise, buzz, buildings, people, culture, attractions, food, theatre, mess, chaos I love it all.

[Gwilt160981]

They're all nut cases on oxford street and regent street. Don't look where they're going bump into ya. I couldn't live in london. Visiting is enough.

[highinthesky]

Oh that's exciting. Where are you off to?

Back to Essex (commuterville) so am less likely to spend time gallivanting in town in the evenings / weekends. I anticipate the journey home might actually help me destress a bit. Streets are relatively clear so I should be able to take a brisk walk in the evenings without tripping over the clueless.

It is a city thing though - was in Barcelona this summer and found it utterly unbearable!

[WalkingInTheAir13]

Bumbling tourists clogging up the streets drive me crazy too!

However, I had to smile at the Japanese couple I saw standing outside Selfridges. They wore pollution masks covering their mouths and noses BUT they pulled them aside every now and again ...... to have a big drag on their cigarettes!

[eurochick]

The black snot is not a London thing, it's a tube thing. I hate the tube - it's so stuffy and grubby.

I love London though, but I have some sympathy about the tourists. I cross the millennium bridge as part of my commute and so many walk in groups, slowly, blocking the entire thing! Grrrr.

[eyebrowseyebrows]

I second @QueenMortificado

Come to The City, we all walk 300 miles an hour with a purpose because we're very important and have very important meetings with other very important people the Starbucks barista don't you know

[ocelot41]

You cry every time you have to come back from holiday as you feel you are being made to go back in a dirty, stressful too small cage. I used to love it in my twenties but the time definitely came to leave

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

Oh that's exciting. Where are you off to?

[highinthesky]

Oh joy! It seems I am getting my wish and leaving London!

Give me six months, I'll be complaining about how pedestrian life in the suburbs is

[Slimthistime]

PS I don't really get the London affluent thing, there are rich places all over the country and ordinary folk living all over London. Tbh London as a very rich place is about 1 Hyde Park Corner type people who aren't reflective of the majority anywhere.

[Slimthistime]

Room, I'm sure people are treated with contempt worldwide. I don't mean that flippantly. There are rich places across the world where anyone who isn't rich is seen as lower and less important.

I used to have one rich friend. I gave up on her because - well Daily Mail probably sums it up. But going outside of London isn't going to change the fact that people like her exist, is it?

[Room101isWhereIUsedToLive]

I wouldn't normally make a post like this but it's all I can think of right now.
When 17+people die in a fire in what is considered one of the most affluent places in the world.
But I stopped living in London three years ago, nothing could tempt me back.

[Slimthistime]

Yes, I'd love space and a garden. I've been lucky enough to be granted a couple of days homeworking and while I am overjoyed to be spared the commute, now I live here and work here I am going a bit OMD I have no physical space.

re cannabis, there's a guy in my building who reeks so much, you can get a free high when he comes by. The thing that cracks me up if he sees me he says "oh I'm sorry - I've been in the car with my mate and he's been smoking"....every single time!!

[MyCalmX]

I wouldn't live anywhere else in the UK. In fact I'm pretty desperate to move back to Aus but I know I'll miss London too much.

And Craigie how about you lot hurry the fuck up instead of telling Londoners to calm down

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

...you go from pre children and have a marvellous tiny easily maintainable postage stamp garden then have three dses and your perfect little garden starts resembling a tiny muddy puddle with no flowers, no grass , just mud.

I loved living in London.....but I love living out of it more.

[whataboutbob]

Buttercup- constant smell of cannabis in my newborn' bedroom- that was me!!!! Maybe I should have started a support group, I became obsessed with the foul smelling weed. EHO said there was nothing we could do except call the police. Which would have been like kicking a hornet's nest.

[BoonDucks]

Can't imagine in my worst nightmare ever living in London. Or any city really. No amount of high wages would persuade me it was worth actually living there.
When I am forced to go there I can't wait to get home to fields and quiet. All the traffic, trains and pavements make me feel gritty and dirty.

[aliceinwanderland]

I love London. Wish I had never left . But I do really notice the air pollution nowadays. That's about the only negative.

[BuggertheTabloids]

Loved London when I was young free and single, lived there for years.
Wouldn't go back for quids now though, couldn't afford the lifestyle I would like with kids etc. My large house in sticksville would buy a two bed flat in a dodgy area in zone X now!

[userofthiswebsite]

The walking thing drives me nuts. Fine you have every right to walk as slowly as a tortoise but you don't have a right to block the pavement so I can't walk at the speed I need to in order to get to work by 9am. I live in outer London so I assure you it's not just up in town. People can be intensely inconsiderate.

[Buttercup12233]

Constant smell of Canabis in your newborn's bedroom, opening the door to your block of flats and finding a huge Rottweiler running free, and regularly getting woken up by the neighbour's door being smashed in.

I don't miss it.

[CharlieandLolaCat]

I used to work near the tower and lived near Victoria. The tourists used to haunt my nightmares! Yes, London needs them but ffs speed up! Before that I worked in Mayfair and used to walk to work which involved walking across the front of Buckingham palace - I must have featured in A LOT of people's holiday pics. No, I can't do a massive detour round you .... Mind you, I went to sixth form college in Cambridge and had similar issues .... Hmmm. Maybe it is me and I am just intolerant!

[Dandandandandandandan]

You want a garden.

I love London. I've been here for years and am very lucky to live in a nice bit.

But now we have a baby, we need outside space.