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.

[Ginorchoc]

Miss London worse decision I ever made leaving, can't afford to go back.

[Slimthistime]

OP it's not just tourists
I'm always amazed, especially in sunny weather, at how many people are just dawdling along.

there is nothing wrong with dawdling instrinsically, it just makes it hard for people who really have to rush from A to B. We need a fast lane, a slow lane and some kind of fine for people who walk along slooooooowwwly texting. I nearly fell over a bloke getting off the bus once, he literally stepped off the bus and was Facebooking "just got off bus".

[Slimthistime]

I'm keen to leave London for other reasons (well overcrowding and house prices mainly) but all the stories of people returning make me doubt myself!

[kaytee87]

You blow your nose at the end of a weekend there and your snot is black from the pollution. Back up to Scotland for the space and fresh air!
Do love a weekend in london though, hopefully I'm not too annoying a tourist but everything is faster in London, even the escalators!

[Slimthistime]

I've been hearing about the snot thing since I was a kid. I grew up here. Are Londoners naturally immune to black snot?!

[kaytee87]

Maybe you are? Every time I've been I've had it, and also a dirty face when removing make up at night.

[LaurieFairyCake]

Yesterday on the tube some Americans got on and cooed over my dog 'Yawl, dogs are allowed on the tube' etc (very sweet). My dog was lying stretched out snoozing, totally unphased as she does it every day.

American woman was 'oh she's so good and well behaved'. American bloke (was fancying himself an expert on the breed with his comments) was 'oh it's because it's an old dog, very relaxed breed'.

I said 'actually she's ten months old, we just do this every day. She's been doing this since she was 10 weeks'.

My dog is not ready to leave London. She doesn't even really notice other people. But if another dog gets on she goes into butt sniffing mode

[allegretto]

just highly pissed off with tourists getting underfoot at rush hour through general lack of spatial awareness.

That's not just London. I live in a city that had next to no tourists 10 years ago and now it's been featured in loads of "Places to discover" articles....grrrr......

[Craigie]

Yep, that's exactly how welcome visitors feel in London. My kids HATE London, coz everybody is "bargy" and "rude". Calm the fuck down.

[LaurieFairyCake]

I've never got black snot.

[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.

[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!

[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.

[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.

[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!

[aliceinwanderland]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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

[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!!

[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]

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?

[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.

[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