London

[User452734838]

I was in London earlier this week and it was manic. Everyone rushing around, tubes packed, people rushing down escalators when the tubes are 2 mins apart. Road noise, Sirens everywhere, People getting trains home at 7.30pm to commute an hour, people stood up on this train. As someone who only visits now and again on business it left me shattered and I was only there a day!

Is this just something you get used to in London? Is late working the norm? Travelling for what seems like hours either way to do a job?

It did feel alive though! Is this part of the attraction or is it a case of being born there and knowing nothing else?

I was glad to get back up North where the pace of life is so much less frenetic. We do have to put up with the awful weather though! It was definitely warmer in London 😂

It's a busy week - big travel trade fair at excel but events all over the city. Thousands of exhibitors and visitors - I was one of them from Sunday to today!

It's not always that busy - I'm up every couple of weeks in central London travelling around to hotels and a lot of the time I can get about quite easily.

Some parts are. I work in the city right now and it's manic getting from the station to the office. I don't work late though. I used to work on the southbank and while it was annoying to get round the tourists at lunch it was much easier to walk from the station to the office.

I'm just back after 2 years away and hope I don't need to leave again.

The long hours and hideous commutes were pretty much the only downsides of living in London for me - well, that and the cost of living! But everything else - the friendly people, the culture, the theatre, the cafes, the weather, the architecture, the green spaces, the lifestyle - I miss every single day.

I absolutely love London and when I visit the UK always try to go there. Love the energy and the buildings, the shopping, theatres, museums. I would love to be able to go there for a month and do the museums and just spend time. Was it Oscar Wilde who said to be tired of London was to be tired of Life?

Just out of interest, those of you who live centrally, where do you live and what do you do for schools? Despite what I said about not imagining living centrally, part of this is the thought of not being able to find decent state secondary schools and a home we could afford. It would just be good to know if I have missed anything.

in my profession, yes it is longer hours (I am still at work now, having a bit of dinner before I carry on), but we make a lot more money than people up north. I was not born here but was attracted to it because this is where the biggest and most exciting work in my area is done.

When people moan about the North / South divide, what they don't always realise is how much more productive the South is (people being quicker, more frenetic, and working longer hours) which usually does generate more wealth.

I love London. I love the busyness and the rushing and the excitement. Absolutely love it, DH won’t move there though after much nagging. I find Londoners very friendly too despite their reputation!

You get used to it. The culture, retail and commerce is the very best. But the social structures have deteriorated massively in the last 10 years. Just ain't what it used to be. It's a tragedy.

Yeah I bet Oscar Wilde was always on the tube.

I'm freelance and have a pretty laid back experience of London. I work partly from home in zone 2 (just one stop into zone 2 - a short walk from zone 1) and partly from a co-working space in Shoreditch.

I never take the tube at rush hour, I walk my children around the corner in leafy streets to school, hang out in local (quiet) cafes, go to the park, have a nice variety of shops to choose from with no crowds or misery at any point. I walk almost everywhere.

My children love it here - they have all their fun things right on their doorstep - swimming, parks, climbing, ice skating. Hampstead Heath is just a few stops away on the overground and we can do things like go to the zoo, or go to Camden Market for churros etc. very easily. Not to mention obvious things like the V&A, Natural History Museum etc. There are also more resources for children than there were in our old city - free classes and clubs in local libraries that def. didn't exist in our old city and so on. Central London + children is a very good mix, and I'm v. glad we ignored all the horrified looks we got when we said we were moving here!

When we go out, babysitters are plentiful and lovely, and there is SO MUCH to do. We usually go to a gig, or out for a cheap meal - I've been pleasantly surprised at how cheap eating out is here, although drinks are £££ - yikes! I think I paid something mental like £8 for a glass of wine recently (ASK FIRST).

I got the tube at rush hour by mistake a couple of weeks ago though and it was awful - several stations including Kings Cross were closed altogether because of overcrowding - so I can see how that is off-putting, but as a newly-hatched Londoner, that hasn't been my normal experience at all.

I appreciate that I am very lucky to have such a chilled experience of London.

I definitely have a more fun and laid back life here in London than I did in our last, small city north of here.

I worked there for any years in exactly the circumstances you describe. I burnt out (and got made redundant)
Now I live in Cornwall and it is a LOT better.

The best thing about London is the buses, I can get all the way across London for £1.50. And they’re every 7 minutes ish.

I like London in short bursts but do look on in amazement as people throw themselves up and down the escalators in the Tube, the trains run so frequently what are they rushing for?! There will be another one along in just a few minutes!

I used to live in London and now commute and like the city but really hate working there, and spending so much time commutinh, but it’s where loads of well paid jobs are.

I also dislike and get anxious in crowds, which doesn’t help.

I moved away and find the safe, beautiful place I now live mind-numbingly boring.

DH says I change completely when I’m back in London. He talks about my family standing around chatting normally in a station, then someone shouts “platform 18” and everyone rushes off while DH and DD stand, bemused, unable to process how we all move so quickly.

I live in zone 3 and my commute into the city is a 17minute overground train, of which I get a seat both there and back. It's a delight as far as commutes go.

You just get used to it after a while, and don't really notice.

People sometimes talk about London being unfriendly, but I think it is just a sensible adaptation to mentally screen out most of the people around you to make it feel less hectic.

I live centrally - Marble Arch way. The schools are really good. Children are in a great primary school. DD will hopefully be going to a really good secondary school. Fewer good options for DS in a few years' time but we shall see. I don't have to get the tube so I feel very lucky. I just get to live right in the thick of it - never have to use the car - walk everywhere.

In case you are wondering whether I am a billionaire, I bought in W1 20 years ago when my neighbours were old ladies and little rag trade workshops. It's not like that now.

I am one of those strange people... I have to take a train and tube to get to work every day. Takes me 90 mins each way. The mornings are nice (quiet) but in the evenings dodging the tourists (especially during half term weeks) can be fun.

Last week it was like Picadilly Circus ....in..... Picadilly Circus... wait.

Also, "Stand on the right" means..erm...stand on the right (on escalators) pretty please so the locals can zoom past down the left.

Also ..please, please don't congregate right at the bottom of escalators. You'll have about 500 people piling up behind you with nowhere to go.

Sorry we are not as smiley and chatty all the time. We can be nice when it matters...London 2012 and also whenever those pesky terrorists try to cause a little mischief from time to time (little rascals). My aunt visiting from Yorkshire always gets annoyed by how many people give up their seat for her on the tube...she doesn't even look that old.

Makes you proud though. Do please keep visiting!!!

Where do you live and what do you do for schools?

I live in N1, in a very leafy and safe area. Around me are £5m houses and council flats (and everything in between). Primary schools are outstanding and plentiful, secondary schools are less so, and some people choose to move at that stage - Hackney etc. I think? We're not at that stage yet, so I'm not really sure.

Housing is ££££, I can't deny that, but there's a lot of choice, and it's brilliant for children (in my limited experience). The local playgrounds are fab and there are millions of children around here.

@CotswoldStrife because I just don't like standing around - why should I stand on an escalator when I can keep moving (good exercise too!). I don't want to spend longer getting from A to B than I have to, I just see time standing idle on an escalator as dead time. I walk fast everywhere I go - I hate dawdling.

We make a lot more money than people up north Yes, but the cost of living is also much more expensive so it pretty much evens out in the end.

I love London, a day out in the countryside is half a day too long for me!

I moved to London when I left home in the 80's. Then left and went home to look after DM and DD.
Now back and although it can be noisy, crowded and a bit much it's energy is wonderful.
I steer clear of Oxford Street (apart from the occasional foray into Selfridges around pay day!) but Soho and the little side streets, mews, tiny hidden parks, the architecture and the Thames are all incredible. A walk along the river at night is a wonderful thing too

You do get used to it. However I was coming home tonight after seeing a matinee of Aladdin that ended at the beginning of rush hour. I was walking past the pubs I used to frequent for a quick drink after work and then got on the crowded tube and I just felt SO glad that I don't have to do that anymore. It really took me back to how exhausted I used to be and not wanting to leave the pub to go home because it was so cold and windy outside but of course you had to and you'd be shivering all the way home, get in, make something to eat, get clothes ready for work the next day, go to bed then up at six/seven the next morning to do it all again. I hope I never have to do that again.