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 😂

I hate it but I miss it when I go away.

DH works in central London, he leaves home just after 6am and walks in the door at 5.15PM each day. It doesn't bother him as he is home for dinner with me and our children every evening and he misses the rush hour home. I do find it quite bizarre that whilst I am in semi-rural home counties he is in the middle of London. The work and the money for him is there, he is home earlier than when he worked locally and did 9-5.30 so it works for us. The parking and train fair aren't great, but he is compensated well for what he does so it offsets it.

When I lived in London if I got home before 7 I didn't know what to do with myself.

Except after I had DS1 when I left work at 4 to dash home to catch him having his tea. That's why I was rushing up the elevators and speed walking through the tunnels.

Love your post Melody ! xx

It was Dr Johnson who said that when a (wo)man is tired of London, (s)he is tired of life. I tend to agree. I visit other places but can seldom imagine living there.

I enjoy London for day trips, and I only live about 90 mins away from London on the train. But I'm much happier living in Sussex. The noise and crowds would do my head in on a daily basis. The prices in London make me wince too. Met a friend in London last month and 2 drinks was £25! I nearly cried!

Rush hour tube is horrible, but yes, obviously that's life for a lot of people.

The plus side of London for me was always the easy access to 1000s upon 1000s of restaurants, bars, takeaways, museums, gigs, festivals, markets, shops, etc. I moved away a few years ago for a quieter life, but in my 20s I wouldn't have wanted to live anywhere else. And I do still miss all that stuff. It's a pain having only 1 curry place and no pizza restaurants that deliver, a 25 minute drive to the nearest supermarket, no way to see live music without a long train journey home late at night, etc.

I'm from London originally. It was all I knew so I was used to it.
I moved up north for uni in 2013, and loved it. So much so I knew I wanted to stay. Anyway long story short I met my dh, we got married and had our 1st baby, and I couldn't be happier.
I love living here, and I wouldn't move back to London ever. Even when I've been there to visit family, I hated it and couldn't wait to get back home, because where I live is home to me, and hopefully always will be.

We make a lot more money than people up north

Just to be clear, London does not equal 'the south' and not everyone in London is included in this "we". I suspect I earn a lot more than many Londoners despite being from the bleak beautiful north.

I love London but I did move there as a 19 year old and it always reminds me of my youth and many happy memories - I was there 25 years and at those ages you can adapt to anything.

Once you leave though and a few years pass by you wonder when visiting there again how on earth you put up with all those crowds noise and general mayhem! It did give a buzz though and I do miss having a buzz from where I live. I think I have adjusted now to suburbia and would struggle to get used to it again to the same extent. I do miss the people though. Not so much the lifestyle....

I live in Greater London and have a 40 min commute into the city and I love it!

The buzz, the energy and attitude is fantastic, people all bustling around and going to meetings with contacts here, there and everywhere!

We go out with work all expenses once a month too somewhere nice do I don’t notice the cost.

That and I’m home before 5:45 and still at home at 8 in the morning.

Wouldn’t be anywhere else!

I live in the Midlands and work in London. I find that my colleagues work on what I call "London time" - they waltz in at 10am and then stay until 7 or 8pm, but are always late for meetings. Meanwhile I get into the office at around 8am and they look at me like I'm a part timer when I leave at 4pm to get my train home!

I love London and live fairly centrally (in zone 2, SW11). It's home for me and I'm always glad to get back here when I've been elsewhere. I wouldn't live anywhere else and feel lucky.

However, I can see it might be stressful for people not used to the pace and the proximity. And I can see it might be experienced as unfriendly. It isn't though ... especially outside the very centre. It's not one place, it's many places. And most people find a local feel. We have a great local community and neighbours, as do people elsewhere. It's not so different.

7.30pm isn’t late it’s about average. 11pm - 3am is late working.

And yes London is so large a lot of people’s journey to work is an hour. Londoners laugh when people talk about an hour as a ‘commute’.

Love visiting London, love the energy and the buzz. Also, when I went there to work, our London office was on Regents Street and I went to Parliament and Whitehall a lot, so there was always the feeling that this was the place where got done. But I also like getting home to some good muddy fields and going walking with the old dog and seeing DS splash in quagmires (the cleanup less so). I lived there for a while, but it was never really home to me. Although when I went there for work after moving away, it did feel a bit like going home again...

Tbh when I go to small towns and it’s quiet and small and everyone’s white I get a sense of panic and claustrophobia.

I'm a lifelong Londoner

No one will have the same experience in terms of coping with it, we all differ

till I was about 30 I would say I was fine even in rush hour, just treated it as part of the day

then I began to be ill a lot, which is partly office-ness and partly all the rush hour germs and stress

then I switched to a job with some flexi and after being removed from the rush hour and having much better health, I now refuse to do any work that involves rush hour travel

I don't go to central London on the weekend unless it's for a special occasion e.g. someone's birthday

I don't like Central London at all any more, to the point that some of the perks I'm offered e.g. free theatre tickets, I don't always use. If it's offered to me for a day that I'm working at home, I let someone else have them. The crush and rush and Tube now bug me that much!

I left London about 2 years ago and don't miss it one bit. A huge factor in my separation from H was that he was hardly ever home before 9-10pm. I never saw him. This is just working btw. He doesn't drink or socialise.
I hate having to go back now. I feel in a totally different and isolated world. Almost as if I'm in a bubble.
Here, I can say Hello to people and won't get a 'you're a weirdo' look.

The tube isn’t pleasant when it’s busy but it’s super efficient for getting around! I am often amazed how you can get from south London to north London so quickly. What is bleak is the awful unreliable trains that serve South East London. The job opportunities in London are so much better than the rest of the country (generally speaking). I couldn’t leave London and keep doing the same job (well paid professional role, treated nicely, good flexibility on offer for those that need it, company that actually gives a shit about its staff). I didn’t grow up here and it definitely has its cons (see my username!) but I don’t know where else I would live now. In all honesty if money was no object I would probably still live in London - maybe in Hampstead or Highgate or Crouch End or somewhere fancy, pretty and villagey like that! The obvious cons are the housing costs, leading to lack of space and long commuting times for a lot of people, lack of countryside (although if you know where to look there’s actually a lot of greenery).

YABU. If you can't cope with it don't go there.

It’s uterly addictive. Didnt grow up there but lived there for 6yrs and absolutely loved it. Now I live in the country but there it is normal to work super late, go out loads and run everywhere. I lost about 2 stone when I moved there!

I live in C. London and it annoys me at times but the main source of irritation is either crowds (so avoid crowded places on crowded days, like NHM on Saturday and never ever ever go to Oxford St), bad traffic or monster tube commutes and train delays. I am so reliant on public transport.
I am one of the people who walks quickly and tends to walk up and down escalators most of the time because, yes, a train might be along in another few minutes but I'm probably already delayed by something else and I cannot afford to keep adding another few minutes to my commute which is already too long and too closely cut to work (childcare responsibilities, serious problems if late for line of work, etc etc) so to me, why stand there and waste a few minutes when they can be shaved off? It would stress me out to have to slow down if I am already in a rush. Seems inefficient

reluctant "I am often amazed how you can get from south London to north London so quickly."

ha ha, I feel the total opposite!!

Rosa really?! The Northern line is amazing.

Ha! Try Oxford Street on Xmas Eve. You ain't seen nothing yet.

Of mistakes I will never make again, it rates pretty highly.