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 😂

Food delivery services seem to get mentioned a lot on these threads
I don't use them so it's never occurred to me to see them as a benefit of living in London
I'm in Zone 5 and I see them on my street all the time so clearly I'm a minority!
I think Londoners are very friendly but I haven't lived anywhere else to form a basis for comparison to be fair
Always known my neighbours wherever I've lived

I don't think London is any different to most big cities in the world.

They are all noisy, bustling, bad air, frantic.

I live surrounded by ancient woodland. The only noise I hear outside at night are owls. Only a few cars pass outside my house a day,

It is bliss.

Melody - stating categorically that we don’t need to worry about Nrexit just makes you look silly. None of us really know what the impact will be: disaster or success. What we do know is there will be change and things will look different. We are plunging into the unknown so don’t talk like there are certainties.

“We will always be the centre of the world” is just embarrassing frankly.

No it's not! Cos Greenwich meridian... so all other time is measured from us being quide lidderrally the centre of the world

Scientific, geographical, historical, political and permanent FACT,

Maybe its because I'm a Londoner...

Who's with me? Anyone? Anyone?

Brought up in London, very central in Covent Garden. Great place to grow up, cultural, in the hub of things etc. But can't abide it now. I live in the burbs now but if I had my way I would move far away. Need to be close for work, i go in the office a couple of days a week. It's dirty, too crowded, aggressive, and has lost its way.

Up shit creek with Brexit.

Singing a rousing chorus is about as much as we can do while the ship sinks,

I’ve also lived in London my whole life. I don’t go out much, but I love living somewhere where there is at least the option to go and do loads of different things. I suppose it’s just the stimulation I like. I lived in Germany for a year, and I don’t know if it was the bit I was in or not but it was so boring, there was bugger all to do. It didn’t help that I had no internet either. It may have partly been to do with the fact that I also found it impossible to make friends with anyone, but my favourite times were when I went to Berlin where my friend was (went three times). I was so glad when I went home.
I like the countryside for a holiday... except there’s often little to do and if the weather’s shit you’re stuck indoors. There is no way I’d ever live in the countryside, I’d go insane. Some people say that everyone knowing everyone’s business in a small village and everyone being friendly is a good thing - sounds like a nightmare to me! I love the anonymity a big city brings.

And yes Londoners are thinner on average because only the insanely rich can drive everywhere from door to door. And they have more stairs (in buses, flats, offices, tube stations, shops).

No one in london lives in the touristy parts....

I've lived in London for nearly 40 years, since I was 18, and I love it. So much to do. I live in Zone 2 and it's very green here. Lots of parks, cemeteries, street trees, gardens. I grew up in a succession of suburbs elsewhere and there's no comparison to London.

*Scientific, geographical, historical, political and permanent FACT,

Maybe its because I'm a Londoner...

Who's with me? Anyone? Anyone?*

Oh dear.

Rule Brittania.

Always lived, and mostly worked, close to home in zone 4, specifically because 6 weeks tube travel to Old Street via Central and Northern lines in 1988 traumatised me so much.

Can't remember the last time I went up the smoke. Living in London is not just about zone 1. Where I live feels like part of a big city with everything available 24/7, a couple of miles away feels like sleepy, timeless suburbia.

I’m in London now for work. I love it and love that I can go outside now and it’s still fairly busy and places are open. It’s not for everyone though by dh detests it when he has to come for work and can’t wait to get home.

I used to have an hour commute to work in London. It was always sardines on the Tube. I loved working there and spent a lot of time meandering round. I miss the buzz, but I don't miss the commute, especially the occasional Tube strikes, when I had to bus it as far in as I could then speedwalk to work!

speakout
When you're chewin on life's gristle, don't gramble! Give a whistle!
And this'll help fings turn out for the BEST...

And.....

Always look on the bright side of life!
Always look on the light side of life!

Speak "The only noise I hear outside at night are owls"

The only owl I hear is me

DH was born and bred in central London.

He wouldn't move back. Nice to visit but not permanently

I quite often get disturbed at night by foxes. During the day it’s a mixture of planes, bloody noisy parakeets and occasional Chinook helicopters. I’m in Zone 3.
I love London, it’s so random. The other day a monk in full habit went past me on a bicycle.

* See I don't believe this for a second. All the American banks can threaten to move their offices to Frankfurt but the point is no-one is willing to give up London for Frankfurt.*

Local agents in my area (Islington) say the rental market at the high end of the market (c£4k pcm) has massively slowed because the number of corporate relocations has dropped dramatically. We looked at two properties where the tenants were German and French respectively, ending the tenancies early because their employers were pulling them out of London due to uncertainty over brexit

The market is also softer for houses around the £1-2m mark, Brexit is certainly a contributing factor (as is stamp duty)

The plural of anecdotes isn't data, but there's definitely evidence of it happening...

Melody; loads of banks are in the process of moving to Dublin.

I find London shattering. As I do most big cities. I was born in a mill town next to a big northern city, now I live within the city limits, but in a semi rural area. I love my mix of country side and city.

I can not imagine living in London. I would feel terribly claustrophobic. I love visiting London as a tourist and can cope the occasional business trips there.

But there was is soo many people, when I am down there I feel like the pavements will collapse under the weight.

I also don't understand the uproar about the tube. It runs every 5 minutes at worst. Try waiting 30 minutes for an 11 minute train to the next town. And paying £7 for the privilege , for the same personal space you get on a rush hour tube.

Melody, you sound like an absolute bell end.

A correction in rents and house prices wouldn't be a bad thing. We have enough of our own bankers.. I like Dublin... But come on really? Even when the EU allowed them to have their 10% corporate tax rate, lots of companies that "relocated" there had two rooms and a dusty fax machine while thousands stayed on in London.

Now if the EU really does want to be really, really mean to us, we will have no choice but to go the full on "Singapore of Europe" route with ultra low corporate tax and ultra light regulation...Businesses will move to where its easier for them to make money.

Also have you ever been to Frankfurt? It's like Brussels only cleaner but totally lacking a sense of humour. Unlike me

Lived in London for 20 years. Moved to the coast a few years ago, and don't miss London at all.

You sound lovely Hebron