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 😂

You can't rustle up a manufacturing industry like a set of Dr Oetker packet-based muffins. It takes more than water, an egg and an oven. It takes buildings, materials, training, and trade deals. Which take time. And investment

Agreed.

I think the Sumerians had the right idea. Their foundation myth saw human creativity (and technology) as a good thing - not a curse that brought evil. They loved cities.

Countryside is great - but cities really are a wonderful, human thing and to be loved for what they can tell us about creativity, tolerance, exchange, and living together.

And no-one is investing here at the moment
Not true. Jaguar Land Rover and , amy other companies are making massive investments here. Apple are going to take most of the Battersea Powerstation. Thousands of jobs - all funding the NHS

I love London, love the fast pace, the ease of getting from A to B, the buzz of the place. Love visiting and have taken Ds three times up to now, he loves it too. Always something interesting to do.

I live in East London (Stratford) and love it. I have a beautiful park at the end of my street, Westfield shopping centre and the Olympic park are a short walk away. We have takeaways and restaurants of every description nearby and a lot of them are very good value. We can get to theatres or events in central London easily on the tube...

Housing is expensive, but as long as you don't go out drinking most costs of living seem the same or cheaper than elsewhere.

I find London strikes the right balance between friendly and anonymous. Anything goes here, I never feel judged. You can mix with a huge variety of people and have some really interesting conversations.

Having said all that, dh hates it. We're planning to move soon. We're going closer to my parents who may need our help as they age (dad is 87).

I think I'll miss London though. :(

London is amazing when you are young and don’t care about House sharing, poor accommodation. Once you get into your 30’s though do you really want to be living like a student anymore? That’s the problem. The impossibility for most of living in a reasonable family home in London. So what happens is you end up living somewhere shit on the outskirts or perhaps somewhere a bit nicer in the Home Counties and having that long commute in. This was my life for years. Up north now and I look back and wonder why I did it for so long.

This footage of a Mumbai train is even worse - people don't even wait until the train stops before boarding or getting off (there seem to be no doors).

I haven’t been in over 10 years but London is fabulous. The history of the place, the museums - love it. Funnily enough, I bought a Big Ben ornament for our Christmas tree today.

I have gone though phases of loving and hating London. When I first moved to the city, it was amazing but as I grew older, I don’t enjoy it as much but still love and appreciate the facilities, the buzz and access to jobs.

I commute in from a semi-rural town and in theory get the best of both worlds but I am unable to enjoy the benefits of London as I have to leave work by 4 to get to nursery by 6. I leave my house by 6am each morning and my working days are manic. If I could change to do ‘lates’ then I’d take advantage of the theatre etc more often.

I only work part time and I love my days at home in my village with my baby. I hated the one time I brought her into London while I was on mat leave. The airpollution and high levels of smoking were really noticeable after having a break away. I felt rushed and anxious and I had been really looking forward to coming in. I can see now why visitors can find the city a bit overwhelming and stressful, especially with children. When you’re there every day you just get used to it.

I posted about this a couple years ago when I happened to be in London on a course.
Despite being a born and bred Londoner I’ve lived in a rural part of the south west for the past twenty years. I came home after three days feeling mentally and physically exhausted yet somehow exhilarated

I'm a Londoner, I moved out because we couldn't afford to buy a house, so I moved about an hour away. I still really miss living in London, even though I'm commuting in every day but since starting a family. I wouldn't move back The schools and houses are alot better where we are. But we still go to London regularly, about twice a month as a family To go to galleries, shows and such.

what user1471426142 said, we live in London now because of jobs (DH get paid a lot more here than anywhere else), but now we are looking forward to move out of London, to a nearby commuting town Surrey. Mainly because can't afford decent house & good school and ok area (where we live, in the last year it got worse, with noisy teenager, breaking in and smoking weeds inside our secured building), also the level of polution puts me of (I would rather my child have a heathy lung even though we will need to commute longer). BTW, I do not understand how can anyone afford to buy in London now, or no-one really care about how small the place is, and where your house is?

In the mornings I catch the tube halfway to my Zone 1 job, then run the other half through parks. If I pop into the local coffee shop they know my order by heart & at the other end of the day, I always have a hello & quick chat with the bloke who hands out the free paper.

On warm days I have a choice of three parks to eat lunch in and then I can lie on the grass enjoying the trees & flowers & sky.

Lovely!

I would encourage more tourists to walk more (if the weather is good). Many of the central attractions are closer than you might think (if you only use the Tube) and it oftrn takes more time tham you think to get all the way down to the platforms and all the way back up again.

In the mornings I often walk for the final mile. I change my route a lot an always discover something new / interesting - all the amazing Blue Plaques telling you who lived there. It's wonderful

I was born in London and I’ve lived in London my entire life. I work at London Bridge and I use the tube or trains every day pretty much.
Straight out after work to meet friends for dinner, theatre, gigs, cinema, galleries, pubs, supper clubs, events...

I just couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. The countryside is not for me- I feel a physical relief when I come back to the city. It’s in my blood.

Also I use commuting time to read and catch up on podcasts, which I don’t manage to find time for at home.

We definitely have Parakeets north of the river, there have been loads on Hampstead Heath for years. The story is that they escaped from the Zoo. You don’t hear them much in the residential areas and I think that’s because the Gulls keep them down! The story is that the Gulls came here to get the fish being fed to the penguins at the Zoo. I’m waiting to find an armadillo in the garden!!

I use a wheelchair and when we visit London, we simply never use the tube. Get the train to Euston, walk to our central accommodation and walk to wherever we want to go (well I don't walk , but you know what I mean).

Touristy/cultural/museumy London is smaller than people realise.

We've got parakeets in our garden. I was always told that Jimi Hendrix had released a pair in the 60s, and they bred. Even if it's not true, I like that story.

oh I've never seen parakeets on the Heath but I don't spend as much time there as I'd like. My nearest green spaces are kind of dull. That's another thing about the overcrowding - it's pointless having a car but it does mean I think, ach, I can't face the public transport to the Heath or whatever, even if it is wonderful when I get there.

Davros, if you find an armadillo in the garden, I hope you'll invite me round

I really like the Jimi Hendrix story! - thanks for sharing it, I've not heard it before.

I'll now look on them as a living echo of the Sixties and spirit of Hendrix given wing.

There are a few theories about how parakeets came to live in so many London parks
http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20161020-these-tiny-birds-are-common-in-london-but-nobody-knows-why

I lived in London all my life, moved to the coast for Uni and then came back five years later. I missed it terribly and found coastal life boring.

I'm afraid I'm a country girl!

I've lived and worked in London my whole life. I love (love, love!) the city. I also love forests and woods and mountains and the sea. I live in London because I was born here and circumstances have meant I stayed. I'm sure I'd be equally happy elsewhere - definitely not writing off other areas based on a short visit.

Oh, and I've seen parakeets on wormwood scrubs.

oh I've never seen parakeets on the Heath but I don't spend as much time there as I'd like.
Next time you go, go to the bit close to/downhill from Kenwood House - the Heath staff put up feeders in the trees and the parakeets are there a lot.