AIBU to ask is there life after London?

[poppingshop1]

I know there is, but is it a good one?

DH & I are true Londoners & live in a lovely part of SW London that I grew up in. We have a lovely life, mum around the corner, excellent school which DC1 attends around the other corner, lovely neighbours, etc. BUT we are starting to think we should leave. 90% of our childhood friends have moved out to either zone 5/6 or the home counties. 3 of my close friends (met through NCT) who live nearby have all decided to leave & told me this week.

We want more space (property is 1300 sq ft) which we can’t afford unless we move to other parts of London (don’t really see the point) & husband is finding the tube more & more stressful. Plus the general hustle & bustle is starting to grate.

However the idea of moving to the suburbs terrify me (don’t mean to offend), worried I will be bored/lonely & DH might struggle with the commute as he’s used to 30 mins door to door. I’d prefer to live in a 3/4 bed terrace close to amenities than a 6 bed detached in the middle of nowhere.

My 3 NCT friends are moving to other cities (Bristol, Edinburgh & Bath) & I’m starting to think that moving to another city could be a great option.

I’m lucky that I freelance so 90% of my work is wfh. DH would obviously earn less working in another city but still plenty of finance jobs around at the 70k mark and as we have at least 500k equity our cost of living would ideally be lower, I feel we might have a better quality of life. My mum is likely to move to be closer to us (she’s an immigrant, so no other family here).

Has anyone moved from London to other cities? Did you regret it? How hard did you find it settle? Where would you go?

I've lived in 4 major cities including London and lived in 4 other countries. Central London is now the last place I'd live. It is horrible.

She’s never lived anywhere other than London

I wonder how responses would have been if the op had said “is there life after Sheffield / Leeds / Paris”. Anywhere other than London and I suspect people would have been a lot less chippy.

i realised that storm , the question is do you like your chips with gravy or not if not why ever not?

My instinct is to say no to Shoreham. If you were going to do Shoreham and therefore be in suburban Brighton, I'd suggest sticking with suburban London, as at least then you have the wonderful tube to nip in and out, rather than the fucking southern rail less frequent trains and fucking expensive less frequent buses that you have down here.

That said, Shoreham is filling up with younger families now as Brighton+Hove has got more expensive, but if can afford to be in central B+H, I would do it as you'll have great access to all the stuff to do. I tend to walk everywhere here. As I said, do PM if you had any questions.

Loads of ex-Londoners living down here, so you're less likely to get your head bitten off for merely asking what other cities might be like too

Omg leave the OP alone! She’s never spent any time anywhere other than London!

she must be aware other places exist and have amenities and culture though?
Asking if its possible to live a good life when you leave London is ridiculous, and offensive. It's not a question that needs answering. If she had said I'm nervous at the idea of leaving London as its all I've ever known, the thread would look totally different.

Yes, YABU. London smells.

London smells?

They should open a chips and gravy cafe in some hip part of "vibrant" London, might open people's eyes

thank you for your post ephemeralfairy & i hope it gets better for you.

You don't actually believe that bollocks do you? Plus its pretty offensive: oh its the forriners that are rude, not born Londoners..

I was being facetious & you do realise that London does have people living there who are neither born & bred or foreign (as my parents are)?

I hate it when posters like this (deliberately?) make Londoners sound like complete prats.

@ohchill because london is so difficult to actually get out of! See above, you don’t nip out like you can any of the cities you em ruin (except Paris) I think New Gork would be similar - it’s not like the rest of the US ... (you can walk in the streets for instance rather than drive everywhere) anyway I digress, but it’s true. I know communities in my part of London that haven’t even been north of the river both white working class, and immigrant communities.

Some children in my DCs school (less than 1km from river) haven’t even seen The river. Their parents both work, they are in after school club every day, and they’re very disadvantaged.

Always gravy on chips X2boys. Have to draw the line at chips, cheese and gravy though!

They should open a chips and gravy cafe in some hip part of "vibrant" London, might open people's eyes

Someone's almost certainly already done that.

grime - Nooooooooooooo! It must remain unpolluted by the chips and gravy weirdness!

(I bet a hipster northern joint would do REALLY well).

Don't sell your lovely house OP. Rent it out if you decide to try living elsewhere so you keep on the London property ladder. Meanwhile rent somewhere else to 'try before you buy'.

Is there any way your husband could work from home some more?

If so, Brighton or Bristol might work for a commute some days.

Personally, though, I'd take note of the poster a way back who suggested (effectively) that taking Brexit into account should be a given in any decision, even if the effects are as yet unclear. There's risk there ...

Ignore the 'chippies'.

I know there was a crisp sandwich cafe somewhere, amazing times

I have reported some of the highly offensive posts on this thread.

God I know, how will op survive without michelin starred food and decent opera? May as well just jump off a bridge without those two life affirming staples

Some people really enjoy those things. What's wrong with that?

Why does London divide opinion so much, and so strongly? What makes it so distinctive? I've honestly never heard similar discussions about other places. Isn't it just like anywhere else?

I'm genuinely interested

By ignore the 'chippies' I meant ignore those with chips on their shoulder. Not the comments that since appeared that refer to chip shops :)

I have reported some of the highly offensive posts on this thread.

Good! It’s become a horrible thread, due to some overly defensive people. Poor op.

My DH and I are both from London too. (I lived in Bromley by Bow so was a proud cockney)

We live on the outskirts of Birmingham and bloody love it.
For many years we said we would return to London, to be closer to our families but after settling in Birmingham (it’s where DH went to uni) there is no way I will ever leave.

It’s got everything that London has by way of theatres, museums, Michelin star restaurants, cocktail bars etc but is a million times friendlier and unbelievably cheap. Our 4 bed, 3 bath, new build house with garden and garage costs us less than our nieces one bed apartment in Greenwich.
If you stand on the ‘walking up’ side of the escalator you haven’t committed any atrocity, strangers will and do chat, Brummies are very very friendly.
Don’t forget hs2 means it’s going to be around an hour commute should you wish to get the train to Euston. We live 5 minutes from a main line station and that takes us straight into Euston in around 80 minutes.
Prior to living in Brum I hade lived in a lot of beautiful towns, villages and cities but Birmingham was to only place I settled.

So subjective though. I like culture, museums, doing stuff like that, so on those grounds no, nowhere else in England comes close to London. If you not bothered or interested in doing that sort of thing not being near that is no issue.

I have lived in several of the big cities mentioned and of course they have their good points and you can make a good life in them but they are not really comparable to London - like comparing apples and pears.

But I did get some very odd reactions in my home city when I said I was moving to London some people got quite vitriolic - like on this thread!

Also anecdotally having navigated the London transport system both on crutches and with a buggy I can attest that Londoners are helpful more so than the public anywhere else.

Good girl yourself, Ldnmummy

girl I agree with you. Paris and New York are very different - both are far less spread out. I lived in both for a while in my twenties. It's a very different experience living in either of them.