To ask if London living is all that?

[nellyolsenscurl]

Inspired by a thread where posters are saying things like 'unless you live in London you couldn't possibly understand the benefits' and 'London living is one of the best things a child could have' (paraphrased, but you get the poi t). One poster said that her dd's friend didn't have a bedroom, she had a bed in the hallway but this is worth it for London life etc.

I've visited and yes it does seem amazing, but I was surprised at how busy the underground was at rush hour, I didn't think public transport was that cheap and in some parts the signs about knife crime/murder was daunting. Obviously as well extortionate house prices/rents mean more likelihood of living in a smaller place.

So London Livers (TM) please tell me about the great things (and any negatives) In my dreams when my dc leave the nest I will buy a lift conversion in Neal's Yard with those lovely coloured facades 😬

I think one question that gets overlooked is that for many people a bigger house just isn't really that important and doesn't feel worth moving for. This is very personal but honestly I don't imagine myself any happier in a bigger house. Im just not that houseproud. A bigger garden maybe but tbh I'm a bit neglectful of the small one I have. So you might as well ask "is living in a lovely house all that?". And although I know no one who lives in a corridor I do know a few families who cosleep. This works for them. It wouldn't work for me but those children are fine - it's a cultural thing as much as anything and separate bedrooms is simply not something they particularly aspire to.

I was born and raised in London when the population was native British, it is not now.
I now live in a fantastic part of the U.K where people are like me, it is safe, no stabings or shootings, fresh air and lots of open country.
There is no amount of money that could entice me back to
London or any other city.

I now live in a fantastic part of the U.K where people are like me

Racists, then. Do me a favour and let me know where that is so I can avoid it at all costs.

Agree with @Breadsticksandhummus .

If you don't like other people with varying skin colours living next door to you, tending to you in A &E, building your houses, serving you in shops, teaching your sprog, ...... then no place on earth is for you really is it?

Looks like London did well to get rid of that one person.

@Vicky1990

How are you defining "native British"?

Vicky1990 Did you know that “native British” people stab and shoot people too?

This attitude is the reason why I will never leave London. My mother and in laws live in small rural towns and they plus 90% of the people they know locally are small minded bigots who have had no exposure to the real world and seem terrified of anyone “foreign”. It’s all very Royston Vasey, makes me shudder.

There are different Londons... Those who can afford to live in the nice areas especially north of the river certainly have a very different experience to those who live in the deprived, outer parts of the city.

I've lived in mostly the deprived areas for nearly 15 years now and find it has changed a lot or perhaps I've just got older. I find it very dirty, busy and often unfriendly (try getting on a bus here without having ten people shove you out of the way...).

Of course the leafy streets of Hampstead are a totally different ballgame, if you can afford to live there... most on an ordinary salary can't, at least not after they stop living in houseshares.

I don't have or plan to have kids but if I did, I wouldn't want to bring them up here.

I guess London is good if you are interested in culture and that stuff. But that something our family isn’t interested in. We would much rather be out together cutting our own firewood, or hunting, working hard as a family. Going to the theater or a park wouldn’t do it for us.

Not everyone outside of London is a small minded bigot. My own child is not white and she gets on just fine beyond the wall.

Other places are fine, for sure - and I’m sure you can get milk at 3am if you wanted.... but they’re not London are they!

No thankfully London is great for those who like it, there’s masses of other places for those that don’t.

Everyone’s a winner!

This attitude is the reason why I will never leave London. My mother and in laws live in small rural towns and they plus 90% of the people they know locally are small minded bigots who have had no exposure to the real world and seem terrified of anyone “foreign”. It’s all very Royston Vasey, makes me shudder

I see between this and Vicky’s edifying post we’ve got onto the “sweeping generalisation” part of the discussion

I’m glad you’ve left Vicky1990, London is one of the most multicultural cities in the world and you’re very sheltered if you only want to live with ‘native british’ (whatever that means)

For me, I love London because of the scope of stuff to do. Beautiful gardens, parks, art galleries, walks, I love it for the sheer variety of stuff to look at. And I love the variety of people you meet here too. I have a lawyer upstairs and next door, students the other side, fireman two doors up, and lots of other local people who have lived here for 30 odd years. I do get sick of the struggle to get anywhere in rush hour, the incredibly high property prices that mean we will never live in a house (sob) the pollution and the lack of peace (thank you next door students) and the poverty. London is a difficult place to live really, but it's even more difficult to leave.

I'm not White but I'm native British

So I'm wondering what that poster meant

I don't have a different culture of any kind or speak any language other than English

There was a black mayor in London more than a century back.

London is a world city: full of people bringing their hope and energy from everywhere and they are treated equally with the locals. New York is similar but Paris, Madrid, Milan, Berlin are provincial.
So yes, London is all that.

@MrHoolie what about the hundreds of other threads from people thinking about leaving London but unsure of whether they'd be able to cope in the desolate wastelands that are the rest of the UK?

@Ethylred

"Paris, Madrid, Milan, Berlin are provincial."

What does that mean please?

I've only been to Paris for a weekend years ago. Mostly just embarrassed myself with efforts to speak French but they seemed to appreciate the effort. Or were being vair polite about it

Excellent those threads tend to be dominated by people saying that moving out was the best thing they ever did and they wish they had done it years ago, usually accompanied by an anecdote about blackberry picking and their DC frolicking through sunlit fields whilst listening to bird song. The vibe is still generally anti London.

And I am 100% certain that nobody on here has ever referred to everywhere outside London being a desolate wasteland.

Not in so many words, but saying stupid things like London is the best because it has things like museums and 24 hour shops, as though the rest of the world doesn't have these things, kind of feels like it.

I was raised in London without loads of money and whilst it had a lot of good points (especially night life as a teenager) there was a lot about it that was fucking shit. Could not possibly count the number of attacks and other crimes committed against me growing up. The parks were lovely though, but not as good as the average green space where I live now, and not worth being attacked by a knife wielding crackhead on the bus home from school while a bus full of adults studiously looked out the windows and pretended not to notice. I actually didn't know growing up that there were places full of people like me where you can go for years without anybody trying to rob you, rape you, spit on you, slip you drugs etc., when I left London for somewhere like this it was heaven would never go back there to live.

Still, the adults of the household had a whale of a time, though. Good for them, pass the wine. 😂

The thing I love about London is how it has such a strong, unique identity. If you live there, you're a Londoner. Similar to being a New Yorker. Currently live in Sydney and it's just not the same- there's not that strong feeling of pride about where you live.

I love the diversity, I love the history, I love how each area has such a different feel. It's not just homogeneous, grey suburbia stretching on endlessly.

I can't wait to move back and raise my babies there 💕

@RedneckStumpy No green space?? Have you even been to London 😂😂 Maybe you should, there are these things called parks- loads of em. If you just go to oxford street then no, there's no green space there. Oh except Green Park haha!

smells I totally agree with that. London doesn’t just ‘tolerate’ people from different countries and cultures and religions- it welcomes them with open arms from Polish plumbers to Latvian lap dancers. If you’ve chosen to live here, you’re one of us.
I remember reading in a Monica Ali novel that, despite people from pretty much everywhere in the world living here, most people identify as Londoners first ahead of wherever they or their parents were born.

I live in a large northern city.

Sometimes, if we have a good harvest we all drink mead and dance round the maypole. The mayor thinks we'll be able to afford a new plough next year.

Oh, and we even have milk here too.