To be fed up of mnetters behaving as if everywhere outside London is the third world

[continuallychargingmyphone]

Ok an exaggeration but only a slight one

I live up north. We have a John Lewis here and everything.

Likewise madnessIsay - I would much rather live in a vibrant city than in commuter belt (though I'd happily live in Brighton, cost of living isn't much different as it's London on sea!)

But to move to Edinburgh or Bristol I'd have to switch gear career wise - because whilst the lifestyle would be much better than 'SE but not London and commuting in everyday for work', the work opportunities are incredibly London centric within my particular field.

Yes only the Kent family are commuting & can afford a few nights a week in London if necessary. The rest have all relocated their jobs & in some cases the pay is only 10-15% less. The idea of a long commute is my idea of hell no matter how big my garden or house was.

Although I would love to live by the sea.

Lived and worked in London now live outside London in another city. We visit London a few times a year as I feel my kids need to know how to navigate the city and see all the wonderful places there are to see there.

We don't fear knife crime or the Londoners and we don't complain how expensive it is. I would encourage mine to try London for a while but not forever.

I like living in suburbia close to a buzzing small city which I can get to via train Uber or bus

I don't have the urge to return to live there.

My hometown you can't get food past 9 0'clock in restaraunts and the only takeaways are pizza,kebab or fish and chips...and everybody does the same thing every week.

How long since you visited? Becasue:

1. You CAN get food past 9pm
2. There's a plethora of exciting takeaway food places AND,

3 WTF? I have an exceptionally colourful life and do all sorts of stuff

A lot of hedges for serial killers to lurk behind.

Oh, I know. In the north there's so much greenery, you really do have to an eye out for those pesky serial killers at all times; they're every friggin where

I often wonder Stevie, when people.talk.about the amazingness of london and all the takeaways, diversity etc compared to their home town wether they are comparing London to their home town of 20/30 yeats ago?

*You CAN get food past 9pm

1. There's a plethora of exciting takeaway food places AND,

3 WTF? I have an exceptionally colourful life and do all sorts of stuff* Depends where though and didn't think pp said in that post? I may have missed it if she said it later on though! But some places don't have great food options and very limited or have food later on. I only lived in London briefly and it wasn't for me but I bloody miss the restaurant/food scene as my nearest town is very much like that pp's post.

I live a mile from the city centre, in a nice area with 24 hour buses and a tram.

But thats the point Higjland i live in a town in the Northwrst very close to the town centtre i could have , Ethiopina, Indian, chinese , pretty much any kind of food i desired any day of the week i also live a ten minute walk from a 24 hr sainsburys and public transport fairly good etc, i aporecciatw not every town or village it will be like this bur its NOT just London .

It always amuses me the way Londoners talk about ‘zone 6’ as if it were somewhere between the outer Hebrides and the Gobi desert.

But thats the point Higjland i live in a town in the Northwrst very close to the town centtre i could have , Ethiopina, Indian, chinese , pretty much any kind of food i desired any day of the week i also live a ten minute walk from a 24 hr sainsburys and public transport fairly good etc, i aporecciatw not every town or village it will be like this bur its NOT just London
I agree lots of places in the UK have amazing facilities, restaurants etc, just don't think it's helpful to be like yes you can get those things! When you don't know the town the pp is talking about.
As "thr North" is very diverse, towns, villages, cities, so it's not possible to speak definitively about any of it and what it might have! As shown, lots of restaurants for you, other posters have few to none, neither is right or wrong, just facts of their town.

I live in a village with 5 shops a pub, church, post office, doctors surgery, hairdressers, primary school, bowling club, and a chinese takeaway it is 1 mile to village from my house with no footpath, the nearest town is 8 miles away but it is only a 13 minute drive I can always parks within 100 metres of where I am going normally for free, so if I had say an appointment at 11am in town leaving at 10.40 would give me ample time and 10.45 would probably be ok, the nearest city is 31 miles away and I would allow an hour to drive unless needed to be there for 9am in which case would allow 90 minutes, it has several free museums 3 proper large theatres etc but not as many as London I would agree, however when the local school went on a school trip to the Free major museum in this city most pupils had not been before, my DD was bored as had been about 6 times however I also wonder what percentage of pupils in a primary school in say stoke newington would have been to Natural history museum or the V&A, outside of school hours.
I have never lived in London though I lived in Birmingham for 5 years my sister has lived in London zone 2 for about 15 years, I prefer the country my sister prefers the city I can see pros and cons both ways but Watford really isn't the North

Often in cities because of traffic/ parking issues 15-20 minutes travel time might be 1-2 miles instead of 8 so although 8 miles from town seems a long way and it is certainly not walkable, being quiet it is consistently only 15 minutes away, because of a major employer being on our doorstep there is a bus service every hour but a return is £5 which is considerably more than the cost of fuel for a 16 mile round trip

I just get irritated by all the assumptions on the London vs the rest of the UK threads. I agree that MN and the media tend to portray London as if it is a different country.

I also get irritated by some people who think that anywhere outside of London is completely lacking in any kind of culture and diversity. There are several national museums outside of London - The National Railway Museum, The Royal Armouries, The National Science and Media Museum for a start. OK they don’t have the beautiful buildings that the National History Museum does, but they are still worthy of a mention. We also have Northern Ballet, Opera North, umpteen theatres, oodles and oodles of history about the industrial past, museums like Beamish and various industrial museums.

Bradford is the UK’s curry capital. Leeds has a pretty diverse population and rarely gets into the news because of cultural clashes.

Having had a foot in both camps, (I was born in Greater London and worked in the City and the West End when I first left school) I can honestly say that I prefer living in the clean air of the rural north of England, yet enjoy visiting London. I wouldn’t like to live there though.

“There was a bit of a lack of awareness that in most parts of the country, you really do need to be able to drive, and that you don't have to live especially rurally to find that public transport is quite patchy.”

I agree. I am envious of the public transport in London. We are at the mercy of bastard Northern Rail who have been striking every Saturday since 25th August, and will continue to do so until after Christmas. Due to lack of trains all trains between our village and the next city are also cancelled on Monday, so I will have to take DD to work yet again as there is no bus service between where we live and the city.

“up North you can just own a car and actually move more than 10mph in rush hour”

Erm, not in Sheffield you can’t

No thats really not the norm , however its on Canal street which it the centre of the Gay village it is a very popular clubbing area .

Non Londoner here but lived there for 7 years in my twenties. Best decision ever. It’s a world city not comparable to any other city in uk. I will encourage my kids to live in London New York Paris or Berlin for a few years when young. More money more opportunities interesting people from all over the world and better men.

"and better men"

That's debateable. I'm from London and married a Geordie
Still married 37 years later.

Ha after numerous tedious dates with young solicitors and surveyors from Bristol my options were to shoot myself from boredom or move somewhere with more interesting men

One thing I’m concerned with is how all the little parts of London that have their naice high streets will look in the future what with the decline of the high street. I very much see a high street such as Lordship Lane or Northcote Road as a key draw but have noticed more empty units being replaced with flats or standing empty.

I find I do many more cultural things since leaving London, because I am no longer too broke and tired to go to them. I felt like I was staring through a key hole the whole time in London wondering how other people had the money and means to go and do all these fabulous things! I much prefer London as a tourist.

Two of our close friends live in London and they love it but for us it just wouldn't work. We live in a big city in the North West and we simply couldn't afford what we have now in London. We can be in the city centre in ten minutes, we have large parks minutes away from our door and have thriving shops and events in our immediate area.

Cakemonger

The Daily Mash especially for you.

"I find I do many more cultural things since leaving London, because I am no longer too broke and tired to go to them"

Same here. When I worked in London I just used to go straight home back to the suburbs. I couldn't be bothered to go back into London at the weekend.

My nearest large town (not known for its culture or diversity) has a museum, and art gallery, a cinema and 3 theatres.

OK they aren't the National History, the Tate etc, but we still have them. We also have a couple of stately homes, and loads of beautiful countryside.

Haha BarbaraofSeville it's so true

stevie69 it's the combination of dark and hedges that lure the serial killers. Yes, you can see the stars in the countryside but can you spot the SKs? I'm kidding, i love the countryside (for a week)