Life outside of London

[Neitherherenortheir]

Crime, pollution, living costs and expenses all being reasons to wonder what life outside of London is really like. Nearly all our friends and family are here so we have huge ties. But as DC grow older I wonder about leaving. Looking for recommendations for places that aren’t too dissimilar, do not require a driving licence (DH plans to learn but I’ve no want to drive), good secondary schools without moving a million miles away. AIBU?

Waxonwaxoff0, my experience of the East Midlands (grew up there, still have family there) is that public transport is woeful. One about once an hour in the day into the nearby small towns. No buses at all after about 5.30pm.

On another note, I know I bang on about this but I keep reading new comments about it here and it's so inaccurate: people in London DO talk to each other!!!! I'm a valued regular in lots of my local shops and cafes etc. The owner of one of the takeaways I use too much has been known to bring me presents back from her trips to visit family overseas. People chat to me on the bus, in shops, in galleries, stop me on the street to compliment my clothes/bags/hair. A friend recently had her phone snatched and a group of teens ran down the road in pursuit. Other people offered her their phones to call for help. I know loads of my neighbours, either to have a chat to on the street or as actual friends…

What HelgaHere1 said.

Yes indeed, what Helga and others have said. For those of you wondering why the OP has received so many sarcastic or critical responses.

Not everybody in the UK lives in London. Actually only 7 million of you out of 60 million.

And to title a thread Life outside of London and ask in the first sentence what life outside London is like ...? Suggests that the OP is herself both sceptical and - more importantly - deeply ignorant about the rest of her country. I find that ignorance really depressing.

And the way her post is phrased, suggests that she has no idea that there are large international cities only an hour from her (Birmingham), or that there are good state schools outside of Greater London.

My home town in the NW has excellent public transport, and two grammar schools which are regularly in the top 10 in the country - certainly better rated than most independent schools in the SE.

It's the really sad ignorance that offends those of us who live in the regions: the assumptions that we live in a mono-culture (so so not true) or that there are no major art galleries, artists, public transport whatever beyond London.

The assumptions in the first post, and others like it, are just so depressingly ignorant.

To the contrary, Dolorabelle, a lot of posts make the distinction between other cities and towns (Birmingham is mentione; also Bristol, Glasgow, Bath, Reading), and the more suburban/rural areas. The monoculture and bigotry etc posters are talking about are, on this thread, mostly attributed to the latter.

I'm sure your home town is great. My home village/commuter sprawl/whatever it was is not, for reasons I've given as well as for, yes, containing a fair number of people who can only be described as bigoted, small-minded, racist, etc etc.

We have to go to the well 3 times a day and everybody works down pit including babies, except old grannies who walk around headscarfed waving rolling pins at drunk husbands.

That jokes already been done numerous times Patroclus.

Delorabelle's response is typical of so many uber defensive posts by people who presumably don't live in London and who read what they want to in this thread. None of the posts I've read have said "there are no major art galleries / public transport" etc outside of London. They have said that these are way less accessible in rural towns and villages, which is absolutely true, and most posters have recommended the OP move to a large city if this is a consideration. They have also rightly pointed out that London's transport system is the best in the country which is objectively the case. It's simply not the case that towns in rural England have buses, trams, or tube running every 1-2 minutes so why be defensive about that?
The sensible posts have highlighted the pros and cons of London living versus living in say a rural town. There are clear pros and cons to both and it's not all or nothing. Each to their own.

It's a shame so many people come across as having a massive chip on their shoulder about London and are quick to bash it as soon as any tentative opportunity arises (eg the OP's genuine question "what is life like outside of London"- presumably asked because they have never lived elsewhere). These same people are critical of the OP suggesting she's somehow ignorant or unpatriotic by not having a good knowledge of actually living in different parts of the UK, (which is NOT the same as visiting) and yet they themselves come across as unpatriotic for hating on their capital city instead of being proud of having one of the worlds best cities as the capital. Very hypocritical.

OP I agree with Intermittent - I too have experienced the monoculture of living in more rural towns a number of times for different jobs when I was training for a career. It is very real and bigotry and racism are an undercurrent, as well as less diverse political opinions. Of course this doesn't apply to cosmopolitan cities like Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool etc! But it definitely does apply to many rural towns and villages in England certainly. The only people who can't see that don't want to see it because they aren't inconvenienced by it or because they benefit from it.

That jokes already been done numerous times

A little irony here... that attempt at a put-down of a perfectly inoffensive post, followed by the repeat of a section of your own earlier post almost word for word, Oxfordcat

The point has been made time and time again that the OP worded her opening post in a particular way: London and 'Outside London.' That said, many of the comments are lighthearted.

It's a shame so many people come across as having a massive chip on their shoulder about London

You sound chippier then anyone else, to be honest. All posters are entitled to their view. You keep accusing people of sounding 'super-defensive' and 'uber-defensive' whilst sounding...a little defensive. Do you own London or something?

P.s. I'm ex-London myself, I've got no axe to grind here.

Devon, Somerset and Dorset are nice counties.

Public transport isn’t as good as in London, but I expect the overall quality of life is much better. No huge competition for good school places and you can buy a 4 bed detached house around here, in a nice area for under £300k.

We have roads, electricity and running water, so you should be fine.

The OP's biggest issue is that they don't drive. There are plenty of great places in the UK to live, but not driving vastly limits their choices. We live in the rural Midlands, have a fab quality of life, but I run 3 cars for me and the DC to get about as there is no public transport here. If you can't drive I would suggest staying in London as nowhere else has public transport that is as good.

NeckPain your post is supporting my point really. If someone said "what's life outside Northumberland like" because that's the only place they'd ever actually lived, I wouldn't be offended.

I can also confirm that there is indeed life outside London.

There are places outside of London?

What is irksome to those of us who don't live in London, is the weird anxiety that (some) Londoners seem to have about the rest of the country. Will there be reasonable schools? Will there be an art gallery or any buses? Well, not if you go to a tiny village, but in a decent sized town, yes....

We hosted old school friends, now Londoners for 30 years, once. They were literally amazed that we had an organic supermarket, bijou delis and green spaces. It's very odd.

And to title a thread Life outside of London and ask in the first sentence what life outside London is like ...? Suggests that the OP is herself both sceptical and - more importantly - deeply ignorant about the rest of her country. I find that ignorance really depressing.

Then why have so many of the people complaining that the OP is ‘ignorant’ trotted out the usual stereotypes about London being dirty, polluted, crime-ridden, unfriendly and overpriced to boot? Just as you can’t generalise the rest of the UK as ‘outside London’, you can’t characterise life across a world city based on a few headlines and a couple of day trips.

In fact I well remember being pathetically grateful to Cold Feet as the first positive "middle class" depiction of a Northern City I remembered.