To think the north of England offers a worse quality of life than the South or Midlands?

[DDRickyDD]

I was thinking of moving to Lancashire, but having done some research online, it seems a lot of people have negative opinion of it. I'm now set on Warwickshire or Leicestershire. Does the north in general offer a worse quality of life than the Midlands? I know its cheaper up north but is it much worse up there?

They eat their young oop north.

A one-bed flat where I live can be £500k minimum

Bloody hell....
I live in a relatively expensive bubble in the NW. We paid £290k for a 3 bed, 4 story Victorian end terrace. In my village alone we have a couple of swanky restaurants/bars, some village, pubs, a theatre and a gallery. A slightly bigger village 5mins drive away has even more. When I look out of my window I have amazing views of the countryside and yet i'm only 30mins from Manchester. I bloody love it.

in my opinion, quality of life is better down south, depending on your standards.

I moved from Manchester 10 years ago, I've lived all over London, I've stayed in cramped places and spacious places from zone 1-3.
When we decided to buy a property, we were actually looking to move back, but I decided against it for many reasons why I chose to leave!

We could only afford really a 210k two double two bathroom apartment in zone 5. (A borough that a lot of mumsnetters sneer at lol) but we only have one daughter, and we are not having anymore. She has her own bathroom and large double room. We have a balcony, large lounge and big kitchen. Underground parking and communal gardens. Gated.

Okay I haven't got a garden but I have 3 "country"Parks next to my complex. and 15 mins drive away, I have Richmond Park. 25 min - 30 drive, I've got Westfields, and central London. 25 mins the other way, I have the likes of Windsor, Thorpe Park, And many other beautiful location, 15 mins east I have Hampton Palace and such locations. Brighton is what? 1 1/2 hour away. wheeze my friend even drives to Southampton for uni most days, and makes it back in time for dinner.

If I don't send DD to private school, majority of the schools are rated Outstanding.

I'd rather have this than the 20 min drive to Manchester town and be claustrophobic, or a 15 min drive to Trafford centre lol.

So I think my quality of life is way better than I could ever imagine if I'm honest. I think a lot of northerners (including my family and friends back home) seem to think we all live in a studio flat cramped all our lives. I do live in a area where it's good to have a car, but even if I didn't we have buses running all the time, the tube, and Heathrow not far away.

Obvs it would only be sensible to live in central London if you COULD AFFORD the properties.

This has to be one of the most goady posts I've ever seen on here.

It’s all to do with personal preference.

We live in a fully detached 3 bedroom home with huge front and back garden.

We bought it for £150,000

We earn 60k a year, therefore we can afford nice holidays as our mortgage is relatively cheap.

London is not for me personally, I’d hate to be stuck in a flat paying more money for less space etc.

@Bella2020 It's only goady when it's coming from someone who lives down south isn't it? it's not goady when it's someone publishing pictures of the apparently beautiful countryside outside their house?

As a Northerner, I completely understand and recognise what @hablar is saying.

People in London, by and large, don't really spend much time wondering how we compare to the North. Firstly because we are busy living our lives, and secondly because a fair chunk of us including me came from the North and already know how it compares at least for the things we care about. Some of us prefer the North and plan to move back at some point, others don't.

I could speak at length based on my own experience of significant cultural* differences where the North does not come out so well, but I'm choosing not to because I can tell from the responses on the thread (and yes I have read the whole thread) that whatever I say will be turned into a strawman target for some of that "cheeky humour" and what I actually said will be lost or distorted.
(* not arts culture, social culture)

One thing this thread has reminded me though, is one of the nice things I found about moving to London was getting away from places measuring themselves against London

Acorn can be a good tool to use to check out an area. As shown below ours is more ‘old people’ , were early 30’s!

BIibby

The thing is personal anecdote isn't relevant. I could share anecdotes about how for me London is lacking in pretty much every department, but it isn't relevant. (Although I'm sure as always on MN someone will come to correct me and quote Samuel Johnson....)

The whole tone of this thread was set by the nonsenscial OP - you must see that. And sweeping generalisations aren't in any way helpful.

t's not goady when it's someone publishing pictures of the apparently beautiful countryside outside their house

Apparently?

London is an excellent place - for a holiday, like other great world cities.

And parts of the south (east and west) are very nice too, better weather etc.

However, the OP was denigrating 'the north' as compared to the Midlands. The midlands are surely as variable as the north, parts have weather not significantly better, but less wonderful open country.

So I think my quality of life is way better than I could ever imagine if I'm honest. I think a lot of northerners (including my family and friends back home) seem to think we all live in a studio flat cramped all our lives

I do wonder how London works - given the cost of housing relative to salaries. I know that some people in London earn a lot - but many don't - and I have no idea how it keeps going.

@chomalungma my Dh has the London weighting on his salary but it doesn't seem to differ to much compared to other big cities, that's why moving we would have only took a drop of say £200 a month and yes the £230k could have bought a house up north, garden bla bla but we prioritised other stuff tbh. We have a park downstairs and the apartment is huge. I can't recall many memories of using my garden when I was growing up anyway.. was always outside

but if we tried to buy in say zone 1-3 we wouldn't have been able to afford it not big enough for a family anyway. That's why we chose outer zone, sort of best of both worlds, residential but local enough!

The thing is personal anecdote isn't relevant. I could share anecdotes about how for me London is lacking in pretty much every department, but it isn't relevant....And sweeping generalisations aren't in any way helpful.

Right. So no personal experiences and no generalisations either. Got it .

I did risk some facts early on but they didn't seem welcome either. I guess that just leaves misrepresentation and uninformed self-congratulation. Which to be fair is the bulk of the thread.

@chomalungma from other people I'm around my friends here etc. Done pretty much the same as me!

Or the ones who do live in houses generally got them on council 15 years ago and bought them lol

Right. So no personal experiences and no generalisations either

Thats not what I said.

Saying "quality of life for ME is better in X" is fine. Saying "quality of life is better anywhere but X" isn't. Your reasons for the North "not coming out so well" aren't evidence. They're opinion.

Well - looking back at my life, I could have bought a house in Cambridge back in the early 90s or London in mid 90s...but never did. For reasons.

I know what it would have been worth now - especially the Cambridge one!! But I am fine with not doing that. Honestly.....No regrets at all.

Your reasons for the North "not coming out so well" aren't evidence. They're opinion.

1. you don't even know what they are
2. they are observations that have been made by many people which my own experience backs up
3. I've said there's some specific areas where the North doesn't come out so well. Not that the North doesn't come out so well overall. Are you denying that there could be anything at all that's worse in the North than the South?

If youre looking at quality of life, well that depends on income wherever you live.

Whats your income Bracket, op?

1) you don't even know what they are

It doesn't matter what they are.

2) they are observations that have been made by many people which my own experience backs up

Happy to read studies if you'd share.

3) I've said there's some specific areas where the North doesn't come out so well. Not that the North doesn't come out so well overall. Are you denying that there could be anything at all that's worse in the North than the South?

I'm saying it is pretty much subjective, that's what you're not willing to concede. For some people there will be many ways in which the South outweighs the North, for others those self-same reasons will be quite the opposite.

It is so much more finely nuanced that simply X is better in the South, Y is better in the North.

Ok, so can anyone actually suggest a reason why moving to a nice house in a lovely town/village (with whatever facilities you personally require etc etc) in the north would be a bad idea just because it's in the north? Because that seems to be what some people are implying - that moving to any of the north is inherently a bad idea (on the grounds that some bits of the north - like some bits of the south - offer poor quality of life).

I think if you can find a place that suits you and call it home, then you are very lucky. I’ve chosen to make London my home and I wouldn’t have stayed and had 4 kids here otherwise., Where I live now, I don’t think I know anyone who was actually born here. So it can’t be that bad!

I do think people have preconceived ideas about “the North”, but it also works the other way round, which is why I think it’s helpful to get past the jokey retorts and actually talk about the reality. Of course, “the North” is not all bleak. This goes without saying. But nor is the reality of London what people may assume. Where I live, it’s known as being like a village. We have a nature reserve bordering us and this is Zone 2. We have rare birds and green parakeets in our garden. We are 5 mins from the most beautiful stretch of the Thames and you can walk / cycle along the water along tree-lined pathways all day - into town out out into Surrey. I’m talking about the Barnes / Putney area. It’s very green; people are decent, outward-looking and friendly by and large; you have literally everything on your doorstep and every day I feel privileged to be able to live here. You don’t even need to go into what tourists would think of as “London”. You’ve got Chelsea / Kensington a 10-15 min drive one way, Richmond a 15 min drive the other and Wimbledon Village over the hill. I never stop appreciating how London is like a cluster of villages really, each with their own character and this is precisely because I grew up in the arse end of nowhere! I do love the architecture in London, particularly the elegant white stucco houses and so don’t think there’s anywhere like it. Some streets you feel as if you could be in a Charles Dickens novel or something. I love the fact it never feels to still or isolated - it keeps me alive. Yes life can be hard for many, that’s for sure, but there’s a reason people from all over the UK and the world make London their home. It’s not a list of this or that, museums or whatever - it’s just about where you feel content, I guess.

It’s certainly very much my experience on MN that it simply isn’t possible to criticise London.

Of course it would be idiotic to say “life in London is awful”. However it’s fact for me to say “life for me in London would be awful”

That’s been my point all along. Ive been on plenty of interesting discussions about the north/south divide. The OP didn’t want that.

(Although I'm sure as always on MN someone will come to correct me and quote Samuel Johnson....)
I'd like to quote from the rear covers of two volumes of London Photos called 'Shit London' and 'Shit London 2'
"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life" Samuel Johnson (dead)
"Nobody is healthy in London. Nobody can be" Jane Austen

It’s certainly very much my experience on MN that it simply isn’t possible to criticise London.

And likewise it isn't possible to criticise the North, as this thread so amply proves. The difference is Londoners are supposed to smile and suck it up.