To want to move back to London from Manchester?

[NameChangeLifeChange]

Don't know if I am just having wobble but recently I have felt a strong urge to move back to London from Manchester. We moved here 5 years ago with DC1 (age just 1 at the time) for a better quality of life. Have since upgraded to a decent size house and made rooms in a nice city suburb. Buuuut....

I miss London so much. I am a southerner and feel at home there, its an hour from my family instead of 4. My career prospects are SO much better in London and pay is 20% more. I love the feel of London, the bustle and access to all the museums etc. I would move in a heartbeat if we could afford our home in London but of course it would be way out of our price range. DH also loves London, works there sometimes and always gets pangs of homesickness when he is there. Manchester has a weird feel at the moment- so much litter around and feels scruffy (no offence- I do love the city!!)

Are we mad? Kids now 6 and 2.5. Our budget would be around 600K if we moved back, have previously lived in Wimbledon, Clapham, Crystal Palace but unlikely to afford a decent house in any of those areas but would be open to other areas if nice and family friendly.

The other thing I dislike about London is the travel time - yes London has loads and loads of good stuff, but it takes flipping ages to get anywhere! (My BIL is in Wimbledon and I find the commute from there to central a complete slog)

I agree with this, lots of places in z3 outwards take quite long. I've lived in Lambeth, Wandsworth & Wimbledon & always allow 45 mins for door to door journey.

Had you thought about a slight compromise OP and looked around greater London , but still easy in. Here in Windsor you can still get a decent 3 bed semi for around £600k with the Lizzy line at Slough close by and something like this in Bromley for similar money . It's not as if it's a shithole or anything

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/120320273#/?channel=RES_BUY

How often do you think you would you go to the museums in London if you lived there? Are there no museums in Manchester that you can enjoy with the kids? Is it not possible to visit the museums in London whilst living in Manchester?

Yes, it always makes me laugh

How often do you think you would you go to the museums in London if you lived there? Are there no museums in Manchester that you can enjoy with the kids? Is it not possible to visit the museums in London whilst living in Manchester?

Messed up the above post!

Wanted to say that it always makes me laugh when people cite 'museums' as a major factor in choosing a place to live. Even for the most determined culture vulture, you're only going to spend a small proportion of your time in museums. Plus, hard as it may be for some to believe, museums do exist outside of London. Certainly in a major city like Manchester. And likely without the long queues to get in too.

Someone once said to me 'don't live somewhere for the life you aren't having ' and if life consists mainly of work, school, odd meals out and diy etc- it possibly wouldn't change in London!!

Just as living in a rural location a bit pointless if you aren't country types!!

I'm in London and grew up in the North and I feel the reverse to you. I don't want to be poncy and say it's displacement when it's only a few hundred miles... But I think it's a (very weak) form of that. Sometimes you just want to be where you belong.

My kids are now secondary age and my H
is a southerner through and through so I feel like I've left it too late to insist and that I'd be dragging everyone somewhere they didn't feel they belong now. If I were you, at your stage, H felt the same, I would make the move right now before the kids really get bedded in.

And by the way yes we go into town to museums/theatre/events that crop up ALL the time and always have even when the kids were tiny. It's how I make life where I don't want to be bearable!

Yes, in answer to the question how often people go to museums with kids, probably as often as people go to the countryside with kids if they live in the countryside. We go all the time on the weekends other than when kids have activities or parties. But I guess thats the point of living in different places - to me living in London - i would say how often do people go to enjoy countryside and fields i.e. once every few months for me is enough, same with central London we go every weekend but others would be happy with every few months

You could get a 3 bed semi in Sutton/Carshalton. Decent trains in to London or a bus to Morden for the tube. Good schools, although there are some grammars at secondary, which not everyone likes. There are other good options though.

Manchester is the best city in the north by a country mile, culturally especially. I'd not move there myself for one reason, the level of winter daylight. What to me is stupidity of putting the clocks back in winter so in the north you have barely cleared up Sunday lunch in December before darkness is not going to change.

I do think that to move back should be with your eyes open though, and you probably have to accept a smaller house.

Come to Surrey. Close enough to pop into the city but bit cheaper than central. I am northern but live down south and I definitely prefer down south - I love london too

I'm a bit of a professional Northerner - I've lived or worked in each of the major cities and a fair few towns too. Manchester is, in my opinion, the worst of the lot.

I've never understood why it gets all the hype, the houses are expensive compared to, say, Yorkshire or the North East and it still has all the same issues of London - gun crime, ghettos, open drug dealing etc. Litter and graffiti easily worst in the North too. It's a rich city with a lot of heritage but not as outwardly glamorous as the football stars make it seem. Unlike say, Newcastle, which is an absolutely glorious, clean, city centre with loads of parkland nearby.

That said, Manchester still has excellent links to plenty of lovely places - the Peaks, Cheshire, the Lakes. It's just the city centre itself that I don't find particularly "child friendly", it has plenty to do compared to other Northern cities but I can see why you'd miss London in comparison. Personally I'd start exploring the surrounding areas a bit more, within a 45 min train you will realise why the (slightly) cheaper housing is worth it and why bringing children up there is "better" than London.

Or as I said before there are alternatives in the Home Counties- so closer in to London but still a decent house

This is in Guildford- I like Guildford a lot- good shopping, terrific leisure centre and 35 mins to London on train- actually quicker than some 'London ' areas

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/123260261#/streetView?channel=RES_BUY

Move back! Manchester is horrible.

@Technosaurus couldn't agree more! Think Liverpool/Wirral is nicer as is Durham/Newcastle or York. Lots to do in Manchester and has been tarted up well but for me has a bit of a threatening edge to it and not one I particularly like- others may feel differently.

That's a huge generalisation, Manchester is not horrible it's a a large vibrant city ,there maybe areas that are horrible as there are in any city ,but you can't dismiss an entire city and then there is greater manchester all different towns and suburbs

I wouldn't say its "horrible" but it's just not the best for bringing up kids in my opinion.

Great for a night out, good job prospects in certain industries (pay certainly higher than anywhere else in the north in financial and creative services, by quite some distance in my experience, although not a patch on London), but more a place for living in one's 20s than in one's 30s.

And nowadays the house prices don't justify it for me, you can get much more for your money in many other cities/towns with far less socioeconomic issues.

i always thought that higher living costs meant higher london salaries didn't make any difference

I was actually very suprised when I looked at prices in the nicer suburbs of cities up north and comparable houses-- many were not that far off Prices in Home Counties

I’m from Manchester (countryside outside) and I say go where you feel happy. The children are young enough to uproot. There’s more to life than a house. We all need different things.

It's only 2 hours on the train, go down for a day trip if you can?

I lived in both and I don't think London is worth it personally. Your salary being 20% more doesn't come close to covering how much more expensive everything is in London.

Career prospects are a valid point though. To me though raising kids in London seems quite awful these days.

London’s museums are brilliant ways to fill rainy Sunday afternoons with kids, including in term-time. In the last few weeks we’ve been to the Postal museum, the Transport museum and the Maritime museum in Greenwich, and we’re booked in for the Natural History museum next week. However, I’m sure Manchester has some of its own!

Move back to London. No brainer.

I absolutely love London with kids and in your shoes would move back like a shot. We used to go to museums and galleries all the time.

If you’re missing London, I would suggest coming back to London rather than somewhere you can commute from. Yes housing is more expensive but if you love the bustle, you need to actually be here.