Why do people live in London?

[Waahaawoowoo]

This thread is inspired by a thread where people where explaining how a £100k salary doesn't go far in London. Examples were given of mortgages costing £25k pa. (This is my salary). Childcare bills for 2 kids costing £40k. Our joint salary is £55k pa.

I live in NE Wales. Our house costs us £12k pa for a 3 bedroom semi. Wraparound Childcare used to cost a maximum of £12k pa. But we no longer pay due to age of kids and me WFH. I cannot get my head around DH and I being significantly better off than a couple who earn double what we do.

The logical answer to me would be to move from London. So why do people stay? Is it family? The type of work you do? I'm curious more than anything about what keeps people there when they could possibly have a better standard of living elsewhere.

I now live on the outskirts of London rather than in London proper but I need to be within reach of it for work. I practise a niche area of law that you pretty much only find in about ten capital cities around the world.

I grew up in one of the outer london boroughs so I am used to having London on the doorstep with all that means. I love London - the buzz, the iconic buildings, the opportunities. But as I'm getting older I'm starting to love being in nature too so the outskirts of London works well.

Also if you have teenagers there is loads to do in London, an Oyster pass opens a whole world of opportunity. Unlike in the sticks where there isn't much to do apart from smoke spliffs and shag

I don't like the Welsh bashing turn this thread has taken.

Free Museums and Art Galleries

This

@3WildOnes I'm a Londoner so understand catchments, but people move out of them for bigger houses at least that's what i've experienced as a child & a parent.

That’s interesting.

I work with 2 Welsh people from Swansea and they’re lovely!

Sadly have never been to Abergavenny where DGM was from but heard it’s very pretty.

I do get the outsider bit though and especially in small villages and towns if an outsider moves in there may be suspicion and unfriendliness. I read a book on hop picking in Kent and some hop pickers who moved there were considered outsiders years later!

I think if you're born there or have family nearby, it's 'home' and makes total sense.

I lived there for four years and at first I was bedazzled by all the art and history and the fact I was 30 minutes away from incredible historical sites. But it lost its charm over time when I realised I wanted to buy my own place or not have to spend two hours of my day commuting to work.

Leaving was the best thing I ever did! We have a lovely home, great quality of life, a sense of community, friends on the doorstep, loads of free activities, museums, culture and yes diverse and interesting people nearby plus my work (in professional industry) is a 20 minute drive away.

London has its charms but for me it was a stop-off, not a destination.

I’m from wales and moved to London, never looked back, it’s a great city. I’m ambitious, enjoy my career and family life.

When I visit family in Wales I find it depressing, my old school friends have never left the village the grew up in and went to school in. There’s little to do, it’s a big drinking culture, not diverse. Lack of opportunity and ambition doesn’t compensate for the scenery.

I enjoy visiting family and going on holiday to the countryside and towns and villages but for me it’s the cultural aspects that I’ve missed most when I lived for a few years in a town. The best shows, the best muesums and galleries, every kind of restaurant. I know you can travel in to a nearby city but it’s not the same as waking up one morning and deciding to pop into town and seeing something awesome. I absolutely love it. I also couldn’t cope with driving to get milk or not having lots of great public transport - particularly as the kids start to travel independently.

We live in London because:

DH's job is here (he works in a leading independent school, he would move but it would have to be for an amazing opportunity elsewhere), though I could do my job from anywhere.

Cultural diversity, theatre, arts, museums, the hustle and bustle of a big city, every kind of food and shop under the sun. It's exciting and fun. There's always new stuff to discover and it doesn't all cost a fortune.

I love the architecture and sense of history.

There are good state schools in our area.

I want my kids to grow up in a busy and diverse environment

It's home. We have friends and a community here, as do the kids. DH and I have lived here for nearly 20 years.

It has it drawbacks but so does everywhere. However, I would say that we are fortunate to have bought somewhere in zone 2 back in 2011 when the area was just about affordable. We have just about enough room, and we don't need to move.

I think people who've had to tackle London life are just that little bit more clued-up, resilient and self-reliant. When I go to smaller cities in the UK, I just feel so slowed down and frustrated.

I hope this doesn't sound like I'm being a London snob

It does sound exactly like that.

That's Central London for you!

I'm a bit evangelical about telling people that visiting Central as a tourist is a whole different universe away from actually living in London. Don't worry, Londoners hate visiting Oxford Street too, for the same reasons you describe. Would much rather be at home in NE Zone 2 with my fields, horses and ducks!

They felt that people buying holiday homes was pricing locals out and diluting the local culture and in particular the language.

Amused by how many posters are saying that outside of London it's 'racist'. Would be intrigued to know just how far out of London they've actually travelled.

If you think London is free from racism - wow!

It’s completely normal in many parts of the developed world, including cities like NY and Paris. It’s totally fine.

True. I live on the edge of a truly beautiful village (when I’m not in London). How Americans would imagine England. Little pub, shop and post office, village green for cricket; all really beautiful.

By fucking crikey, it’s one of the most judgmental places ever. 😆 everyone is white, everyone is fairly wealthy, everyone thinks it’s their business if you do anything to your house/car/fencing/bins/livestock.

The ‘tight-knit community’ is run by a very few people in the village. A certain type of person. Think Linda in the Archers.

Yes, this @SuperGinger . Ten times over! London is a great place for teens.

Summed up perfectly

its impossible to explore all of zone 1 London let alone Greater London - it’s just so vast with so many pockets of things to do, neighbourhoods, cultural hotspots - you could go to a theatre in Covent Garden or someone’s house on a street in north London!

I honestly get really bored with the pace of life in the other smaller cities I’ve been to - perhaps with the exception of Manchester and Glasgow. I find it odd to at theres often only one large city centre in even those cities - London has so many different hubs.

Having kids hasn’t changed the above for me - my kids can visit Wimbledon one day and a talk by a Nobel winning processor at the natural history museum the next. We live in suburbia so have enough space in the house and have a large garden

so honestly it’s win win for me

Then so be it, I'm a snob!

Like I said, it's all from years of actual experience, and I stand by it.

I haven't lived anywhere else, grew up here and lived here my whole adult life, so I guess it's just what I know. However, aside from housing it is really quite cheap. When I visit my friends who moved away, I'm shocked at how expensive life is in most other places in the UK. From public transport and sports club to cultural day trips. It's all very affordable in London, especially for young people. The only thing that's not affordable is getting drunk in a pub or club, but that seems to be the only affordable thing in some of the towns my friends moved to and they have huge problems with it. I guess if swings in roundabouts but I really don't know any different.

I dont live in London, but in a fairly expensive part of England.

I would move in a heartbeat, but DP has an older child who lives here and so wouldnt move any further till the child is much older, so my choices are, convincing him to move and therefore be unable to see his child as much as he does or split up and take his youngest child away.

Due to ages, I think I am going to be stuck here for at least another 8 years, however I knew what I was getting into as he was very upfront when we got together. But it has been a long time to wait and with hindsight I might not have gotten into the relationship (if I knew about cost of living, covid etc)

Why should the non London posters on here tolerate the incorrect and offensive remarks that some of the London residents have made on this thread?
No diversity tick
No culture tick
Boring tick
No good restaurants tick
Inward looking tick

It cuts both ways.
As I said earlier I can see why people want to live in London - work opportunities, more variety culturally, foodwise and diversity, loving city life, family, it feels like home etc and much better public transport, but there is no need to look down on people who prefer to live somewhere less busy.

The London "bashers", and I include myself in this instance even though I am London born and bred with family going back generations, were merely responding to the posters who said that anywhere outside of London was boring AF and other untrue statements.

And I agree the OP was being goady.

Shouldn't the question be 'why shouldn't everywhere have the opportunities London has?' then people wouldn't have to all cram into one ever increasing city. It's ridiculous how many areas now come under 'London'.

"I can go from a world class theatre, walk into an art gallery for free before visiting a 17th century pub for a pint before getting a boat home."

Sounds like liverpool to me!