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 often think why dont people want to live in London? I left because I couldnt afford to give my children the life I wanted them to have. I haven't gone far and as soon as they have flown the nest I will be moving right back.

It is full of interesting things to see, do, it is diverse which as an ethnic minority is important to me, it is extremely well connected through excellent public transport, has brilliant shopping, culture, the West End.

Plus most of my mates still live there!!

Born and bred here. Most of my family are here. Most of my friends that I grew up with and close friends I’ve made over the years are still here. That’s probably the main reason.

I’m also institutionalised into London life! I like the brilliant travel network. I like having multiple different places to go out, shop, eat (spoilt for choice). I like having access to the best cultural stuff first. I like the pace, the anonymity, the sense of freedom.

I also like/need the diversity (mixed race family so very important for us).

And I just haven’t found anywhere else I’d like to live as much. I love the countryside, beach etc - but I can visit those. I like other cities in the UK (live Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol) but they just aren’t comparable to London in size or scope.

I couldn’t ever hack village life. I find small towns, even pretty market towns, claustrophobic and dull.

London for life!

Having said that, yes it’s as expensive as fuck. Me and DH always joke Del Boy style that we would be ‘millionaires’ up north. Our house is worth 1.25 mil (we bought it for a third of that years ago) and it’s a bog standard semi detached house.

Realistically, I don’t think our kids will be able to afford to live comfortably here even with our help. But it’s a great place to be a teen. They travel free/cheaply all over and do loads of free/cheap stuff.

I don’t understand how anyone Iives outside of London. How are you all earning a living?
Obviously there are service roles, but who are you nursing/doctoring/baristing/serving in the shops? Where are the people who make money and what do they do?
We visit other parts of the UK all the time, and would love to live in many of them but can’t figure out what jobs anyone does. Especially in the really rural areas, farming excepted.

There are businesses, local authorities, universities, hospitals etc outside of London, that employ people. I realise that that may come as a shock to you…

I started off reading that thinking it was serious 😂😂

The job thing is interesting.

DH is self employed and works from home, but he would need to be in London for in-person meetings several times a week if we ever moved, and his business would suffer if he couldn’t network in London.

I’m a public sector senior manager. If I look ant the main jobs site for my sector there are 37 jobs matching my skills in London at the moment and 9 in the whole rest of the UK….

Whereas Wales is chock-full of dullards eh Bunny?

what an utterly stupid question 😂

Because they want to. The same reason you live in "NE Wales"

I live in a rural area and up to last year helped run a business with 3 million turnover ? Not farming lol 😂

People are deliberately misconstruing this comment, I think. No one says othe places don't have any or good opportunities. The key phrase is 'world leading'.

And while no, I don't think people think everywhere else is just dullards, again the point is that due to London's scale there is just more of interest there. Including people.

Why do London threads get everyone’s back up so much?

The OP has asked Londoners why they live in London. They are replying. No need for people to get totally defensive and weird about it.

If she’d asked why people live in Manchester I wouldn’t come on slagging Manchester off. Odd behaviour.

yes, in the same way that London is full of thickos who don't realise they could move if they wanted to.

One visit doesn't make a whole county, I live in South Wales just by the Brecon Beacons, it's lovely, quiet, friendly locals, and lovely countryside by us. I wanted to live in London when I was younger, even when my brother lived in London he said it was a great city to live in but not when your skint!

Yep to this

For us , it’s family and we were both born here . I have two children with autism who go to special schools so if we had to move them it wouldn’t be an easy thing to do . I have thought about moving away when my children get older , whether we will do it or not is another thing

Can I just ask those living in London . We visited recently and had a great time . However we did think the outskirts were very untidy / messy with rubbish on the streets and sides of roads etc . As a tourist I would have been quite shocked . Centre of London was fine . Anyone else notice that ?

Agreed. People are so weird about London. Saying you like or love London immediately invites defensive comments from people that live elsewhere. If you are happy where you are, wonderful. Doesnt detract from how much I love London.

I agree . As we drove through I wondered what jobs people do to earn the money to afford it . It’s just a question . My niece lived there for 2 years and loved it .

I live in London. My idea of a satisfying life involves museums, exhibitions, ballet, music, theatre, adult ed courses, exploring interesting historical areas, etc. I could sell my house and buy somewhere comparable for less than half the price in lots of lovely parts of the country. But I'm 10 years off retiring, and my priority is to be able to do the things I love, not to be better off or have a bigger house.

We get this. Moved away from London for a loooong time then came back recently. Some, not all, friends from that time away visit and actually think its OK to say this stuff, ('ooh it's sooo smelly, so disgusting, so scary... how can you bear it? I could Never be away from the sea' .... etc etc) whilst sitting at my table, in my house, eating my food.
Christ. I live near Finsbury Park ffs. It's hardly the Seventh Circle of Hell.
So rude.

This is mainly why people live there. I’d qualify interesting to say the population is more diverse and progressive.

London is an international city. It has very little in common with other parts of the UK on many levels.

Unfortunately Londoners who do want a slice of life in south Wales just buy a second home there. I mean they could buy first homes but in either case they will force out local people.

They didn’t say that and nowhere in their comment is that even suggested.

As London is huge we have more than our fair share of litter louts, fly-tippers, and other anti-social arses, just as with other cities.

@Mangomingo not sure if you are serious but my non London relatives/friends jobs include or have included....
Teacher
Nursing/other medical roles
Childcare
Carers
Warehouse Work
Factory work
Retail/Hospitality
Prison service
Insurance
Media jobs
Sports related jobs
Animal care
Childcare
Bus driver
Train driver
Logistics
Call Centre
Security
Postal service
Beauty industry (hairdressing/make up)
Farmer
ICT jobs
Maintenance jobs
Admin jobs
Cook

Plus about 101 other jobs.
They are a busy lot outside of the M25.

The ‘outskirts’ covers a very broad area north, south, east and west.

Some suburbs are beautiful, some edge on to the countryside and feel quite rural, some are just miles of suburban streets of varying degrees of tattiness, some are sprawling housing estates.

There’s no one character to London - suburbs or central.

I grew up on a rough council estate in inner London. Right next to a very popular tourist spot. I doubt any tourists knew, as they strolled along taking photos, that they were passing by an extremely dodgy estate with serious drug dealers operating there .