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.

Because I was born and raised there.

We finally got priced out a few years ago when I was 40 though. Just couldn’t afford rents anymore. Had to move to a shithole 150 miles away (I’m not being a snob it’s an awful place, but it’s what we could afford and my husband is originally from here, he just remembered it with rose tinted glasses).

The racism I have suffered here is off the scale.

Some posters seem to feel threatened by posters who live and work in London saying they love it. These threads are always the same.

Well we also have Londoners deriding other parts of the U.K, which also happens on every London related thread. I don't see a need to insult any place regardless of where you choose to live.

@Viviennemary 😂. But answers the thread!

I wanted to move out before kids hit secondary school, for a larger space to live in. But my dad got dementia and I couldn’t move far away from him as he needed my support. Then kids moved to secondary school and that was that. I have raised them in a flat. Like most Londoners I am a mixture of proud, exasperated, studiedly indifferent to my city.

Because they were born there perhaps?

Glad the wales bashing seems to have abated though.

I did the opposite and lived in London once I had small kids and it was bloody brilliant! There was just endless amounts of things to do on the evenings and weekends, they saw and experienced so much during those years. We stupidly moved to the NW when the youngest was 7 to live in a big house in a Cheshire suburb. It was fun for about a year then we realised how isolated we felt. In London we could just go to the park opposite our flat and the kids would instantly have lots of new and old friends to play with. In the suburbs the park was either empty (because everyone had their own gardens to play in) or if there were kids there they only played with kids they already knew.

Didn't need to slate any other city or region to justify my reasons for staying in London

And most posters haven't, but a significant minority have, and this has got non Londoners backs up.

You can't argue that London has more of everything a city can offer, but like @xJoy I have lived and worked in London, enjoyed a lot of cultural stuff while there and now prefer the quieter rural life, even down to the church hall pilates and book club

I always found this perception odd. I’ve been in London countless times and have only had one instance in a decade where someone was quite rude.

Same here. There are rude people everywhere but I find it no less friendly than your average city. Last time I visited the first thing I saw was my Air BnB host chatting to a bunch of her neighbours, just like any other city and I had a few people talk to my in cafes and restaurants, and shopkeepers talked too. It really felt no different from my own home city(Glasgow) in that respect.

Talk to me sorry.

People who can't stretch 100k are living beyond their means, even in London.

I live here because I was born here. It’s my community.

Until recently most people I know worked in the public sector and lived in Council owned homes. Not everyone has a mortgage. Plenty of people use family and friends for childcare.

We can pop to the Zoo after school or nip to the British Museum after nursery.

I lived in the Midlands at University and it was the most miserable time of my life. There was so little to do and it was so expensive and difficult to get nowhere. It also never stopped raining.

I mentioned N.Wales because that's where the OP lives.

Not going to lie, the racism is another reason why I won't move from London. I have family in a northern English town and we could probably afford a gorgeous house in the country there with land but I'd rather live in a 'shoebox' with our poisoned London air than risk being called someone of the names I was called growing up. No fucking way.

I always found this perception odd. I’ve been in London countless times and have only had one instance in a decade where someone was quite rude.

Exactly. I have birthed and raised my 2 DC here in Zone 2. Not only did I always get a seat on the tube during my daily commute, people were positively falling over themselves to offer. Same with helping with buggies, bags, suitcases etc - the list goes on. I also breastfed absolutely everywhere and only encountered kindness. The kids and I chat to people all over the city. You get the odd rude person in literally every place on earth.

It's home - born and raised
Culture & Diversity of people and experiences
My profession would be much harder if I lived outside
Lucky to be born and raised in a beautiful part of London and even luckier than I have since moved back to same area.
Costs are high, reward is high.

It's what we choose.

I think unless you got on the property ladder in London 20+ years ago, the only people who can afford to live comfortably are mega-earners (6 figures) or council flat tenants.

Because I was born and raised in London as were my forebears back at least as far as the middle of the nineteenth century.

Most of my family and friends are in London.

It is one of the few places in the country where I can live car free and not be limited by it.

It offers enough professional opportunities that I have been able to change jobs several times without having to re-locate.

Lots of other nice things too, plenty to go and see, lots of green space readily accessible but those are the main reasons.

Of course property is now extremely expensive and that worries me.

But why I live here? I live in 10 mins walking distance of 2 cinemas, pubs, bars, restaurants, a comedy club, a leisure centre and gyms. Walking distance from the Co-op and Tesco, M&S and Waitrose and cafes galore, Parks and woodlands and a nature reserve. I am 30 mins door to door to the Eurostar and access to Paris and Brussels. I am a member of the Tate and Royal Academy and regularly meet friends there or at the theatre.

I live at walking distance from quite a few friends and can spend a whole weekend without ever needing to get in a car. Public transport is excellent.

It's awful.

'World leading culture' isn't something you 'go to' - if you're into that type of thing and you live in London you are soaked in it the whole time.

You drop into galleries on your lunch hour, you listen to the Barbican playlist on your commute, you go on art trails and walking tours, you go to fringe theatre after work, put exhibition posters on your wall, you read the books, listen to the podcasts, you know heaps of like minded people, you catch up on the Southbank, you have a lazy Sunday stroll around Tate Britain, you go to warehouse parties and all dayers, there's a man on your street who paints tiny murals on chewing gum and there are art installations on the nature reserve where you walk your dog.

It's not a thing you visit or a place you go, it's a way of life.

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.

But you likely aren't better off then them.
Your house is worth a lot less and is less likely to rise in value than a London property (based on the last fifty years of evidence).

They will be richer than you in terms of the value of the assets they own. They'll leave more to their kids when they die.

And lots of things in London (except housing) are cheaper than elsewhere - no need for a car, buses are cheaper than most cities, you can cycle more safely than many other places.
Free world class museums and exhibitions
Fantastic adventure playgrounds near me in north east London - staff supervised and entirely free!
Excellent well priced restaurants when you know where to look.
My unlimited swim membership over loads of pools is 32 quid a month. Far less than most councils charge.
Some extremely good value or free kids activities at incredible places like Southbank Centre or Museum of London

That may well be true, but I'd rather be here and live on beans and toast than go back to the miserable, insular, xenophobic, nosey and economically depressed Northern town I moved from, however pretty bits of it are.

I absolutely loved it there; it's my spiritual home. I'd move back in a heartbeat if I had enough for a decent house.

Like pp, I found people there generally kind and polite on public transport. Never encountered the rudeness and uncouth behaviour people associate with London unless drink/drugs were involved.

I love living here. We live in a house the size of a postage stamp but for me it’s worth it. So much to see and do, great food, always something going on, and loads of free stuff. I love having my friend visit with her daughter, so much stuff we can take her to do and enjoy.

My job is here and pays much better than outside London. Great transport links around the city and out of the city to elsewhere in the UK. As someone who can’t drive (eyesight issue), the public transport connections are everything to me and were invaluable when I used to be self employed. If we moved out of London I’d struggle living somewhere if I had to rely on a car. I used to commute in from a satellite town and would ruin both me and my bank account, it’s actually cheaper to live here.

I would get very bored very fast living in the countryside!

We lived in London for nearly 40 years. Apart from the proximity to theatre, opera, galleries, shopping, the buzz, some of the best schools in London, proximity to demanding, high paced roles, I'll be honest.

A high family income allowed us to live in a large house, with a large garden, in a beautiful part of London, 20 minutes tops to Sloane Square, access to the best London independent day schools and afforded a great quality of life for the dc who grew up quite street wise.

We moved 10 miles out 8 years ago. Live in a gated road, I don't know my neighbours and would go back in a heartbeat.

DH's job could only be done in London.