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.

The assumption that people who live in less busy parts of the country hav nosey neighbours who want to know everything about your business is absolutely not true BTW.

Perhaps the traditional definition of "racism" doesn't cover it any more because the discrimination happening in most of the UK is almost always a lot more subtle and often veering into the realms of unconscious bias (a term I don't even get along with!)

Hubby and I are foreigners; I wouldn’t like to live anywhere else in England. I went to Wales once and found it a bit depressing. We have traveled in the UK and there are some nice places but I couldn’t live on them

London in an exciting city, multicultural and there is lots to see and do, work opportunities are better and it is easier to travel to Europe and overseas.

I don't think anyone said it didn't. You are doing the common whataboutery when a conversation about racism arises which is quite annoying.

Thank you. I travel all over the country for work and some places are genuinely astonishing. It’s not even malice most of the time, it’s ignorance. And the idea of living somewhere where I (and far more importantly, my kids) experience that sort of thing on a daily basis really doesn’t appeal.

It’s genuinely astonishing that some people on this thread have such difficulty grasping that.

Because people who love living in London aren’t going to love living in NE Wales?

I’m from deep shires countryside, but find London much more accepting, dynamic, inclusive. Moving back wouldn’t be for me.

Interesting, whenever I’ve seen Escape to the Country or some such, I always think ‘why would anyone move out of London?’

My bro spent a fortune on doing up a super house in Islington. Then they moved to Norwich. I don’t mind Norwich but there was so much more to do in London and the house in Norwich is the same kind of house just without proximity to the joys of the capital. If it suits them …

😁

There's so much to do and lots is free/cheap so after housing costs, lots of other stuff is very affordable. Free exhibitions, £1 comedy nights, lots of choices for plays, ballets, talks etc. Gigs are as expensive as everywhere but I never have to pay for trains or accommodation to see my favourite bands. I can go on a night out and know that whatever time it is, I can get home on public transport.

I have lots of friends here which is definitely a huge factor in why I stay.

I could work anywhere in the country with decent public transport (I can't drive) but I have far more options for interesting jobs in my field and can move between jobs when I want a change.

"it literally doesn't matter what you are", unless you're conservative haha. London is so diverse in some ways, but not in terms of opinion. Everyone just seems to agree with each other here, or keep quiet. It's the most oppressive city I've lived in terms of debate.

Family connections, friends and the place we know...... why do people choose to move to London? work & prospects

Great points. Thank you.

Cor, it’s true where I live. I left my bins at the end of my drive and got a note. I changed my fencing and the clerk of the parish council basically interviewed the contractors and then phoned me for more details. We didn’t attend a platinum jubilee village event and was asked as to why not several times afterwards. I find it very amusing. Thankfully!

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 think a lot of people do - they go there at start of their careers and by end of 20s early 30s take stock and move on.

DH spend three years living in London doing a postgraduate degree lived centrally and made sure every weekend he did something. Every year towards end of their time fellow student would do a made dash round all the main sites. We've heard similar form people who moved from London that we met in other cities - they worked out how often they were doing London cultural things even free things and realised they may as well move away.

DH says if we very get really rich, unlikely, and could live comfortably in central London he would seriously consider it.

It has a lot going for it but is hampered by accommodation costs and everything being a bit to extremely more expensive - though there are worse cities out there like New York and yet people still live in those places and are even keen to do so.

@Hostofgoldendaffodils
I’m assuming you’re white.

We had to move two children, one a term into A levels and one a term into year one when we were priced out of London.

It was really hard for everyone, moving them across the country. We would have ended up homeless if we stayed though.

We left three years ago and the house we rented has just gone on the market again for £600 per month more than we were paying, which was already an eye watering price for a tiny terrace. We just couldn’t do it anymore and that was with us both working and claiming top up housing benefit.

Where do you live I will move there. It's relentless where I live you can't be friendly with the neighbours around here they think it's a pass to take the mickey.

If you like the busyness of a city and all that London has to offer it is great. Of course many other UK cities have a great cultural offer so that's not restricted to London. Also London is huge and not just the centre. I live in SE London. I know my entire street of neighbours. They're all lovely. I can hop onto a train and be central in 20 mins or so. My kids can avail themselves of all the opportunities London has to offer.

Also, career opportunities are vast here. I don't imagine them to be vast in NE Wales. My kids can find any career here once they have left university. And they can do well and earn well if that's important them. If we lived somewhere else I would imagine they would have to move to a large city for the best opportunities anyway. So why move away now?

Also family and friends. Same for you.

I do love visiting beautiful places around the UK but I always wonder what people do for work in places like Cornwall etc. - not everyone can be a teacher, medical worker, in hospitality or tourism etc.

My DH works in the financial sector in the city and, as you can imagine, has an extremely healthy wage. That probably wouldn't be possible in NE Wales.

That said, if we had a much lower income affording London would be more of a struggle and we may well have moved somewhere cheaper. Or even cheaper parts of London.

@Hostofgoldendaffodils

I really don't like a lot of the attitudes here. Namely The inane idea that outside of London is a Wild West of racism and bigotry.

To at once hyperbolise experiences of racism (“wild west”) and minimise (“inane”) is rather offensive to poc who may well have had bad experiences outside London and other multicultural cities.

@isitjustmey I was making a general point that it's not a utopia. I just find it interesting that lots of people crow about diversity but I think for many in London they mean the authentic Italian deli or excellent Sri Lankan restaurant...

@begoneday I've been in London 16 years now... I would say I am officially 'over' and bored with it.
I don't know anyone who has the lifestyle of going to art galleries, eating out, theatre etc every week. They are something we do "once in a while" - the same it would be if we lived in Average Town England.
So far today I have taken my daughter to school, been to Waterstones, McDonalds and The Works and tomorrow I will go to the supermarket. That's my exciting life - I could do that anywhere.
London has nice things, London has shite things and despite the fact it has loads of theatres, galleries, museums and what not - they aren't at the end of every street. It can take me 45 to get from my Zone 3 area into central London so they aren't 'local'. It's still a "Day Out" to do all this stuff.
Infact it's bloody exhausting sometimes - both physically and mentally with the crowds and traffic everywhere.

I'm descended from Caribbean slaves :)

I think it is more city living v not, rather than London v the rest of the UK. The main difference with london compared to regional cities is that there is more choice of arts/culture (ie lots of theatres v one or two) so you can be a bit more spontaneous. Living rurally is certainly a very different experience.

I spent 40 minutes wedged in to a tube on the Elizabeth line earlier this week and despite being very much up close and personal, nobody said a word to each other and it was a really unpleasant and sweaty experience. More and more people kept cramming themselves in at each stop. I commented to my colleague (who is based in London - I'm not) that you would never have that experience in the regions, firstly because public transport is so crap most people don't even bother trying with it, and secondly because someone would most likely start up a conversation and a bit of jokey banter about how crap it all is. Or start a full on fight about something 😂

@Hostofgoldendaffodils thats not true - go to Dulwich, Richmond etc...there are plenty of high church Tories around and low middle class Tories and working class Tories here. There are. But it's nice that they have to live next to other people and actually engage with them. Dont forget most Tory MPs effectively live in London.

But for me as a European - even the report on BAME is a very narrow definition of diversity - where do the Europeans, South Americans, Middle Easterner fit in.

I left London a year ago having spent my whjole life there. (45 years, in wandworth- nice part, good house etc) I honestly don't know why it took me so long to leave and cannot imagine ever going back.

I used to quote multicultural, arts etc etc at people when they asked whether we would move, but in hindsight that's all just BS you can find that anywhere or just visit London every now and then if miss it.

When I think on it now, living there full time was like living with a cancer- noise, pollution, costs, space

Don't miss living there for one second. Very happy to pop in for an exhibition happy in the knowledge I'll be leaving the city later