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.

Well I am trying to answer the point you keep making for example:

I know not everyone has a car but I genuinely don't understand how people fit everything in without one

I am trying to explain that it's not that hard to fit things in, you just choose different things

My reasons for loving London (and I have nothing against living elsewhere - like many on this thread I grew up in a northern town):

• I am rarely bored. You will never, ever run out of things to do here and many of them are cheap or free. World class music, theatre, art, food, history, architecture, parks, and so much more. You don't have to be rich to enjoy it. Loads of stuff is free or cheap, especially if you're "local" and can go Mon-Thu rather than the weekend. And everything comes to London first, often months or even years before the rest of the country.
• Amenities are open at the times I actually want to use them. I need to buy milk and bread when I get back from work at 9, not the mad dash my mum used to do to get to the supermarket before it shut at 5-30. Museums and galleries do "lates". Restaurants do multiple sittings. Coffee shops open at 630/7am so you can grab one on the way to work. Transport is 24/7 so you never get stuck anywhere.
• Yes, it's expensive (especially mortgage/rent/ but London is so much more than central and you can save living with mates or a partner. I lived in a shared house in North London paying £470 a month rent because it wasn't a fashionable area. As many have said most Londoners don't need a car, never mind two, which saves a lot, and activities can be much cheaper.
• There's a buzz about the place.
• The career opportunities are unbeatable. My industry doesn't exist outside London and my husband would be on half the salary elsewhere. If you don't like your job you'll have dozens of other places you could move to, not one or two, or God forbid having to up sticks and move.
• People are more open minded. If you're not white, if you're gay, if you have any sort of "alternative" lifestyle choice, then your people are here and most of the time no-one will bat an eyelid. People mind their business.

It isn't for everyone but it's the place for me.

As much as I love your description of Londoners skipping along the Thames 😄 I’m struggling with the argument that, because people who live in London aren’t at the Tate Modern or the V&A every day, they may as well not bother living there at all. Surely the fact that we all have to deal with drudgery in life means that it’s all the more important to be able to enjoy the precious leisure time we do get?

I can’t imagine saying to someone who lives in Cornwall because they love sailing and surfing, “Oh, but you can’t get to go that often - you may as well live in Birmingham instead”. Similarly, all the people pointing out that “they do actually have theatres and art galleries in Manchester and Liverpool”, as if this was somehow news - would you say to someone living in the Lake District “You do know there’s countryside in The Cotswolds too, don’t you?”?

The thread is about why people live in London - not “justify why you’re not living somewhere else”.

I assume you mean Greater Manchester. The point stands though that the (Greater) London population is still several times the size.

I am struggling to picture a journey in London that is 7 mins by car by 45 mins by bus, seeing as buses mainly use the same roads cars do.

Unless you are factoring walking to and from bus stops and waiting time.

i stayed in London career/lifestyle/culture.

The job opportunities and possibilities to work In amazing and well known companies. The learning and development. The nightlife, the restaurants, theatres, the different places…
this life was before having children though 😂

I’m not saying nowhere else has good restaurants and job opportunities, of course they do. But the buzz and atmosphere of a career/life in central London. I could not have swapped that for north wales for a few extra quid….

i was broke for a long time there but eventually the career takes off, things get better and you’ve made amazing friends.

I live 10 minutes from a leading teaching hospital that people travel across the country for. Worked at a place that people came all over the world to work at, consistently rated top 5 in the world for our industry. Don't have a car - everything we need is on our doorstep or a few bus/tube stops away.

But also London is much bigger than zone two. There are many suburbs and rural areas which have a village feel... so you also wrong assume it's all noisy.

I wouldn't want to live in central London either (as if I could even afford it) so I live in outer London

Same roads, different routes.

Wimbledon Common is around 10 mins drive from me, less with no traffic, but I’d have to take 2 buses.

Are you only quoting registered murders in that number? Laughable that you’re comparing the whole of the North West to the city of London for comparable crime.

If honest people told you where they’d feel more safe; it most certainly wouldn’t be London.

Walk to bus stop.

Wait 10-16 mins for bus.

Bus doesn't go exactly outside so walk again.

Can easily get journeys like this in outer London where there's no tube, one railway line and few buses

Your post stating safety actually shocked me. You feel safe going home alone in London as a whole city?

It always amazes me that people who presumably have never lived anywhere else, just assume that ‘free, fun things, theatre, museums, beautiful open spaces etc’ are not available anywhere else.

Why presumably? I’ve lived in several other places. I regularly visit and stay in rural-middle-of-nowhere and suburbia to stay with parents and in-laws.
Sure other places have open spaces and fun things but they are significantly less dense, are usually far away from each other.
When I stay other places I have to drive to things, drive between them etc. Only in London have I been able to walk to an excellent coffee shop around the corner, then 5 minutes further a park followed by soft play and a fancy wine bar on the way home while toddler naps, and bump into people you know on the way as most people are mooching about rather than driving.

Things are much much more condensed in London and you either love that or hate it.

Do not forget that Londoners have access to a huge number of buses (many of them green) . You don't realise it until you visit elsewhere in the country.
Even compared to other global cities, it leads by a mile.

I love London but no longer live there. I like the amount of choice you have. Whether it's cinema, swimming pools, jobs, pubs, college courses. I like the variety of people. I'd move back if I could afford to.

@onreee Wait 10-16 mins for bus.

Cant say I’ve ever waited anything close to 16 mins for a bus in London!

Actual London and Greater London are hardly the same thing.

I've lived in London all my life and always felt safe as a single female walking home tipsy or drunk late at night. Never had any problems.

The only crime I've experienced was my bike being stolen when I chained it up outside the supermarket for an hour last year.

No not the city of London, Greater London.

I feel very are in my area of London btw.

safe

It's an odd one. The actual training ground is not far but the way the buses work, there's no direct one so you need to get two and the second doesn't stop very near so it's a bit of a walk at the other end.

The fact I can drive it in seven minutes means I can drop him off then go home for an hour and get on with chores or sometimes I drop him and then drive a bit further to a supermarket and do a shop before picking him up. The car saves so much time.

I feel safe coming home from central London alone because there are so many people around. Busy buses and tubes all night. And then I walk down the main roads home as opposed to going down the short-cut alleys (where I would feel less safe).

I feel far less safe on dark rural paths with no street lighting.

Maybe it’s just what you are used to? I am being honest here. I can only speak about my bit of London. I would probably feel differently in an area with gang violence. There are lots of different bits of London.

I don't care if I feel safe in Dagenham I just don't go there.

Because they were born there? It's their home?

Just had my 5th London Theater trip this year. i can be there in 20 mins and get Rush tickets before I leave home for £25 seats or day tickets direct from the booking office. I've visited several museums and been to China town for new year. So many cheap or free things to do. Many of us have family and friends here it's where we were born and brought up. My actual area is awful but access to town is something I would miss.