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.

But people in other places use public transport and chat at the bus stop or on the bus! When I visited Central London several times as a young person (I was actually born there a very long time ago and was fortunate to have the opportunity to stay with someone there), I found that people would look blankly at you if you talked to them, apart from a few people who were new off the boat as it were. I remember having a normal conversation with a Somali chap (or was he Sudanese?) at a bus stop opposite the BBC place at White City.

Incidentally I remember that my host, an elderly Celt from the fringes of these islands, easily struck up a conversation on a bus with another elderly Celt from a different fringe. The conversation was in English, but it would have been interesting to have known whether it would have been possible in our friend's native language, of which some of the population of the other person's original homeland would probably have spoken a different version.

Mostly because despite hybrid working being a real possibility now, some industries still adopt a very London-centric attitude and make it impossible to progress your career without being stuck in London.

@pepperpot38 if you rent why can't you move away and come back? Genuinely interested. Do you mean if you were to change jobs to a lower paid job? Surely it's only if you sell your house and try to rebuy that it's a one way move.
I love Islington by the way, you are definitely lucky to live there.

For my industry, if I want to keep a v. senior job in a multinational company, then that means being in London or leaving the UK. I’ve tried living elsewhere and whilst technically the roles were more senior, they were all covering only the UK and one or two EU countries, and frankly I got bored. Plus we witnessed a lot of racism, and there wasn’t much choice of cultural life. Even if half my family weren’t from London going back several hundred years, and I didn’t have those family ties here, I’d love London. No need for a car, plentiful public transport, everything within easy reach, able to walk DD to school, walk to the shops / cafes etc, and that’s despite having a disability. Other than housing, there’s always cheap stuff to do, and loads for children and young people.

Found the same on holiday in North Wales, was happy to go home
Never again.

Born here and lived here most of my life.
It is beautiful, diverse, vibrant, multi cultural, interesting...I could wax lyrical for days!
I love it and would not want to live anywhere else

And that sort of superior attitude is precisely why I would never live in London, even though I can afford to!

I think a lot of people who move to London are sold on the brand, 'London'. There's great culture and food in other cities. For example Leeds has much eating out. Without the massive queues. Birmingham has better theatre. Manchester a vibrant gay scene.

I spent a bit of time living in London and just found it stressful and expensive. I'd rather live in another city and commute in for the odd thing that takes my fancy (not that much frankly).

One thing I really dislike about London is the wanker effect. I've had the odd find who has moved there and just turned into a... Money obsessed shallow arse. The attitude of londoners to other parts of the country can be appaling. Just yesterday I got the most bizarre email from a London wanker trying to solicit my involvement in some work. It was weirdly offensive. Like, people from my bit of the country are a bit thick and I was doing sort of performing monkey.

I do recall a better London when I was younger. Maybe the naivity of youth. Maybe the fact that it's drawn in more wankers and the born and bred Londoner can no longer afford to live there. But either way. 'meh'.

If you appreciate the arts, incredible food etc london is the only place to be.

I walked into soho and spent 20 for an on the day ticket to see Medea. I was within spitting distance of Sophie okenado and Ben daniels.

You can’t get that that anywhere else

@Clowdee better theatre in London. - I don’t think so

Than London I meant. I mean, birmingham is a great city but the theatre just doesn’t compare

Different strokes and all that. London's great for a weekend but I would find it utterly suffocating to live there. All those people, living on top of each other and that's before you take into consideration the cost. And for all you Londoners, it is entirely possible to access arts and culture outside London 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

All these things can be found in all major cities in the uk. It's just that people like you think that London is the only place that has them!

To answer the OP, I have no idea why people live in London, it's too busy, too expensive and too impersonal. I've lived all over the UK and would never choose to live in (or near) London.

It’s definitely possible to access some sort of arts and culture scene elsewhere in the UK, but there is nothing comparable to what is available in London.

Because it is interesting, fun, loads to do, historically epic and a hub of opportunity and progression potential. The downside is the price and size of properties and general cost of living.

You get what you pay for. I live in the home counties so it is nice for me because I can be there in 20 minutes and at the same time don't have the hassle of traffic, over-crowding and miserable commutes. But it is all relative.

Some would say "why would you live in (Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, Bournemouth etc)? There is nothing there, nothing to do and few prospects!"

I personally prefer Brighton or Bristol but it isn't London

London is close to family based in the commuter belt and until we made a move to the fringes in zone 6, it was where we had the most fun living. We moved to be closer to family (30 mins away instead of an hour) but still have fast public transport to central and fantastic bus network. The variety of people, from different backgrounds and places is brilliant and has vastly improved my awareness of the lives of others and allowed me to experience things on a daily basis that I can imagine anywhere else. The vastness of it just doesn’t compare to other cities I’ve lived. Professionally, my job exists outside of London but DH’s doesn’t. Despite that, the kind of work I can do is hugely more interesting in London and the number of similar opportunities is incomparable.

And the London brand as someone else said is the big pull. Living in a city where Dickens, Henry VIII, Mercury, McCartney etc all lived is interesting for some.

25kpa is a relatively entry level cost for a Mortgage for a family home in central London (zones 2-3).
I wouldn't live anywhere else in the UK. You have anything you could think of on your doorstep. Culture, food, art, diversity, 24hr transport network. The hustle and bustle. Better weather that most of the rest of the UK although the weather is the only thing I'd change.
If London had the Spanish sun, it would be the best city in the world.

I’ve been to n wales - tbh I’d rather live in a caravan in London than a fine house in N Wales. London is without doubt one of the finest cities in the world, beautiful exciting and vibrant.
location location location

That’s just not true. The V&A, Science and history museums, the galleries, the west end theatre. Yes other cities have these things, but not on the scale or quality of London. It’s an amazing city.

Art, culture, theatre, fantastic community schools, community, public transport no need for a car, cultural mix, job opportunities for my 4 children & rounded tolerant community focused kids. It is a fantastic place to live.

Yup. Essentially it's sucked the life out of the rest of the country and partially explains why many left behind areas in a pique of envy voted to leave the EU. All the london liberal elite stuff struck a real chord.
Look what happened to the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford. Lost much of its photography collection to London back in 2016 I think.

I’ve always thought this OP. Many careers demand a London base. Otherwise, I don’t get it. Although, it seems that many Londoners believe that everywhere else, especially the North, is a cultural wasteland. It isn’t of course! Personally, I enjoy having a nice house and lifestyle at a fraction of the price in the North East. All near to great cities, including the beautiful, medieval city of Durham, Gallaries, Theatres, concert halls, a stunning coastline and gorgeous countryside.

Because all of life is here. It’s unparalleled in terms of diversity and world class culture. If you’ve been lucky enough to buy a home at a reasonable price (and that could be done 10-15 years ago, it’s a great place to live on a budget. You could do interesting free stuff every weekend and never run out of options. Oh and the food options are amazing.

That happened because people chose not to visit