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.

We have lads working for our firm at 23 on £900 take home which is roughly the same as your weekly wage based on 65k gross. Finish between 3-4pm most days and have no transport costs as they get picked up and dropped off. They also have no student debt which you may have and will probably be able to buy a family home much quicker due to lower outgoings and lower property prices.

£1,750 a week take home, so the equivalent to your analysts, is well within their reach by the age of 30.
Of course you’ll speak of the job security, work pension etc but there isn’t only London where earning your wage is possible and you can have a much better lifestyle when you earn the same as a Londoner living elsewhere and your housing costs are much less.

I moved here because of work. I stay here because it's what I know. I once had a job that required me to visit lots of different parts of central London so I got to know it really well. I think it's a pretty city with lots to see. It's expensive though.

I like that I met lots of different types of people from all over the world but I am sad when they move back home. I think it's hard to build lasting relationships but I have done. My friends are from very different backgrounds. I like that.

If I leave London it will be because of money and I would try to move to somewhere I could travel to London.

This attitude is bonkers to me I adore London and lived there most of my twenties but let's be honest other major cities have fantastic opportunities for career and culture and if you honestly can't see that I pity you.

Why do people drive range rovers

Better paid jobs, more opportunities for children, family all here , mainly it’s where I call home.

I've lived in London for over 25 years and I came to it willingly - I wanted the big city and bright lights and I haven't been disappointed. Aside from the architecture and amazing restaurants and bars and cafes and theatres and museums and markets and parks and gardens and activities - what I love most about London is it's multi culture - London was a big remain voter and as someone who's not from the UK - I appreciate that - Wales I seem to remember for all it's cheap housing and childcare voted out! And I don't want to live somewhere which is not welcoming. Everyone says London is unfriendly, I have never found that. And in London you can be who you want to be - dress how you want - express yourself how you want and no one bats as eyelid - as they don't care. I spent my childhood being watched thru net curtains and would never go back - London gives you an anonymity which is fabulous! London lives and let lives..... and there is also the feeling that anything can happen to you in London - a chance encounter here can change your entire life. It's got a magic about it at times! I agree with Samuel Johnson on this one - when you're tired of London, you're tired of life! So living somewhere where people cut their grass and wash their cars at the weekend - no thank you!

I'm not doubting you but I've not been able to find any jobs outside of London making £65,000 a year at 23.

My Dad makes £190,000 outside of London but he's a 50-year-old man and he only got to that salary at age 40+ because he was studying for so long. And he often bemoans that he's reached the peak of his career and there's not really much else he can do to earn more.

The Portfolio Managers at my firm have a much, much higher cap than £196,000 and our youngest PMs are in their 30s.

And nobody in their 40s at my firm seems to have struggled finding a property in London or elsewhere (coughs, Surrey). You should have seen the office on Wednesday - everyone over the age of 40 was working in their homes in the country!

London is a great city and you can live a pretty comfortable life if you're well-off. Dad has friends who have big detached houses in Dulwich and they don't seem to be living any worse lives than my parents do far from London.

Ok. But err... East Anglia (Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk and parts of Lincolnshire are the driest) most of them North East of London 🤔but here we go. The interesting person from London chooses to focus on the weather!

You don’t need to doubt me. Maybe you aren’t looking for those types of jobs? From what you said it doesn’t sound like your kind of thing. It’s not finance.

Didn’t say you’d struggle finding a property. Just that our employees will probably be able to buy a bigger home, quicker due to property prices. Look at all the posts on here of families living in high storey flats, or any flats, or the ones asking if they should they move out of London so they can actually afford a house with a garden for their child(ren)
We’re both 32 and can’t even imagine what our home would be worth in London but I doubt many 30yos would be buying it whilst privately educating their children as we’ve been able to.

Generally or specifically?

It can tow a horse box
I can fit a sheep in the boot
7 people fit in
Easy to maintain
Climbs an hill off road
Goes through steam without stalling

RTFT
I said rainfall was relatively low

Someone said Are you trying to tell me that it rains more in say Birmingham than it does in London?- I said yes and provided data

I didn't say lowest. But London rainfall is relatively low.

I mean I lived in Lynn for most of my life as another user wading in here.

East Anglia isn't exactly the most interesting place to be and Kings Lynn is a town that's seen much better days.

Northern drizzle, I dont really care, I just think why do people live in london is just as dumb a question

Because it is the best city in the world to grow up in.

One of the most diverse places on the planet.

If you are lucky enough to be a born and bred Londoner, as I am, this is the greatest city on earth, to have as your playground .

If you talk to someone on the underground they think you are mentally ill, squirm in their seat, pretend they can't hear you by pointing at their earpods and look at the floor or put their books up to their face.

Because it is considered rude by many to engage with a stranger who is wearing EarPods or reading a book which are known as signs that someone does not want to be disturbed hence you see many people having these things on public transport.

I shall certainly remember this the next time my Mini fails to make it through a sauna.

The last time I was in London it was dire. Men trying to lure my 17 year old daughter away (can't say foreign or I'll be called racist, even though they were South Eastern European)

@Tigerstotty do you not get that kind of thing in your town or is it okay if they are local? What a load of bollocks.

Not to mention all the 17 year old girls who live in london

I couldn’t do my job outside of London. As a startup c level exec there are just fewer opportunities even in other major cities and I go into the office a couple of times a week. I think that’s one of the reasons for a lot of people who stay.

A mini cant make it through puddle- never mind a sauna

I meant a stream!

I wish my London mortgage was £25k per year!

We’re in London because everything is so much easier here:

• shops are open very late. I was in Cornwall for a week over half term and there wasn’t a shop open past 6.30pm within a 10 mile radius. Nightmare if you need a tin of tomatoes or pint of milk at the last minute
• we have many options for quick delivery if shops are shut like Gorillas etc
• there is always something to do whether that is theatre, cinema, museums, exhibitions, so many different options.
• so many things for kids to do. Every type of activity/class you can think of
• cheap and very regular (every 2 mins) public transport to wherever you want/need to go
• when kids were babies/toddlers so much to do and often free. Toddler/baby classes and meet-ups, sensory sessions, under five clubs, play groups.

There are downsides of course. Our kids grow up too early in my opinion. Some things are eye-wateringly expensive (especially housing and independent schools). And it can be full on and sometimes you need to escape to slow down for a bit.

But I wouldn’t live anywhere else.

@Tigerstotty

If you talk to someone on the underground...

Why the fuck would you do such a thing? Why would you put another person in that position? What do you want?

And don't give us any 'human interaction, making connections, passing the time of day' crap. I'm very happy to embrace humanity at work, in a bar, at Sainsbury's, at the Post Office and - yes - during the Olympics. But on the Tube?

No. On the Tube we are each ensconced in a bubble of privacy. It's like being in the shower, but with your clothes on. We respect each other's solitude and we expect that respect back. Talking to someone on the Tube is like marching into the bathroom and then saying 'Well, if you didn't want anyone coming in, you should have been singing." It's massively intrusive.

I don't know how they run things in whatever nudist camp you grew up in, but on the Tube we don't intrude on another person's privacy with such blithe abandon.

Yes, we had this stupid shit on the last London bashing thread (or it was possibly the one before that).

Posters were unable to understand why people who might come into contact with hundreds of other people every single day might want to take the only chance they get for a few minutes' peace, and that expecting them to chat is considered an invasion of personal space and extremely rude.

This is not the same as asking for help when it's needed, which I've never seen anybody ignored for (nor have I ever ignored anyone who has asked me).

Each to their own. I love, love London, for all the reasons other people would hate.
London didn’t appear on its own - we make it what it is.
People can live wherever they want and good on them. I can’t imagine living where I grew up but others are very happy there.
We are all different - this is not something to argue over.