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.

I also don’t recognise the descriptions some people give of “Londoners” being unfriendly or aloof or snobby.

My father’s shocked that people don’t chat to strangers on tubes / buses. I tried to explain that it just doesn’t work that way - it would be like always have some random person chatting to him in his car to & from work.

Zone 3/4 border

For example ~ this weekend is my birthday ~ on Saturday I’m spending the afternoon at the V&A museum and will be having tea and cake at the member’s room. On Sunday I’m meeting my sister for lunch by the river Thames then an exihibition at the Tate Modern. All within less than 1 hour travel from my home.

I would’t trade this for no big house with cheaper mortgage

Our careers are here and we get many more opportunities

We don't like driving and don't need to here

We like a variety of cultural options - we go to the theatre a lot, not just west end but fringe and off West End. We go to the museums a fair amount too

For primary age kids - wraparound care is a given at schools (I am sure I will be told it is everywhere else too but whenever there is a thread about wraparound there are always posters who say there is none, sometimes in their entire town). Lots of options for school holiday childcare. Lots of activities.

When they are teens, they can get around on their own, we won't be ferrying them around (don't have a car so can't)

I am not white and neither are my kids and I feel more at home here - I have been the only brown person in the village and it wasn't a great experience

Now I think another large city would give us pretty much the same things - minus career stuff because we have very London centric careers - but we don't have a lot of large cities in the UK. If I had my time again, I might have gone for a career which would have been more transportable, I have friends in Sheffield which looks lovely.

*wouldn’t

(that was a reply to @bibbybox )

@Waahaawoowoo , if you’re in NE Wales then I’m guessing your nearest town of significance is Wrexham, which is a miserable place (even if the Queen did make it a city.) Even Ryan Reynolds can’t make the town attractive.

Yes, there are loads of lovely towns and villages in Flintshire and Denbighshire, but nearest cities of interest are basically schlepping to Liverpool or Manchester.

So all the myriad pleasures and advantages of an international city just aren’t there in your life. But for more urban types, it’s bloody brilliant. And in many ways very cheap.

Because there’s so much more opportunity in London than there is in ‘NE Wales’, in every sense of the word.

My ability in London (and other international major cities) to command a much larger salary (I’m actually not salaried but for ease) is vast. My opportunity for career development has been huge and it’s enabled me to work hard, play hard and build myself a very good life.

I have a place in the city but I technically live 1.5hrs out and commute in for a few days each week. It’s no chore. I adore the city, it’s vibrant, it’s historic, its rich and cultural, it’s interesting, the people are international and diverse.

My main base is very rural, and while utterly charming, is so white and so middle class and so meh.

I absolutely understand the appeal of London and its uniqueness in the UK, but I do find some of the replies here amusing too. As though the only options available are London or a tiny, racist, suburban outpost with no cultural landmarks where everything stops at 4pm and the people are all boring as fuck.

I live in the City of London and don't need a car yes. I can walk to Covent Garden etc

I do think London is great & if would live in central London if I won the lotto. I don't see parts of z3 outwards are as buzzy & many of the z5/6 places aren't that different to other towns. Plenty of them you can be a good 25 min walk from a station & have little provision on the local high street.

also 24hr shops within a few minutes walk!)

they definitely have those outside of London.

👊🏽fellow Londoner.
It’s astonishing isn’t it how it’s ok to openly deride someone for living in London in a way us lovely Londoners wouldn’t do about other places. Someone at a wedding, random person really asked me sitting there with three toddler where I lived and said, “eugh I hate London”

On the contrary, I could never live in North Wales. Wales is a beautiful country to visit but not somewhere I'd ever move to. It's whatever floats your boat though isn't it?

We've been priced out of the suburbs and it makes me really sad. We've not gone too far but I still miss it dearly, it's home. If I won the lottery I'd move back tomorrow.

@3WildOnes with young dc? how to you navigate school, work, play dates, clubs etc?

I live in the city of London and also have a second home in Wimbledon so I can still enjoy parks and trees etc.

I work in the Performing Arts,this is the best place to be for work opportunities.

We earn about £90k combined. We don’t pay for private school and bought the house back in 2004 for £200k. Couldn’t buy now though,house is worth about 800k. Madness.

I do wonder how much of it is about personal attitudes. DH is American, specifically Midwestern. He isn’t afflicted with the odd middle class British attitude of keeping oneself to oneself, (and then complaining that everyone is so unfriendly) and hence we know a lot of people and build relationships wherever we go. He’ll join in a conversation or strike up a chat with anybody: the neighbours over the fence; the couple at the next table in a bar; the builders doing work on a house across the street; some woman who he sees struggling to load something into her car; the guys who run the corner shop. Two of our good friends
are a couple who we got talking to about the decor in our local Wetherspoons. We had our entire house renovated, when nobody else could get trades in, on the back of a conversation DH struck up with a guy in a queue at a DIY wholesaler which led to them spontaneously going for a couple of pints at the pub, who just happened to own a large building firm.

Whereas if you go about your life never saying anything more than a polite hello to your neighbours if you see them taking the bins out, or try to ignore people entirely, you’re never going to experience that most people in London are actually pretty friendly.

It’s good for opportunities here, I like cities, find the people good, and it’s inspiring and interesting

Yes, I live in zone 3 with two young children and we don't have a car.

We rent one occasionally.

We use public transport, walk and cycle.

So for me today the dc are having play dates, one at home & one elsewhere. I need to then get them to my mums, go to ikea with dh once he's back from work & then go & meet a friend.

I couldn't do that without a car & im z3!

I would assume because people put their own happiness and preferences above how much spare cash they have? If you love London then you love London.

I don't want todo a twice yearly theatre trip. I want to have a child free Saturday go up to London for a wander and interesting lunch and then maybe see what cheap last minute tickets I could get.

I love that my daughter can go their on the train with friends at 14/15 and go for lunch / to a museum.

When she was little we went to every children friendly museum going in London. We would generally do one every school holiday.

I think if your housing is sorted London would be a wonderful place to live.

You earn more in London and get promoted more easily so I don't think you have less spare cash.