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.

@Doesthepopeshitinthewoods you are right, but they haven't tired of these places yet (I have). Oldest is 11.They also enjoy Hawkstone Follies, climbing wall in Shrewsbury, Theatre in Chester/ Shrewsbury, Cheshire Oaks (they like Mowglis for Indian food), Fforest roller-coaster, Bounce Below, getting a train to Liverpool, white water rafting in Llangollen, or last summer a favourite day was getting the train to Church Stretton. Meeting friends for walk and picnic at Bickerton Hill is always a hit.

Daughter belongs to a netball club in Wrexham. I can honestly say kids don't get bored. For us it works.

Because it's my home.
It's got anything you'd like to do.
It's international in terms of people, food, culture, art...
It's not full of Tory voters 🤷‍♀️

I don't feel the rest of the UK is a cultural wasteland, especially not Edinburgh. However, London seems to have great cultural institutions from centuries ago whereas it often had to be planned and developed elsewhere (some of it is great).

Yes, someone gets me!

Ahhh see I'm a runner and whenever we visit I am soooo envious of you lucky lit lot having that route

👍💛

This is bollocks @Irah15

Certainly some parts of the country might be, but have you visited Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool? They're not London but you couldn't say they're not diverse or multi-cultural.

Hating everywhere outside of the M25 is a kind of intolerance, just like racism.

I've got four theatres and about eight cinemas within easy reach and even more within an hour's reach. I live near a former royal palace that I could walk to. I'm near the river, and a number of beautiful parks. It's a short trip to several world heritage sites. But most of all, all my friends and family live here.

I'm not from London but I've lived here longer than anywhere else, having moved for work in my 20s. Work was initially a huge factor in staying for both DP and I – the industry we met in doesn't really operate outside London. Even though we've since moved into new professions that could be done anywhere, we decided to stay because we accumulated a lot of equity in our single person flats and, combined with an inheritance, were able to plough the lot into buying and renovating a house – our mortgage is now v. low. But mostly we stay because we love it. To me, London isn't really a sprawling metropolis, it's a massive collective of small communities. The one we live in is brilliant and we have so much on our doorstep. Our teen is having the best experience growing up here.

I am a London lover but yes the air up North is great and have you seen the river in zone 1 recently? Brown sludge...

Who swims in there though?

I agree it is ridiculously expensive but think once you are settled with family or friends nearby, support networks, children in school and everyone's hobbies and interests to consider it can be hard to make the move to uproot everyone.

That's apart from all the arts, culture, sport facilities and pretty good transport system that runs late at night.

In where?

I live in a small town, and can afford a nice house with a large garden for my (quite a few) children. On our income we can afford holidays and a reliable car. There is little to do in the evenings, though. Restaurants are limited; I can't buy exotic ingredients if they aren't sold in Sainsbury's. We have little cultural diversity. We need the car because public transport here is so poor.

My industry is based in London, and I have travelled there for work on a regular basis over the last 25 years. I would LOVE to live in London, with galleries, theatres, exhibitions, talks and presentations, TV and radio recordings, parks, and amazing food on my doorstep. When my children have left home, I'm going to move up there for a year and immerse myself in it.

In addition to living London and earning more than one would elsewhere, there’s still only a handful of places outside London, in the U.K., where non-white people aren’t an oddity and/or have strong communities.

Most of us would really rather not be ‘the only Black in the village’ or one of the 2% in a market town, however lovely. We don’t want our kids to grow up being the only (of one of a handful) non-white kid in their class. We’d rather not deal with daily microaggressions.

So we stay in London!

People do swim in the non tidal bit of the Thames. But no, you would not swim in the main bit - as much about the damgerous tides and undercurrents as the pollution.

It's self explanatory, really as, if so many didn't want to live here, property prices wouldn't be so high.

Culture, entertainment, public transport, food & people from around the world, etc.

Because that’s where work is.

my DS lives in london. Just got a rise to now be in 6 figure salary and his partner has been 6 figure since last year.
they both work for global consultancy and that’s where offices are. Previously he worked in civil service in Whitehall and again no options to live elsewhere
They have no kids and a one bed flat- they pay huge rent that is way more than any mortgage payment we’ve ever made including on on our old family home in leafy cheshire . I’m talking multiple thousands per month . Flat is nice, nice conversion of old industrial building, but it isn’t in a particularly posh area (it’s in a bit of less popular area between Brixton and camberwell)
They could rent someone else in london that’s cheaper or even buy in some areas- but that would then mean a daily commute of an hour or more on a crowded tube lines . Currently they can walk or cycle to work, they are central enough to reach most of their lively and close friendship circle that live in various directions . My sons partner was born and raised in cities all over the world and wants to be in easy reach of any cities night life and culture , so as they’re in london that also means staying near centre.

iknow they’re saving for deposit, at some point in their 30s they’ll be in a position to afford to buy, but right now they just have to accept the option between living centrally and expensively but walking/cycling a lot, or further out and having worse work/life balance and large bills for travel

At one time they were hoping to move jobs to get similar in Europe , it brexit free movement limitation sent that plan down the drain.

I’m biracial and clearly look mixed 😊there’s loads of large museums and art galleries near where I live. I don’t live in a city but it’s quick and easy to get to nearby cities.

Well near the bit of the river I live next to nobody since it would be dangerous. There are lots of Uber boats, tour boats etc zooming around but it isn't pretty to see. During the lockdown the River Thames near the Globe went clear and it was absolutely beautiful.

I speak English and Welsh depending on whom I'm speaking to. They were probably speaking to an non-Welsh speaker first and then to a Welsh speaker. There must be a special kind of paranoia amongst people who think the Welsh 'change to Welsh' just to exclude/be rude to a total stranger .... that would be just exhausting to keep monitoring who is around you. I'm sorry, but I just don't buy this myth perpetuated by people. I'm sorry, but no one I know would do this.

@MintTeaAndChocolate The Thames in zone 1.

Anyway, I'm glad that less people from outside London feel obliged to move to London after they graduate when they don't really like it because more opportunities have now been created where they live.

It will help to grow more stable communities.

I lived in London (zone 2) for 15 years and worked for very prestigious companies in the City. My husband was in the music industry and we had a great and enviable social life. But although we had culture, glamour etc I was actually immensely lonely and when my marriage ended i couldn't wait to leave.

I came back to the pretty little stone and thatched village I had lived near as a child and never looked back. I have more friends now, have an active social life that revolves around the village pub and dinner parties and still go to London about 4 or 5 times a year to the theatre or ballet or shopping or whatever.

Plus the sale of our poxy flat bought me a huge country house.

Well I’m a Londoner and I love London. It is so diverse, both in terms of people and the city itself, I am 60 but still discovering new things. I love the feeling of history and also being a continuation of my own family history.

My kids are adults now but had a pool, climbing wall, leisure centre and horse riding within 10 minutes walk. They had the opportunity to take part in creative and theatre arts locally also.

Cultural opportunities- if you shop around you can get cheap or reasonable theatre tickets and many museums are free. Many museum memberships let kids go free.

It’s also really handy for international travel, from Eurostar to Heathrow or London City. Less than an hour.

As far as money goes, if you spend everything on housing and/or cars then there will be nothing left.

Myself and DH are public sector workers who clawed our way up the career ladder to get a reasonable but not high income.

We prioritised having a 2 bed flat in a central area (our girls shared a room) and used public transport (except for hire cars for holidays). We had no holidays other than to family overseas or in the UK/Ireland.

One of my children works in the creative arts and her work is based in London. The other is a vet and could work pretty much anywhere but loves London. It’s unlikely they could ever afford to buy anywhere to live here though.

I’ve lived in Cardiff all of my life - I’m 61 - and I am still surprised by it. Often come across little parks, gardens I didn’t know about, a hidden gem of a church. How many cities have a castle, a world class collection of neo classical architecture and a world class sporting venue right in the centre? A tranquil riverside walk that goes right through the centre? Plus a tradition of multiculturalism going back 200 years - oh and easy access to the Brecon Beacons, the Monmouthshire countryside, the Glamorgan heritage coast and the beaches of the Gower?