To want to leave London

[CactusMactus]

Just that really?
Would I be so unreasonable to want to leave London even though DP's office is central London?
I WFH.
School aged kids... have no idea where we would go!

Agree about Essex being underrated and not much like TOWIE. I lived in Boxted for a while. Definitely a lot more Land Rover Discoveries than white Range Rovers.

We’re in zone 6 (Kingston upon Thames), DH works in central London and his commute is 45 mins door to door (fast train from Surbiton to Waterloo is 15 mins). Great schools, 5 mins walk from the river, close to Richmond Park and Bushy Park.

Downside is of course that the house prices are completely insane (although you could get a 4 bed for your budget of £800k).

I agree with others who admire how beautiful Essex is in parts
Parts I have been too include

Saffron Walden
Manningtree (and Mistley)
West Bergholt

I would move to any of those places tomorrow given the chance
As it is I am in Zone 4 in SE London

I was in London for about 20 years but moved to Surrey when we had the kids. Wanted then to be in an area where they'd see friends in and out of school locally, at scouts, activities etc- which is what is happening.
I wanted to be close enough to London so we could commute in- but did manage to find a local job in the end.
I love love loved London. But we're very happy in Surrey.

Ware, I'd live in Ware with a budget like that. Or Hertford. North Essex is the best bit but that might be too far out for you.

Ok. Im going to look at Ware, Saffron Walden, Manningtree, West Bergholt, Cambridge and St Albans.
And not Brighton or Oxford.

thanks everyone.

Agree London has so much feral scum preying on decent people. Every decade is worse than the one before and I am a Londoner that reluctantly moved but it’s better living outside of London, a different world and I could not move back now having seen the difference.

Go for a less well known area and you can get more for your money.

As for Brighton, agree, total urine smelling dump.

I’ve lived in London half my life, the last 15 of which have been in Croydon. I love London to my bones, and would have defended Croydon til recently. It’s a inverted snobbery on my part - I’m not proud of this!

But now my dc are teens, I’m not so sure of my decisions. Raising teens in London had advantages, but I’m super aware of disadvantages too.

The younger your dc are, the easier it is to move. Moving is hard, settling into a new place will always take a couple of years. But it’s easier to make connections when dc are young. And really tough to move them once they’re approaching secondary.

Why don’t you spend a while looking round possible areas to move to? I’m afraid I haven’t RTFT, so don’t know if you need to be near London still? If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t move to a town in SE, but would be looking at smaller cities.

That sounds perfect. Which Hampshire station is that?

I couldn't live happily in Brighton full stop.

I left East London 2 years ago after almost 30 years and moved to a seaside town in Kent.

I am so much happier and healthier now. Everyone is friendlier and the pace of life much more relaxed.

I am still working for a London-based company but job hunting so I can find a completely remote role or something that only requires travelling back once a month because I hate the days when I have to commute back for work (hybrid role)

I still like visiting London for stuff like seeing friends and galleries and the odd shopping trip but I would hate to live there again.

Honestly I used to absolutely love London and thought it was the best place to live in the world but it has changed too much over the past few years: too expensive, too overcrowded and rampant anti-social behaviour. I feel like it became really soulless and corporate at some point and lost most of its quirkiness and vibrancy that made it such a cool place to live before.

I hear what the pp is saying about how their view of London changed but it's so personal, it's always going to be horses for courses.

I think that (taking aside the very wealthy privately educated massive house contingent) those that stuck it out to stay in London throughout their DC whole childhood are going to have a particular type of outlook compared to those who choose to bring up their DC in, say, a town. Neither is better but they are different.

I'm a born and bred Londoner. Never thought I would leave. I worked and loved my life until I had my dc's.
We moved to a kent village with great train links. Never thought I would say this, but I would never go back.