To wonder why people choose to live in London?

[Cantbloodyrememberthenameonthread]

I always wonder. And reading a recent thread prompted me to ask the question. Why do people do it by choice? People complain about the house prices (rightly), ulez, nursery fees, cost of everything being more expensive, commutes, tubes etc.

if you’re not absolutely tied to London for work or health or I guess family. Why do you choose to live there when there are so many cheaper easier lifestyle options in the country?

No but you seem to.think we are living in some tiny cotswald village or similar.....

Where do you live now, if you consider London “full of idiots”?
What an idiotic comment, ironically. Clearly we now have one less!

Also, I think it's a great place to bring up kids. Mine are teens now and they've have such an amazing opportunities and get to do things I could've only dreamt of doing when I was their age. Schools have been great too.

My family are all in SW England - both lovely places and I love them. Funnily enough I never think to question why they live where they live, this only seems to come up with London :)

There is no comparable city in the UK, though. I love Liverpool and Manchester, but they’re tiny compared to London. Birmingham is probably the only truly comparable city, and even then, it’s not on a par with London on any level.

Look, we are a tiny little country. London is the capital city. The best opportunities are here. It’s not really hard to understand why people want to live here rather than, say, Stoke on bloody Trent (no offence, Stoke on Trent people).

Because village life centred around the church or the pub.(I don’t drink). And when I mentioned I wasn’t a Christian I could see the looks. I was regarded with suspicion.
I don’t think anyone spoke to me for years.

Walk everywhere local- everyone in my area seem to be fit and relatively healthy as a result. Shops on doorstep. I know most of my neighbours so can stop for a chat when I pass them. Lots of green space. Easy transport links. Kids learnt to be independent from a young age as not reliant on parent giving lifts. Can walk or get train to school. Endless sporting opportunities on doorstep. Kids walked a mile and back to primary school when small-through a park. It was wonderful. What is thee not to like?

editing to add- when I was a child I was desperate to be able to drive to have a social life and see my friends. Most teens round my way aren’t bothered or just doing it because they have to as actually nowhere to drive to. All their mates are easily accessible by public transport or local. My friends were all were 20/30 mins drive away when I was young.

@OneTimeThingToday Yes indeed it is not unique to London. But what pretty much is (if you believe most people on here) is not having to run a car. Also the density of the population means these things can be run cheaper. Apart from housing London is actually often cheaper to live in that most other areas of the UK.

In some areas yes. Look at Lister, royal docks or eastlea in newham and tell me if you'd want your kids to go there

Many of my peers didn't and moved away

You’re not seriously comparing the museums sprinkled up and down the country with London museums?

I don't think the PP was doing that - just responding directly to the poster asking how people find the time by pointing out that one of the advantages of living somewhere with high population density is that more services are within easy reach - cutting down on time.

I'd also add that a definite upside of only having a smaller house than we could afford elsewhere is much less housework!

People don't want to bring up their kids in some areas that have knife crime, 8 year olds drug running and awful schools

Look, somebody has to live in Birmingham 🤣

Indeed - no other population has to put up with wide eyed comments about their home along the lines of "I don't know how you bear to live in such a dreadful place".

I don’t live in London but I’d imagine the sheer wealth of opportunities for work, phenomenal arts and culture scene, public transport, decent weather (for the UK), cultural events, food scene blah blah. And I don’t find people generally that unfriendly, despite the reputation. There are drawbacks of course, pollution and Crime for instance. But then there were 2 stabbing in my smallish city recently and we don’t have the Tate Modern..

I lived in London for the best part of twenty years, moved away a couple of years ago because of a new job. I loved it. The cultural life - amazing museums, galleries, theatre, concerts - lots free or easier to get cheap tickets, especially when you are young. Transport is cheap as you don't need a car and tube and bus fares are cheaper than the bus and train where I live now, plus they run really regularly. There are beautiful green spaces. Lots of really good and often free public events. Being able to go to brick-and-mortar shops more easily. Great places to eat with huge choice and range of budgets. I always felt quite safe in the places I lived and visited - I never had anything stolen or anything like that in all the time I lived there.

I love going back to visit.

I know where it is thanks. But it can hardly be called a nice area.

Theatre has been in Stratford for years .

And do you think many of the people in Plaistow can afford all these bars and theatre etc. My ex came from their. Ok they may have souped up Stratford a bit but the tower blocks in boundary Rd area aren't the best

I always feel a bit bad reading these threads that I live in London but rarely do cultural stuff in the centre - used to go to the museums when my kids were younger but they are always just so rammed in school holidays it becomes not fun. I love living in just local London just for itself - love that my teens can get out and be independent on public transport, love the green spaces near us, enjoy that my commute to work is under an hour and under £10 per day, love having friends from all over. I’m sure I would like other places but this is where I live!

I can't comment on Birmingham as never actually been there.

These kind of threads are weird….. someone asks why people like living in a city. People living in that city respond with valid personal reasons… everyone piles on…

It must be a pretty enormous village to have 5 schools, multiple shops, churches, museums, leisure centres, yoga studios and a zoo! That is absolutely not typical for village.

Because it doesn’t close at half past five and look like a ghost town.

Because I don’t have to drive 10 miles to get to a cinema or 20 miles to get to a theatre.

Because in fifteen minutes I can be in the centre of the worlds best capital city.

In ten minutes I can walk in open countryside and listen to sky larks and owls.

To be fair the city centre is actually quite nice, but there are some very rough suburbs.

@Tigerbalmshark Ha ha - I grew up in a village and if you walked for 10 mins you got to ...... the other side of the village.

The word “a” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in your post! 😀 @OneTimeThingToday

Ha ha me too! I’d barely make it to the end of the road. 10 mins drive was the bare minimum to get anywhere other than the post office and a corner shop.

Same. We did have a couple of shops and a primary school, but definitely not multiple world-class museums and zoos!

I expect the opera house and international airport are a short bus ride away.