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?

So the London kids arent trying somewhere else?. Bit insular isn't it lol

Y'know, I'm not the poster. I'm just elucidating the point since you all seem to want to tie yourselves in knots over something she didn't actually say.

And I can add, from personal experience, my DH grew up somewhere very rural and literally couldn't wait to get away, which I'm only bothering to add since you seem to feel the need to be weirdly aggressive to me.

Not living in London hasn’t stopped us from visiting interesting places all over the world. We are 2 hours from Heathrow, and actually, if we were prepared to go via Schipol we could go anywhere in the world from our local airport. I think some Londoners need to get over themselves tbh.

Not really relating to living in London but I am interested in what makes people tick, I moved countries a few years ago and have many ex pats around me and from what I have seen I think it depends on your personality, I have found the ones living here that are able to fill their lives resourcefully e.g, gardening, reading, walking, not really relying on outward experiences as such are much happier and content in general than those that are literally bored out of their minds and constantly look for entertainment, have to be around other people all the time and end up just gossiping endlessly due to boredom. Not saying one is better than the other but I think Living in busy cities like London appeal to the latter personalities because they need more stimulation.
I enjoy all the city things occasionally but have to admit I would find it overwhelming to live in it. I am a mix of extrovert and introvert!

She also said living in london had fostered a cutural curiosity and implied that it gave her the impetus to seek out intersting destinstons ,whilst her rural living relatives were happy with their lot .

Oh, most of them have dropped me now anyway. They can’t be arsed to come and visit me and are very snobby about where I live, and they say I am too far away to visit them - it’s a two and a half hour drive, faster on the train - dh was still working in London one day a week for the first year we lived here, it’s not the end of the world, I’d gladly visit them. I’m in central London for things now far more often than when I lived there as I can afford to do stuff now.

It always made me laugh when they would ask if it was “safe” here for them to visit 🤣 it’s Dudley, not the Wild West. We used to have stabbings in Ealing and my dds secondary school there had big metal detectors to walk though each morning. I feel safer here.

That's just her relatives though

Hardly aggressive. In one post people are saying that it's Londoners who are able to travel interesting places and in another post saying kids stayed in London near mummy.

So in reality doesn't seem any different to anywhere else. Some travel some don't, some move away from parents some don't. London isn't special

You can drive or get public transport to airports.

I think that’s true. I’ve encountered cultures in London that inspired me to want to travel there that I probably wouldn’t have thought of without that contact.

Got any ideas for me as thinking of somewhere new to visit?

I think that poster’s point was that if you live somewhere quiet the kids can’t wait to leave and end up spread out, whereas she felt lucky in that London has so much going on that her kids stayed there, so she ended up closer to them geopgraphically as adults.

So you assume going off your own very anecdotal experience that only people from London can be inspired to travel?
Because of course nobody in the whole of the uk that isnt London, could possibly of met anyone from diffrent cultures ,and nobody could possibly want to travel anywhere ?
Thsts very narrow minded of you .

Sure, I want to go Korea, Peru, the Altai region in Siberia and Hawaii.

Is that what I said?

I’ve been to three of those places on your list after growing up in rural Cornwall and then living in a very rural part of Norfolk. I managed to have the imagination to go before I’d moved to London, who’d have thought!

It’s not one size fits all. And London isn’t the only multicultural place you can live. Where I live in the midlands is just as multicultural as where I lived in London.

And even in the places I lived that weren’t, people still travelled to all sorts of places, of course they did. It’s a very closed minded view that you have. You don’t have to encounter cultures to want to travel.

It would be great if people could actually read posts on this thread rather than arguing with invented positions.

Nowhere has anyone said that non-Londoners don’t travel far and wide.

A poster merely made the point that living in a multiculture had sparked curiosity in her to travel to certain places. When I thought about it that’s true for me too. You may also live in a multiculture but that’s specific to cities in the U.K., rural areas not so much.

I'm not saying that or anything like it. But you’re hardly using examples of isolated places in your post. Manchester has the busiest airport outside of London!

It surely doesn’t take much to see that if you’re closer to major transport links, you might do a bit more travelling.

Lol see I was taken to London by my dad at 12 years old. From time I was 16 I was planning to get out of there. Moved out at 22

But people were saying outside London. It's not all isolated you know lol

Thank you, I understand how transport works. Do you understand that it might be a little bit e if you have a wider range of options?

Yes, you could drive to an airport from rural Wales or coastal Norfolk. That isn’t as easy as having a choice of several within an hour’s journey.

I'm off to korea ( south not north ) later this year along with Taiwan. Sibera be a bit cold for me I thibk

I KNOW it isn’t. And if you know that, you also know that “outside London” isn’t one contiguous place.

Of course I’m aware there are non-London airports. I’ve flown from several of them. But there are also large chunks of the UK that are poorly served for transport. There’s no point in pretending otherwise.

Siberia is fine in the summer.

If you wanr to travel i dont think living in rural norfolk will stop you
Its not like the UK is a remote island thousands of miles from anywhere