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?

What about Ghana? I've got various Ghanaian colleagues and it sounds amazing, especially the delta part.

Hmm I might have a look into that for next year. Wonder if you can travel independently rather than organized tour. Thx

It's more happened in my life because I don't live in London so spend money on travel rather than housing costs you could say

@velvetrope You seem to care enough to gaslight Londoners and argue the toss.

Yes but be real, in that situation flying from anywhere other than Manchester or Stansted then becomes a real pain. If you don't mind adding hours onto your probably already long journey then fair play, enjoy your cheap house prices and live in the sticks! If you travel a lot though, then you'd be very grateful for a 30 min hop on the Heathrow Express to get home, for example.

I have a friend who insists Stroud is the best place in the world to live, and yet the minimum two hour schlep (on a good day) to any airport makes her quieten down when extolling its virtues.

The point being, some people won't mind the extra travel but great transport links is definitely one reason why London trumps other places - fact!

I don't live I london btw!!

Agree OP.

My standard of living is far superior to my London colleagues.

My 4 bed, 4 public rooms house with a huge garden in a nice town with excellent schools wouldn’t get me a bedsit in most areas of London.

I like to visit London but wouldn’t want to live there.

If you're not white, then living in London is a blessing because you don't have to be the outsider all the time.

Surely the supermarkets outside london are much bigger and more exciting!

Lol I was the outsider at school in London as I WAS white

Gatwick has quite a few flights it's not in London.

You can fly to Ghana from Gatwick easily.

Yeah it's only LCY that's actually in London. E16 postcode.

Heathrow is close enough to be counted

Sorry to hear you felt like an outsider, my comment was about 'if you're not white'.

Diversity should exist for everyone, I think we are all the better for it.

London Gatwick you mean.

It's not in London though is it. It's near Crawley, Sussex.

Heathrow is technically in London it’s in the borough of Hillingdon; whereas Gatwick is in Surrey. The Gatwick Express means it takes about the same time to get to either on public transport.

It's in Hillingdon. Which is a London borough.

The postcode snobbery/pre-1975 silliness are really quite daft.

Doesn't that depend where you start from though? If you lived in walking for example then Heathrow would be quicker. If somewhere south then prob Gatwick

I know, it’s a London airport though, Stansted is in Essex.

No, neither is Heathrow technically speaking, but they SERVE London, along with City, Luton and Stansted. So that makes FOUR airports serving London alone. No other UK city can say that, hence excellent transport links.

Do we need to start listing all the train services, bus routes, river taxis and so on, to prove the point?!

Only tourists refer to it as London Gatwick. I am a born and bred West Londoner, it would never occur to me to think of Crawley as London.

I meant from the centre. Obviously if you live in Heathrow, Heathrow is nearer.

And people living in Stansted Mountfitchet wouldn't consider they were in London at all

London transport is obviously great compared to the rest of the country but I find it frustrating that if you want to get to certain parts of SE from SW you often have to go in and then our again.

I’m a Londoner too, I didn’t say Gatwick was in London simply that it’s a London airport.