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?

Part of the attraction of transport in London is that it is relatively cheap. Once you are outside zone 6 (actually once you are outside zone 3 these days) it is pretty expensive to do regularly or on a whim, without pre-booking fares.

I think London transport is the most expensive in the world now! It pisses me off tbh

It's not perplexing, airports that serve London but aren't in London are not really an advantage that London has over places outside of London. Transport such as buses and the Tube of course are very much an advantage

Native Londoner here. I wouldn't move:

Diversity, interesting people from all cultures plus amazing food from everywhere on my doorstep. I'm from a minority background and not had any issues.

I can walk to interesting places, or walk to the tube and be anywhere in central London within 30min. Never drive. Feels like freedom.

Sense of history. Layers and generations of different people, archaeology, mudlarking, Romans and Tower of London and Dickens and... All adjacent to shiny modern architecture.

Most good jobs in my industry are here, plus I can go to all the events and conferences and then be home in 20min. I can go to a school play and back to work. Admittedly I live relatively centrally.

Culture and arts. I do regularly go to exhibitions and take my kids too. I can walk to both Tates in 45min, and I have three small local theatres within a 20 min walk plus Leicester Square theatreland close by tube.

South bank wanders, river and the city at night, general atmosphere.

No wild countryside which is a downside, but we have parks, the heath, Richmond and Kew.

Friends from out of London come and stay!

Yes but most Londoners can choose between 3 or 4 airports without a hugely different level of convenience. That isn't a reason I live in London but I'd probably miss it if I moved away. That's not to say all other places without a choice of 4 airports are not worth living in, it's just a feature of London which this thread purports to be about.

Well I said relatively cheap as I'm talking about the UK. I'm not comparing it to hanging off a third class carriage of a train in Mumbai!

There are parts of the country where bus fares are far more expensive than in London and you can't change buses on a single fare like you can in London.

It does what?

I'm not comparing it to hanging off a third class carriage of a train in Mumbai!

🤔
I was just making the point that it’s expensive now vs other cities eg NY….

I regularly do a 45-min rural bus journey to visit someone, and it's over £6 for a SINGLE.
Buses in London are a flat fare £1.75 a pop, and, as this poster says, you can get off and on again.

I haven’t said that transport outside of London is cheap though?

Well no they aren't really unless you live in central London possibly as my example pointed out, they are going to be no more equidistant than some of those living outside of London. Indeed, Heathrow and Gatwick are the main London airports and they serve people living in those regions of the country more than someone 'in' North east London for example.

I like London as a city but also it’s for jobs. My industry is centred in London.

Diversity existing. Most big UK cities are very diverse.

You must have loads of money and time the if you use all of those. I am from London, work in London as does DH, have close family we visit regularly. The people that we know are in well paying jobs but it doesn't go far, the reality is a house share on the North circular, more akin to Stath Lets Flats and the income to shop at Lidl, Aldi, Tesco, which last time I looked was pretty busy off the North circular so some Londoners do use a supermarket🙄.

Already said above, I love London, would happily live there (although I don’t). Agree the sheer variety and quantities of everything is more there.

But we can all surely agree the tap water sucks. Last time we visited my kids were rationing the Scottish water in our water bottles we brought with us for the journey cos the tap water was so unpleasant, appreciate it’s much better than it used to be.

Not museums like the ones in London, have you actually been?!?!?!

There's with amazing shows in theatres
Art
Amazing markets
Restaurants
Hundreds of different cultures
Easy transport
Busy, buzzing
Opportunities
You step out the front door and are surrounded by everything

It might not be for everyone, but it's far weirder and narrow minded that someone doesn't understand why so many people are drawn to it.

But the thread is about London and why people want to live here.

The water up north is definitely better.

This and more , I can leave my cars unlocked , my drive takes 6 cars easily , I have to drive further to do things but no traffic so take the same time , kids rooms are big and they each have their own , I stopped having asthma since moving from the city , I can easily go to theatre or shows still an hour away . As someone who grew up in Lisbon a really nice city that is much cleaner and safe than London I would not make my children grow in a city , in my views as someone who was born there there is nothing you cannot do rurally compared to a city , well ok we don’t have just eat services

Whenever I do flight searches online it lists Gatwick and Heathrow as London airports. And it’s certainly a benefit of living in London. I am not from London originally and always hated having to trek to / fly into London and then train up home as not every single international location was served directly from my home town!

I live in London because it’s my hometown and was born here, so have all the normal connections to it, my mum’s family were here forever and my Dad’s family since the 1930s ( they moved down from Newcastle for work). My only point is London is always changing and that’s probably what I like about it the most. Although I am hugely nostalgic for certain parts of London which I think were far better 30 years ago. The way it changes is always interesting to me.

You step out the front door and are surrounded by everything

There are plenty of people who step out of their house in London who are only surrounded by houses though and they have to walk 20 plus minutes for a corner shop or train station

These threads are ridiculous as they purposely cause division and people quite wash over the realities which are the huge gaps in wealth inequality in London now. The vibe of the place was much more equal when I grew up there, the diversity is great, the food choices are great but I visit family in an area that was pretty mixed when I was growing up, now there are empty properties scattered around the locality owned by foreign investors in a housing crisis.

It's bizarre, isn't it? If I clicked onto a thread about living in Manchester or the Yorkshire Dales or rural Snowdonia, or anywhere, and it was full of people describing how much they loved living in those places, there is not a single part of me that would be tempted to jump in an explain that actually living in London is so much better than elsewhere. I live in London and think it's great, but clearly it's not for everyone and living here involves trade-offs.

Part of me would love to live near the sea, or somewhere I could walk in spectacular scenery after a day's work, but I can't have that living in suburban London. I can certainly see why people love living in those kinds of places too though.

Some people will choose to live in London because it's where they know or where there is a community of people they feel at home with, etc. They may well not care about the cultural diversity. That doesn't change the fact London has a much wider and denser range of cultural events and facilities, etc. than anywhere else in the country (and is hardly beaten globally). Which was the point of contention in the post I was responding to.

But we can all surely agree the tap water sucks

I like the taste of London tap water, guess I am used to it but when in other parts of the country my hair & skin is so much softer.