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?

Well I'm not sure what the pluses of canning Town were TBH

No tube station when I lived there. Opened after I moved out

I live in completely different part of London now, but I still feel a residual fondness for NW6.

Yes, I’m currently using some memories for a fictional character and remembering how absolutely wonderful (and freezing) it was, and how tough we were about not really having a roof, and living on fresh air and small change. It was such an exciting time!

I keep meaning to take my kids on a field trip to Where It All Began.

It's pretty different now, I think

I think it's still got huge issues with deprivation and associated issues, but is probably physically so different from the 90s. But agreed probably still one of the toughest places in London to live, despite an extraordinary amount of regeneration.

The word 'original' is an adjective not a noun in this context.

Do I think a demographic who was born and grew up in London, creating the character of the area they live in, the history and vibrancy, do I think they should be erased and displaced- no I don't!

Having an argument in semantics over the title of 'Londoner', is really just a deflection from the very real problem of Londoners being erased from areas they grew up in.

Do I think a demographic who was born and grew up in London, creating the character of the area they live in, the history and vibrancy,
There are more than one demographics who have been born and grew up in London, and have created 'the character of the area they live in, the history and vibrancy'.
How far back do you draw the line and say, 'THESE are the ones whose character, history and vibrancy are valuable and whom I am sorry to lose'?

If my grandparents, at least one great-grandparent & my mother were born in London, but I was born up north & have lived in London for the past 30 years, do I get to be a Londoner by ancestry?

Well it was from 88 till 96 I lived there

So my experience of living in London is not like the people who say about leafy areas and fancy food shops, galleries etc

This is just disingenuous and deflection. It is social cleansing by any other name. Of course Londoners whose communities have been here for generations shouldn't just be dismissed with shrugged shoulders and deflective comments such as, "who even is a Londoner, what about the Romans?" 🙄

I have a grandparent from a Scandinavian country, does that make me Swedish, Danish - no! But obviously you have lived in London a very long time and you know that you are exercising the deflective arguments I just posted about!

‘social cleansing’, how melodramatic. Societies and communities change. They always have.

Moved here when I was 21...never leaving. I love it. Lucky to buy a house in the 80s and now I'm 64 I get free travel.
Everything is here. Never having to drive is an absolute boon.

I admit to only having been dipping in & out of the thread, but I think it’s very unfair that people shouldn’t be able to afford to stay in the areas they grew up in if they choose.

I would bring in a law that people could only buy properties if they, or someone else, was going to live in them full time. Time enough to think about second homes / AirBnBs / buying flats for investment when there are enough homes for everyone. The number of places sitting empty is criminal.

I agree with this, Especially in London. I'd seize all the investment properties standing empty and literally rotting away, all around Hyde Park and other Centrsl london areas (I know about the Hyde Park ones as a family member worked in property maintenance and said there are knee-high mushrooms in some of these flats as they are unaired and empty for years.) I'd make the oowners accept a nominal rent from key workers - medics, teachers etc - for a minimum of 10 years before they can sell them. Any home standing empty for more than a year would automatically default to this rental scheme.

I don’t entirely disagree re. the second homes thing, but aren’t you kind of assuming that there are people desperate to buy a home, and crucially, with the means to do so - who just can’t find any available?
It really isn’t that simple.

That’s true across the country it’s not particular to London - house price inflation relative to income affects everyone and many people are finding they can’t live where they grew up.

I’m talking about the whole country, not just London.

@Thechaseison71 I mean Canning Town is a bit of an armpit, but there is a lot of London that isn't Canning Town and I assume no one forced you to live here.

I regret moving out of London 17 years ago, we couldn't afford to move back now with a family, but we plan to retire to London.
I used to wake up at the weekend and walk from my door along the river, I could stop at Tate Modern, The Hayward Gallery, cross the river to Somerset House, enjoy a real mix of restaurants, films and theatre. So much is free, there are world class exhibitions, never a dull weekend, and all in walking distance.
Plus the multiculturalism, the political scene, and so many more job opportunities.

Greatest city in the world. And I've lived in a number of other fabulous cities.

This is such a good example of the weird premise of OP's question - given there isn't a universal London or universal London experience, and everyone's responses and reasons will be not only intensely personal (do you like public transport/lots to do/busy places) but also intensely local. Hampstead to Canning Town is nearly as much of a contrast as, say, Ludlow to Canary Wharf.

We're zone 6 but we've often talked about when the kids leave home/we retire (if the former ever happens) and we're planning to move closer into the centre if anything. So much at your doorstep - both from a services and entertainment/activities point of view - and general encouragement to stay active.

My PIL are appalled by this and can't imagine why we wouldn't be dreaming of escaping London to a nice seaside town with awful transport links and half-hearted local services. They never visit us because apparently London is too awful.

Either way, a law to live FT in a purchased property is impracticable in a globalised world and won’t make a massive difference in any case.

Such a strange post. World would be really boring if we all were the same and all liked the same things.

Personally, if it weren’t London - I’d live in NYC, or HK, or Paris, or Milan, etc.
I am firmly urban and like to be based at cultural center.

I don’t find city life chaotic. I would get depressed and lonely if i had to live in a small town, and I’ll go mental in a countryside.