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?

I took one of those for my birthday and absolutely loved it. I have walked around central London for 6+ hours hear because I could and there were plenty of lovely quiet, calm pockets I walked through.

The uk has massive regional disparity. I often notice on here there are a lot of threads about declining living standards even in the parts of the uk where housing is much cheaper.

In reality, several regions in the UK are from an economic standpoint, as poor as countries like Slovenia & Romania. Whereas London is an economic powerhouse that is essentially subsidising a lot of other parts of the UK. Being in london you get to be part of an economy that's actually growing. There are new buildings going up, more money spent in shops & business, the feeling is more optimistic. I visited a family member in a smaller west mids city recently and it was unbelievable how different it felt - shabbier, poorer, no sense of activity or growth. Vape shops everywhere.

Where do live if you don't mind me asking?(Council area will do.) I've been looking for a house near Edinburgh and the places I've been looking are much more expensive. Ta.

Tbf a lot of people from London in real life talk that way about most of the rest of the country

Because it's a great City. Could not bear to move back to the town I grew up in.

Me too. And if I do want to go to London, it's a train ride or quick flight away.

It's definitely not jealousy to assume people would choose to live in London if they could and therefore are envious of people who do. I couldn't cope with the sheer size of the place, the number of people, the having to travel for hours to get out of it and into proper countryside. Where I am now, I can be in national park and into the most glorious countryside in 20-25 minutes, and in the other direction, into a big city centre in the same time.

Agreed.

It’s very reasonable to wonder, I do have the thought myself and I live in London. I grew up in the country and I never thought I would adjust or feel at home in any city, let alone London. There’s no doubt living here has done serious damage to my life through unsuitable and unaffordable housing. For housing cost reasons among others we do plan to leave, but nevertheless I can see many reasons why people stay.

Where we live has an amazing balance of fast access to the centre and immediate surroundings of beauty and green space. For years we’ve lived within walking distance of the river, world class museums and parks. I don’t mean parks like the local parks, even particularly nice ones, in small towns. I am talking exceptional here, and when visiting family more rurally I often find that actually I still have to get in the car to access green space like that. Whereas here we can walk to it.

There is so much public transport and easy taxi access. Also so much within walking distance. Where I grew up there might be one local dance class and you’d have to drive to get to it. Here I have more dance, drama, music, art, sport etc than I could ever use all within walking distance for my child. For preschool age I had so many groups to choose from even within a five minute walk, including community centres with gardens and all kinds of free support. There are also multiple world class museums and galleries which we can not only visit for free, but which receive funding for children’s activities and offer so much regular free stuff.

The playgrounds, parks, museums and galleries, boat trips, theatre, events, classes and groups…they are extraordinary in their quality, variety, accessibility and price. You just don’t get the same elsewhere. All without even needing to drive, which I don’t. If I wanted to plan a free activity for myself every day, I could do something different, exciting and interesting almost indefinitely.

Access to healthcare can be easier, only sometimes of course, as so many centres of expertise are here.

When you have lived here a while you also have friends and support networks you hesitate to leave. People here are actually surprisingly friendly and non cliquey, and in individual areas the atmosphere is quite village like but with a multicultural and welcoming attitude. You can sometimes take comfort from the bustle of city life going on around you.

Overall it’s not necessarily going to keep us here, because there are huge downsides. There are many positives though and we would miss it. Sometimes when I go elsewhere I feel a sense of panic, like I am in the middle of nowhere…but I will adjust, I hope!

Growing up (near Birmingham) I couldn't get over how everything was so London centric and it pissed me off how everyone treated London as the be all and end all - there are other great cities in the UK

Ended up living closer to London and I have appreciated it far more. Lots of theatres, museums and there are some beautiful green spaces and some lovely places to live. I would have liked to have lived there for a couple of years just to experience it all. There is so much history, the buildings, the architecture

Unfortunately I have slowed down and the thought of going on the train at the moment is a bit terrifying - I'm just not so mobile any more

Moved here when the kids went to uni. Best city in the world, endless things to do which are either free or dead cheap, it’s really quiet most places I go.

It’s the greenest city, I live next to Greenwich Park which is 256 acres plus Blackheath adjoining is another couple of hundred acres. SO MUCH GREEN. I’ve never been so fit or walked so far.

When I lived in other areas of the country I drove everywhere, there was nowhere to walk that wasn’t owned by someone - it was shit.

Yep.

I moved to the West Midlands and London friends act like I’ve moved to Australia. I’m a two and a half hour drive away, but it’s “impossibly” far. Nope, I can be there by lunchtime, give me a call on a Saturday morning if you want to meet up.

A couple of them have come to visit me here. It was like they were visiting a new world, “oh, this is so different to where we come from!” GIVE OVER. It really started to annoy me.

So there we have it - everywhere other than London is shit.

Back in my 20s I traveled down to London from the Midlands to stay the night with an old uni friend whose birthday it was. Some of our other friends who lived in London didn't to her party because it was apparently too far

This is true and very annoying. I left London for a while and was in the midlands, I might as well have been in outer space.

Give over. That is not what they said.

But are they free. And we use them very regularly even now. When dc were younger we would go at least once per week.

London for me was a very cheap place to bring up children. There was no getting bored or racking my brains of what to do with dc during the holidays for the cost of my tube fare.

It’s also so much easier to find work

I am also not a Christian so when we did move out of London for a period of time it suddenly brought home to me the difference.
It was the loneliest I have ever felt in my life. Exh had the time of his life and really didn’t want to move back.

Moving back, apart from the fact that I could find work, our fundamental outgoings reduced despite buying a more expensive house.

Our petrol consumption went down dramatically as it was no longer necessary to do a 30 mile round trip to drive to the station or a 16 mile trip to drive to a supermarket or do anything (buses were twice per day and no supermarket deliveries)

Do your children travel for free on buses, trains, tubes and trams

A £250,000 house might get you a 4bed detached in places outside of London but once you realise you can buy a 1 bed flat for that money in London or surrounding areas and make it a family home for 2 parents and 2 dc. And that comes with the ability to earn more and have less bills means you can save for the next ladder up.
Know a few families who do this/have done this.

I love London even in the area I live currently which is quite gritty.

born in London, moved out as an adult when i married. Never wanted to go back apart from visiting my late mum

What an interesting thread.
I've only ever heard people complain about London and the cost of housing. I'm strictly a country person who has been to London maybe half a dozen times and hated every second of it. However I always wondered why so many people actually chose to live there and this thread is an eye opener.

I just don't think the choice to live in London is a choice not to live anywhere else any more than choosing any area to live in is. The fact that the conversation seems to be London/not London sort of tells you why people choose to live there. Because they want to live there! Not because everywhere else is crap (necessarily).

I just don't think you would have a thread where someone asked 'why do people choose to live in Leicester' and half the thread would be about how shit it is written by people who haven't chosen to live there. So that tells you that London is special in some way even if it's special in a way you personally don't like. It's not a matter of principle it's the beauty of human free will.

I am not sure why not being a Christian makes a difference?

It was, pretty much.

I agree OP. I have this thought regularly. I'm from just north of London, and the closest I have ever lived is Zone 3. I was paying high rent, and not really even saving much for commuting time - my short trip from Docklands to Moorgate still took me the best part of an hour door to door.

I decided to buy closer to the area I grew up in, and now have a lovely 4 bed house with a beautiful riverside park on my doorstep which cost £350,000, plenty of things to do in my town, a lovely sense of community, and if I do want to go into London to see a show, have dinner with friends, I can still be there in about 1hr 15.

I absolutely get that if it's where you were born then you would want to stay, or you have to commute in at awkward times, but I will take the expense and inconvenience of having to get on a train every so often for the benefits I have. Even the commuting wasn't bad once you got used to it, in fact I miss it now I work from home as I don't have that hour to myself to read!

When I lived in other areas of the country I drove everywhere, there was nowhere to walk that wasn’t owned by someone - it was shit.

No it wasn’t. Someone saying having lived in other areas and having to drive everywhere and not being able to walk somewhere that wasn’t owned by someone, doesn’t mean or even infer that everywhere but London is shit.

I am always suspicious of these questions as the OP. Surely you’re not that low of imagination that you can’t fathom why other people may enjoy a different lifestyle to you??

Asking this question feels like a veiled attempt to stoke division. We don’t need any more of that just now.

I live in London and love it for all the reasons people have said. I also visit various countryside areas frequently and adore those breaks. I personally would hate the suburbs / town life as everyone I know who lives there seems to get in their car all the time.

you do you.

This thread is a bit silly - and it's not rocket science.

London is one of the major business cities of the world - the home to both national and global headquarters. It is home to some of the biggest and best concert and sporting venues in the world attracting global stars and teams.

It is home to 3 star Michelin dining, to some of the most famous shops in the world, some of the best and biggest museums, to world class shows.

It is also a direct tube to one of best connected airports in the world.

Now that doesn't mean everybody wants to live there (I wouldn't want to live there) but it's not hard to figure out why it is so expensive to live there is it.