What moment did you realise it was time to move out of London?

[Queeva]

Did you have a particular moment where you realised you'd fallen out of love with the city?

No I love London. From the first summer DH and I worked here when we were at Uni we couldn't wait to move back.
Everything on your doorstep and rarely need to get in the car - something to do 24 hours a day if you wanted to do so.

Placemarking 🤐

Working in the emergency services did it for me. I love to still visit London and I still have family there but no way did I want to raise my children there. Happily living in the countryside now.

When my back problems were diagnosed. It's definitely a city for pedestrians. Family & friends were slowly drifting out anyway.

What I really want to know is before I move out, is there an area of London I might have accidentally overlooked which is an absolute hidden gem and still ticks the old boxes? Even if it is pricey or tiny?

This is the other thing. People who came to London as adults seem to do the maths differently from those of us who are native Londoners.

The fourth time I had to clean up a crackhead's turd from my front yard. Very much the final four straws on this camel's back.

Lived in London 30+ years, adored the place and still do, but in my mid 50s I was fed up with the low-level background ASB and general dickery that I used to find sory of edgy and 'Londony'. Got a nice shock when the house got valued, sold up and moved to pleasant town up North. Semi rural, mortgage (and crackhead turd) free.

I'm very, very lucky.

I was there for about 7 years but had a home elsewhere so commuted weekly. I realised I needed to come home because weekends were rarely a break (trying to do everything/see everyone) and it got to the point where I remembered none of the drive (around 160
miles) at the other end.

14 years since coming home I now have a job where I’m in London for at least 4 days a month. I’ve completely fallen back in love with it.

For those who have left, do you think you would have stayed if house prices weren't as high?

because from my friends who have left it's either A) they can't afford the house they want/need in London B) they see the big house in the country or
C) were never really city people to start with, but needed to move there for work

A and B.

Right time for us as a family. Couldn't afford the bigger house/space we wanted. So glad we've left. Isn't truly countryside but on the outskirts and prefer it.

When a very young girl was killed and hidden within metres of our house!

Lovely home, nice area 😬 and good schools .. couldn't wait to get away after that

that could happen anywhere surely?
same as some folk reckon some areas of London are particularly dangerous when in reality you could be killed by a street crazy/pushed under a tube anywhere?

@pendleflyer after 45 years in London all my life actually! That was my definitive moment. Which is what op asked

We moved out when I was 50 after moving to London straight after uni at 23, l’m now just 60 and we moved back to London 18 months ago. Village/country life was not for me, had to give up a lovely house to come back, but so happy to be here and much better situation for our young adult children to be here as well. I no longer have to drive everywhere and have a tube at the end of my road.

That could be true @JeandeServiette though DH and I have now been London dwellers for 32 years.
i must be living in the wrong parts of London as I have never had to clean up crackhead's turds (or indeed anyone else's for that matter) in any of the places we lived and our first area was ....interesting shall we say .... @Ringpeace
It wasn't just that DH and I loved it - both DD's did too and certainly benefited from excellent state schools throughout their education - for secondary there were realistically 20+ where they could choose to apply ( not guarateed a place obviously!) and I think the city also made them quite enterprising as they were travelling on multiple modes of public transport from age 11 and they have both grabbed every opportunity since leaving school. Loads of jobs also whenever they wanted to make some money.
On the subject of hidden gems @Themsthebrakes I am very fond of our area - very friendly and we have a lovely street where everyone is included in activities ( if they want to be - not compulsary) and when we had our street party we had people from aged 3 weeks to 94 years old.
We will stay for all kinds of reasons and both DD's intend to move back once qualified and may fancy having a base too.

Post Covid. I loved London, lived very centrally and enjoyed it enormously. Did an international transfer, Covid hit a year later. Wanted to come back to UK and realised that wfh was here to stay and it was possible to have a London job and salary and commute for 2-3 days a week and see people while still living elsewhere. Moved somewhere close to family and much cheaper. Work 2 days a week in London, mortgage free and in a house I couldn't buy anywhere near london. I miss it sometimes but not enough to change my mind

When I was too frightened to complain about the severe damp in our flat that was giving my son breathing problems as our rent was lower than the market rate and we'd have been fucked had we been evicted.

Sorry about the typos.
I am sorry to read that @UndertheHawthornTree86 that's the less great side of London. I hope you have moved to somewhere with more security and a much better life x

I'm 36 and grew up in London. It was different there as a kid in the 90's, now there are just too many people, the houses are too small and it's way too expensive. What did it for me was having my daughter 5 years ago, we decided we didn't want to bring her up in a city. First, we moved to Essex and lived there for 3 years. Very recently, we moved to the east of England and do not miss it in the slightest.

When it was time to choose a primary school for our twins and I suddenly hated being apart from them all day and every day going to work.

@Itscoldouthere that’s interesting. Did you find it hard to get back onto the London property ladder?

When I was a teenager. Having been born and raised in London, I applied to the furthest away medical schools in Scotland, got a place at Dundee and never went back. Well, apart from briefly for a school 25 year reunion, which certainly didn’t tempt me to move back to London from Perthshire - I’ve been up here for 48 years now.

I left as my husband died suddenly and needed a fresh start and I already had a house where we (me and kids) moved to.
The ten years away served it's purpose and I moved back almost two years ago and really happy I did as I missed it more and more. Property prices meant I had to downsize to almost half the size of our previous home, but worth it.

@Queeva House prices wouldn’t have affected my decision at all.

When someone cut my cats head off and threw her into my garden. That was it for me.