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.
This…
When we were paying (high) London rent but not really enjoying London proper - because we had two small children and hardly ever travelled into central London.
… and this.
We haven’t actually left London yet; still clinging on in the outer suburbs near where I grew up. But a move out is on the cards for the next couple of years. It’s been a slow burn for us, rather than a massive change, but the push factors are steadily accumulating!
Post-Brexit and covid and mid-cost of living crisis London no longer feels like the buzzy, edgy, thrilling, optimistic city I grew up in. My friends’ teenagers who’ve also grown up here no longer use the city in the same way we used to, sometimes barely venturing into central London at all. It’s become much harder to get around anyway, as it’s a drive to the nearest Tube and trains from our local overground stations were dramatically reduced during the pandemic and have never returned to normal. Increasingly we feel like we’re stuck in our suburb paying London prices but without being able to experience ‘London proper’.
Quite a lot of the cultural stuff we used to love has gone, especially the child-centred stuff. There seems to be a conscious drive to move things out of London and focus more on the regions which has affected the breadth of what’s on offer. Much of what’s left seems to be either depressingly commercial or ridiculously obscure and esoteric - we cancelled our Barbican membership for eg when we could no longer make head nor tail of the write ups in the ‘What’s On’ catalogue!
Everywhere feels more and more overcrowded and there’s a vague sense of people being frazzled and on edge, as we’re all competing for the same limited resources. We recently spent some time in another, smaller city and there was a marked difference in how relaxed and friendly people seemed, and how everyone related to each other - everyone just seemed happier and less tightly wound.
But, as with so many families, the biggest push factor for us is the schools. Our local ones are all tough zero tolerance academies or super-selective grammars, and we just want a nice local comp with decent results and good pastoral care.
DD is 5 now and our plan is to be on the move by the time she’s heading into KS2. It’s a well-trodden path as many of our London friends have left or are planning to leave too.