Anyone else disillusioned with life in London/The South East?

Nixer

There used to be these London vs everywhere else threads every few months on another talkboard I go on and they'd always polarise. London does some stuff well and some stuff badly and people like different things, doesn't mean anyone is right or wrong. It does make me smile when people from either side try to claim that their preferred place does absolutely everything better.

I lived in London 15 years back and enjoyed my time there. I'm back to my rural roots now (still in South East though). I go up to London for the day every other month or so and occasionally for work and for me its draw is Lebanese and Japanese restaurants and art galleries as there's none of those round here - in fact the nearest shop is 6 miles (pub is one minute though). There are drawbacks too, crowds, smells, litter, people walking really bloody slowly (my London friends say it's the tourists but I'm not convinced). I do like to walk around London if I can find a back route that's not crowded as I don't like the tube much.

Here I see hares and 3 different types of owl on a regular basis and it's (fairly) litter free and not crowded. It does smell of !!!! at certain times of year, but never human, and animal !!!! doesn't bother me (except chicken !!!!).

But there are inconveniences too - being miles from a shop means you have to plan a bit better and try not to run out of milk etc. There's also no public transport here so you're very dependent on the car and it can get expensive if you want to go out boozing and need to get a taxi after midnight. We are comfortable with walking upto 15 miles regularly so we just walk back from the town, but obviously most people wouldn't want to do that and I'm sure we won't as we get older. We also get cut off in heavy snow and flooding, which I love but even I got sick of the 5th day of not being able to go anywhere in the last lot of snow (I realise this is nothing compared to what the north and Scotland gets).
I love it here but I can see why some people might not.

Catatonia

There might be a lot in London, jonewr, but I don't know anyone who ever lived near any of it. All my friends or family in London live/d out in suburby places so had a horrendous commute to get anywhere near the centre; not the sort of life I'd want.

I'd say London is very different from the rest of the SE though, which has plenty of places that are affordable and great to live in.

I am surprised by the Hertfordshire person who can't find anywhere 'decent' to live on a £50k salary. Depends on your definition of decent, I suppose.

beccad

RacyRed wrote: »

And at least the pigshit up here is from farm animals - can you say the same for some London streets?

I'm inclined to think (and hopefully not the only one!) that sh*t is unpleasant wherever it comes from?!

I presume everyone has different ideas for what constitutes 'good quality of life'. I refuse to believe that those of you who've moved away from London suddenly have a perfect quality of life, simply by being removed from London? Presumably some aspects of your life went with you (spouse? children? pets?)?

London is tiring, though. I'll concede that!

We have to stay near London for my husband's job - we sold our north London flat, made a healthy profit and are now buying a house in a Surrey village, yet it's still within the M25. Who'd have thought it eh, village living within 30 minutes of London (by train).

olly300

Catatonia wrote: »

There might be a lot in London, jonewr, but I don't know anyone who ever lived near any of it. All my friends or family in London live/d out in suburby places so had a horrendous commute to get anywhere near the centre; not the sort of life I'd want.

There are a lot of things in the suburbs else why would people live in them?

The area covered by the 33 London boroughs has a lot of people in it so suggesting that there is nothing in the boroughs not covering central London such as theatres, museums etc is dishonest.

There are few Londoners who would need to and would go into central London if they needed to go shopping. (Apart from the fact you could buy nearly everything you need in life at a large Tescos, Sainsburys or Asda.)

Catatonia wrote: »

I'd say London is very different from the rest of the SE though, which has plenty of places that are affordable and great to live in.

I am surprised by the Hertfordshire person who can't find anywhere 'decent' to live on a £50k salary. Depends on your definition of decent, I suppose.

I presume the Hertfordshire person is talking about anywhere where they can easily commute into London if they happen to be made redundant and have to look for another job.

t0rt0ise

I moved to Central London a few months ago and love it for all the reasons that some of you moved out! I don't drive so getting anywhere where I was before was a trial. I was fed up with waiting in the freezing cold for buses that never came. Now it's 5 minutes walk to the tube and I can get to anything in the warm and dry. I've joined a choir and been to evening classes, none of which I could do where I was before. Distance was just such a problem, now it's all on my doorstep.

I've had my family.. children grown up and now it's time for me to do what I want to do. As for London being dirty, I just don't see it. My road is cleaned every day, rubbish collected three times a week. Regents Park is beautiful and once there it feels like being in the middle of the countryside. A haven in the city. Each to their own is all.

RacyRed

t0rt0ise wrote: »

I moved to Central London a few months ago and love it for all the reasons that some of you moved out! I don't drive so getting anywhere where I was before was a trial. I was fed up with waiting in the freezing cold for buses that never came. Now it's 5 minutes walk to the tube and I can get to anything in the warm and dry. I've joined a choir and been to evening classes, none of which I could do where I was before. Distance was just such a problem, now it's all on my doorstep.

I've had my family.. children grown up and now it's time for me to do what I want to do. As for London being dirty, I just don't see it. My road is cleaned every day, rubbish collected three times a week. Regents Park is beautiful and once there it feels like being in the middle of the countryside. A haven in the city. Each to their own is all.

Regents Park is very beautiful, as are most of the areas surrounding it, however, take a look at Whitechapel Road, it is cleaned twice a day I think, but... :eek:

Just for the record, I too loved London when I first moved there. But over the past 10 years or so there really was a big drop in my quality of life, which resulted in my moving out.

It is most certainly not the place where I wanted to grow old.

freebo_2

After the GFC, the only place I was going to find work at the level of pay I was accustomed to was London (or the South East at least, this is working in IT at a fairly senior technical level). Being from the North East and having spent a lot of time in the SE I couldn't bring myself to do it, of course all the museums etc are down there but that doesn't make up for what a hole London is and even in the leafy parts of the SE the commuting, crowding and general level of civility is just crap IMHO.

So early this year we moved to Sydney, loads of work here and the sun shines most days, just returned from a dip in the pool. I'd highly recommend it!

One downside is Australia is having its own property bubble right now, and the locals are all telling me "its different here" :rotfl:

Morglin

dx052 wrote: »

I was born and being living in London for quiet a long time (40 odd years to be precise) & with the cost of living & house prices etc I am feeling there must be a better way to have a better quality of life in this country. I can remember when a One Bed Flat in South West London would cost you 65K which is what it was worth IMHO but todays prices are a joke. I just think London and the South East is so over populated & the way the salaries these days your not that much better of in London. (its great if your making 40K but anywhere is if you are) Their used to be a time when you salary felt like one & you had a bit left over but not anymore, if your making basic money especially with rent prices, tube/train travel its tuff. I have seen some lovely places in the UK with much lower populations, better surroundings, cheaper rents etc etc. Lets say you make £20k in London and for the same job 18K in Birmingham when you factor in your costs stresses etc who is better of?

I have to live in or very near London, as I just hate being anywhere else (other than for a holiday).

Being north of the Watfod Gap brings me out in a rash......;)

I tried living in deep, rural Sussex and couldn't wait to get back.:eek::eek:

It is very expensive, with all things, but that's the price you pay, I guess.

Lin

Person_one

jonewer wrote: »

Not much to see really. Best go live oop nurth somewhere. At least theres some pigshit there.

Never seen any pigs or pigshit in Manchester, I have however seen the Whitworth gallery, the City Art Gallery, The Museum of Science and Industry, The Manchester Museum, The People's History Museum, The Imperial War Museum North,The Costume Museum, The Manchester Jewish Museum, The Royal Exchange Theatre, The Palace Theatre, The Opera House, The Bridgewater Hall, The Lowry Arts Centre, Urbis, 4 major universities, a whopping big cathedral, Manchester Town Hall, Manchester Central Library, a brand new metro system, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, Kendals, Europe's tallest residential building, Heaton Park, Wythenshawe park, Piccadilly Gardens, Hulme Park, Alexandra Park, Parsonage Gardens, a national park half an hour's drive away, a vibrant gay village and the country's best gay pride weekend, The curry mile, The Northern Quarter, Castlefield, A student district with up to 30,000 students buzzing around the 4 universities, an international airport and a train station where you can get to pretty much anywhere in the country within about 4 hours, London only takes 2. We also have people around who'll chase after you if you drop your wallet or will help you carry a buggy onto a bus and most people don't mind if it occasionally takes you longer than 30 seconds to make a transaction with a queue behind you.

Oh, and I just bought a flat right in the heart of this delightful city for 75K. If I wanted to fall out of my front door and land on the doorstep of Harvey Nicks or St Paul's Cathedral in London how much would that set me back?

(I lived in London for three years as a student, I loved it so I'm not anti-London, but I couldn't do it now. My quality of life here is sooo much better than I could afford in London.)

Edit: The cathedral bells just started ringing for Sunday morning service as I posted, very lovely!