Pros and cons of living in London

movilogo

Rather than only discussing house price in London, let’s have a chat of pros and cons of living in London.



Since I don’t live in London, I found all the cons. Those who live in London can list some more pros to balance it out.


Pros of living outside London

1. You are more likely to afford a house. You can still offer below asking price!
2. You can usually drive to your work and park there for free.
3. You don’t have to smell someone else’s armpit in underground.
4. You are likely to have a garden in your house.
5. You are less likely to run over by a cyclist while walking.
6. Nature means country side – not just Hyde Park.
7. You don’t have to glue to your smart phone 12 hours a day!
8. You don’t have to use horn in your car every now and then.

Pros of Living in London

1. For some professionals, finding jobs within London is easier.
2. Having a car is not a necessity.

mayonnaise

Better weather.

Generali

1. You can get a job like you can pluck an apple in an orchard in autumn
2. Culture:
2.1: 2 major opera houses
2.2: 1 major ballet company
2.3: 3(?) major symphony orchestras
2.4: 2-300 different films being shown in London each week
2.5: 8 Art Galleries that would compete to be amongst the best in almost any city in the world (2xNational, 2xTate, Hayward, Somerset Hse, Saatchi, Royal Academy)
2.6: About 50 major theatres in the West End alone
2.7: Any major popular music act will include London in a tour.
2.8: Countless comedy clubs, jazz clubs and so much more
3. People don't annoy you by speaking to you
4. The Tube
5. You can be in Paris in under 3 hours from your house if you live centrally
6. Boring provincial types are only there during the day, during the week
7. You can eat almost any sort of food at almost any time of day.
8. London doesn't close at 9pm.
9. You can buy anything you want if you have the money and the contacts.
10. You live in one of the world's 3 great developed cities (NY and Tokyo being the others IMHO)

Tiglath

movilogo wrote: »

Pros of living outside London

1. You are more likely to afford a house. You can still offer below asking price!
2. You can usually drive to your work and park there for free.
3. You don’t have to smell someone else’s armpit in underground.
4. You are likely to have a garden in your house.
5. You are less likely to run over by a cyclist while walking.
6. Nature means country side – not just Hyde Park.
7. You don’t have to glue to your smart phone 12 hours a day!
8. You don’t have to use horn in your car every now and then.

I live in London (Zone 3 right near a forest) and the only ones above which don't apply to me are 2 and 8 because I don't drive - I have a 15-minute train journey and go door-to-door in 30 minutes. In addition, London has all the benefits that Generali mentioned. At this stage in my life, London offers me everything I need Not saying I'll live here forever - I may choose to move further out when I'm older, but I suspect I'll always live within a reasonable train journey of London.

mayonnaise

Better shopping experience

Generali

Tiglath wrote: »

I live in London (Zone 3 right near a forest) and the only ones above which don't apply to me are 2 and 8 because I don't drive - I have a 15-minute train journey and go door-to-door in 30 minutes. In addition, London has all the benefits that Generali mentioned. At this stage in my life, London offers me everything I need Not saying I'll live here forever - I may choose to move further out when I'm older, but I suspect I'll always live within a reasonable train journey of London.

I don't think London, or indeed the UK, is a great place to raise kids but I can't think of anywhere better to retire. Tons of stuff to do and medical services on tap.

kwmlondon

Pros
People look after themselves, go to the gym, smell nice
Broad range of people - you get to meet people from all around the world
Opportunities, so many opportunities
Culture-
Architecture
Easy to cycle to anywhere
Easy to make friends
The River - cycling over that twice a day still makes me smile, even after all these years
The Tube (for all its faults, it works, mostly, ish)
Being able to sit at the front of the DLR and be the driver!
So easy to get to anywhere in the UK/world from here
Family & Friends passing through all the time (relatives from Wales and Brazil seem to pop by regularly)

Negatives
Insane housing market
You have to know the tricks to live cheap and well
Some truly awful people make it their home
Some parts (the most expensive bits) are traded as commodities and are devoid pf humans
Boris
The price of drinks
Sharing the road with buses and taxis - terrifying
The fact that people in the rest of the UK hate us for living here

Out,_Vile_Jelly

People also forget how much green space London has; the central parks like Hyde, Regents & St James and then further out Hampstead Heath, Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park.

The main collections of the big world-class museums are FREE (National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, British Museum, V&A, Natural History, Science, Maritime, Royal Observatory)- I have never visited another capital with so much high end free stuff.

If you like sport you have Wembley, Twickenham, Wimbledon (tennis and dogs), and several racecourses that are an easy train ride (Kempton, Epsom, Lingfield, Sandown & Ascot). Two ice rinks plus lots of cheap lower league footie.

For me the crux is that of course everything's cheaper outside London, but if you lose your job you are far more limited.

Forgot to add: night buses. OK they may be full of mournful drunks singing badly, but still better than where I grew up in the sticks where a night out involved a hugely expensive taxi round all the villages.

Also: people wear all sorts of odd fashions and nobody flickers an eyelid. In the provinces you'd be looked at with suspicion an disdain for having a pink fringe and stripey DMs.

Generali

kwmlondon wrote: »

Boris

Better than Ken by a long way.

The price of drinks[/QUOTE]

Cheaper than the Home Counties although more expensive than in some northern hell hole but who wants to go drinking in Leeds or something. {{shudder}}

kwmlondon wrote: »

The fact that people in the rest of the UK hate us for living here

I used to love being hated by the sort of people that hated London and Londoners. I remember a debate on the radio when London got the Olympics and some idiot was whinging that London gets everything. Lord Coe answered, "Do you really think that there will ever be a Poole Olympics?".

London is a truly great city and I miss it terribly, in some ways more than my family.

Now I live a Sydney, a good city but not a great one, not like London. Aussies all hate Sydneysiders too.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

Generali wrote: »

I used to love being hated by the sort of people that hated London and Londoners. I remember a debate on the radio when London got the Olympics and some idiot was whinging that London gets everything. Lord Coe answered, "Do you really think that there will ever be a Poole Olympics?".

That's brilliant- I was born in Poole. It's only "famous" for having the second largest natural harbour in the world (local schoolchildren are taught this, but nobody else knows/cares) behind Sydney. I believe they re-measure it each year in the hope that erosion will give us the crown.

the_flying_pig

genuinely the only bad things about London are housing costs [not just 'it's very expensive' but 'it's very very expensive to live someplace that's not a bit scummy'] & the fact that almost all state schools are packed with the offspring of the underclasses.

in every other respect it's really vastly superior to the rest of the UK.

this said, i do once remember getting some advice to the effect of 'different people like different things you know' but i pretty much dismissed it out of hand.