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Being a long time resident of London in the past I would like to ask a few questions to folks living there now.
How do you percieve your like to be in London in terms of quality?
If you judge that perhaps the quality is a little poor then does living in one of the worlds most cosmopolitan and happening cities make up those short comings?
Do you consider London will remain your home in the future?
If not where else would you consider living? For all it's faults it's a hard place to find an adequate replacement for.
I ask this due to the fact that I have lived away a decade and a half and as far as I could discover,not a single soul that I knew from those times who appeared to still be living there.
Do you think London is more suited for folk in their twenties to thirties? Spending some months there last year it did appear less older folk..i mean over say forty five years of age than when I was young there.
Perhaps it's just how we see things as we age? Perhaps older folk have been priced out?
Being a long time resident of London in the past I would like to ask a few questions to folks living there now.
How do you percieve your like to be in London in terms of quality?
If you judge that perhaps the quality is a little poor then does living in one of the worlds most cosmopolitan and happening cities make up those short comings?
Do you consider London will remain your home in the future?
If not where else would you consider living? For all it's faults it's a hard place to find an adequate replacement for.
I ask this due to the fact that I have lived away a decade and a half and as far as I could discover,not a single soul that I knew from those times who appeared to still be living there.
Do you think London is more suited for folk in their twenties to thirties? Spending some months there last year it did appear less older folk..i mean over say forty five years of age than when I was young there.
Perhaps it's just how we see things as we age? Perhaps older folk have been priced out?
I moved here last year after I finished my degree, largely because it's where the work is and because I'd never lived in a big city. I grew up in a small village in the Yorkshire Dales and most of my friends moved away after leaving school and largely didn't go back, so there wouldn't be that much to go back to, seeming as I've been away seven years now.
It's a great place to live for a few years as a younger person (I'm 25) - plenty going on, plenty to explore, stuff you wouldn't see anywhere else - but I doubt I'll stay here as it's just too big and crowded and expensive. I got lucky when I came here because I happened to rent a flat from an octogenarian landlady who has no idea what the real market rate in Highgate is - I'd struggle to live in a nice area otherwise! There's no way I can see myself ever being able to afford my own house down here, not even if there were two of me.
The demographics still seem odd to me - a transient population where few live here their whole lives, hardly seeing any children or older people, and being on a train, particularly in the East End where there are five or six conversations going on and none of them is in native-speaker English just doesn't feel normal, as if it was a whole foreign country compared to the rest of England (and I'd argue that it was). Though I know there are plenty who love it here for those very same reasons. I personally miss the open spaces and greenery too much as well, and big crowds drive me crazy sometimes.
London's a great place to live if you're young looking for a bit of fun, or rich enough to be able to take advantage of all that's on offer, really into a niche profession where all the work is in London, if you have your friends/family/roots here or if you're strongly into some minority interest group which you can't find elsewhere or a member of some ethnic minority group and it means a lot to you to live amongst your own kind, otherwise the cons start to outweigh the pros IMO.
Almost no one in London is from London these days. The majority are either from abroad or from other parts of the country and come for work/studying purposes.
Yes, London is a very hip, youngster friendly place and can offer plenty of activity for young people. The elderly, at least those who are not original from London may find the city too crowded and chaotic to enjoy their old age so they move to quiet villages/small towns in the countryside or by the sea. That's why you see so many young people.
Almost no one in London is from London these days. The majority are either from abroad or from other parts of the country and come for work/studying purposes.
Yes, London is a very hip, youngster friendly place and can offer plenty of activity for young people. The elderly, at least those who are not original from London may find the city too crowded and chaotic to enjoy their old age so they move to quiet villages/small towns in the countryside or by the sea. That's why you see so many young people.
It has a very flowing population.
I would also imagine that the massive increase in house prices since the new century allowed many asset rich homeowners to sell up and move to the country/seaside with quite a bit of cash left over.
London has had for many years a very transient poulation which was rather an attraction when young having a constant renewal and expansion of folk in my social life.
Then I guess another group of Londoners got priced out. A number also moved to Essex with the loss of council houses decades ago in parts of the East End.
Immgration aside, which has been totally mismanaged & ill-thought out over the decades and which now represents a real threat to the country as a whole, London has long been a mostly transient city because the only reason people come to a big city like London is for jobs.
All the other stuff that people claim is great and exciting about London really counts for nothing when you have no job or other money and the city can end up being a trap and isolating to you in such circumstances and you see the ugly underbelly of a big city when you have no money.
I moved away a few years ago for several reasons but one of them was that I grew fed up with the soulessness and division that is everwhere and that is has become really grubby & dilapidated and also a dangerous place (I wouldn't be out after 9pm anywhere).
In my experience, people from other parts of the UK and other parts of the world come and use London for their own purposes and then go.
Few stay for the long terms (5 year+) and few make families and neighbourhoods in London.
London attracts people for the same reasons the major city in any country attracts people - jobs & money. London is full of culture, history, nightlife, things to do etc but it is also very expensive, crowded and a little full of itself too! However, unlike many countries, you cannot escape high cost living so easily and therefore some people are prepared to put up with the cons because the advantages of moving anywhere within 50 miles don't add up to much!!
I think the most common issues with London are also relevant to much of the rest of the country.
I moved to London in 2008 from Buckinghamshire. I was made redundant and my G/F lived here (she's Italian and has lived in London for 6 years), so I took the plunge and moved in with her. We now live in Fulham (SW6) and I work in Battersea.
Before I moved here I always thought that for me London would be a tourist place, a day out once in a while, but I wouldn't want to live there. Now I wonder why I didn't do it sooner!
Yes, London can be expensive if you're not careful. In fact, I got rid of my car to eliminate the costs of fuel, insurance, parking, road tax, congestion charge etc. The transport system is superb and gets us where we need to go - if I need to go out of London, I hire a car.
I disagree with people that say you need to be rich to live here. My G/F and I earn approximately £45,000 per year between us, our rent is £1000 per month (plus council tax and bills), we're in spitting distance from Chelsea and I can practically step off my street onto the river bank for a relaxing stroll.
It's true, we can't go out drinking every weekend but we probably wouldn't anyway. We can afford to go out once a month either for a meal or for drinks with friends. A cheaper way to see your friends is to invite them round for dinner!
If you look hard enough there's plenty to do for very little money. We recently saw Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre which cost the wallet-friendly total of £5 each (yes, five pounds) - we also went to one evening of the BBC's Proms for £12 each.
You can also get a day pass for the Thames Clippers (river taxis) and go up and down the river all day long hopping on and off wherever you fancy which is a great way to travel.
So many people complain about how expensive London is, but if you look hard enough, you can live perfectly reasonably without ending up completely skint. Other cities and towns like Birmingham, Leeds or Newcastle may be cheaper but the wages are also lower, so it's all relative.
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