Moving out of London

Same boat here. Not a month goes by where the idea of just getting the hell out despite living here most of my life doesn't pop up.
Been thinking about it some, and frankly, despite all that London has to offer, I either don't have the time, or money to do it all. It's funny, but you sort of have to have a planner to live here now. Impromptu meet ups or escapes with mates just no longer really happen organically and you have to break your time systematically.
Maybe it just comes down to writing down pro's and con's and seeing how it works for you.

I just want somewhere with a garage.

I moved here nearly 9 years ago. Fuck.
When we were looking to buy, we went all in on the house we have. Zone 3. SE. Ex la. On an estate.

Now we're here, both of us are getting itchy feet. Me because of public health (TB FFS). Her because of work and pace.

I don't want to move back to Manchester, I love it and have some amazing friends there. But I've been there. I can't move to Derbyshire because of family.

North would be better than south, I think.
It's about finding work though isn't it?

Sheffield.
Less than 30 minutes by bike to the Peak District.
Less than 90 minutes (by car) to York, Leeds, Bradford, Harrogate, Manchester, Derby, Nottingham and even the edge of the Yorkshire Dales.

You probably live in London and visit the rest of the UK occasionally - this can also be made to work the other way round...

I lived in London from 1999 to 2012, started off in Kings X and ended up in Ealing having acquired a wife & 2 kids along the way.

We were lucky enough to have a 3 bed semi in Ealing and I used to cycle into the City every day for work. I'd never considered moving until one day my wife said "do you realise what sort of house we could get for the same money if we moved out of London??"

The scales fell from my eyes, we researched a few places and fairly quickly moved to a house in a small village outside High Wycombe. I will admit I was apprehensive (no mates, commute will be a pain, nothing to do) but it has been the best thing we ever did.

I do still commute in, it is not cheap but I cycle at both ends (i.e. home to station, station to office). It takes longer than the Ealing to City cycle but not excessively though. Once you're used to it it's fine, and I am luck enough to be able to work from home occasionally.

the payoff though for this minor inconvenience is massive. In no particular order:

Massive back garden, garage etc
I can see the Chiltern hills out of my kitchen window
My 6yr old plays in the park unsupervised & I don't worry for a moment
Kid's school has class sizes of about 15. Massively beneficial to their education
Our village has a local pub that is 10 times better than any pub in London. great food, live music every Sat night
Great cycling on doorstep
Very easy to make friends
No traffic jams

I could go on.

I realise my positives are very kid-centric, but the whole thing has paid off for us massively.

Thanks for all the super interesting responses. I did live in Nottingham for 3 years at uni and would happily move back. I think that sort of sized city works well - plenty going on but easy to reach the countryside and none of your mates or your commute are gonna be more than 30 mins away.

Seems like house/rental prices in London and the resulting social change are making a lot of others feel similarly to me.

I don't want to come across like a massive snob and have no real idea what all the other UK cities were like 10 years ago, but I get the impression that the cultural advantages that London used to have are no longer so big. Maybe there's something in the idea that people leaving London have brought with them a taste for Korean food and craft beer and hipster bike shops and third wave coffee and nice little delis and sourdough bread etc etc etc - or maybe that's just the modern world and it's existed in other cities just as long as it has in London.

Think I'm gonna make the move as soon as I get the right job. In my field London dominates hugely in terms of quantity but there is at least a couple of appropriate jobs advertised at any one time in most cities.

I just can't shake the feeling that overall in the quality of life stakes, the arse end of zone 3 is far below eg. the New Town of Edinburgh or the posh bits of Bristol or the Lace Market in Nottingham - but it's still at least double the price.

Of course the more skilled/educated/rich/talented/interesting/wankers that do move out of London the better our economy can diversify and the more our whole country can thrive, rather than London hoovering up everything.

Psyched and a bit reassured to see so many people feel the same!

The way I'm starting to see it is, London ain't going anywhere, worst comes to worst, you just come back. Just gotta buck up and like you said, find fulfilling work out there.

Yeah exactly. Some people have told me your career would suffer but I really think it depends on far more than that. In any event there's more to life than maximising your career advancement.

Would never dream of commuting to London from elsewhere tho - the whole point of moving would be to take back some quality of life and for me a long commute would undo that.

Could maybe - maybe- see the advantages of some home counties Tory shire if you've got kids but that's plenty far enough away for me, don't think I'd want to go smaller than one of the Core Cities.

Fairly sure twift can be belmed anywhere!

Isn't Australia a cultural desert, Essex with sunshine?

Never been so probs way off the mark

Nope, plenty to do and see in Brissy... Lots of art, music, great food, etc... It's pretty buzzing...

I live ~30km north of Brisbane and there's not that much to do here bar hanging around at my local record shop and going for walks along the beach... I've been playing a lot more guitar since I got here, which is great... I'm only an hour away from the city on public transport tho'...

@>>>>>>

Has Brisbane got decent public transport?

@lemonade:

I moved to Australia too, Adelaide though, which is a a lot more chilled than London but also a bit of a backwater for a 1 million city.

Career was a bit tough for starters, but I am a coder and they are rare down here, so while opportunities are rarer, the chances of getting employed in such a small market aren't that bad once you made a couple of connections.

Rents and housing is not cheap in Oz though, in fact the overall cost of living isn't very cheap, but then again in Adelaide it's not quite as crazy as in London/Sydney/Melbourne either.

Of course the main driver was my wife wanting a family and being close to her folks, but now that I am a parent I am very happy I made this move, because I cannot imagine bringing up a child in London at all.

Can't say I miss London much, apart from my friends or when I want some Turkish food, which for some reason doesn't exist down here (it's all Greek, Lebanese or Afghan if you want a char grilled stuff). On the plus side there's a great choice of Vietnamese, Malay, Korean and all sorts of other Asian foods here that I couldn't find in London that easily, plus beautiful wine regions and beaches close by.

In saying all of the above, keep in mind that I came to London from Germany, so was already used to the whole "start from scratch" thing.

It's OK, some places are harder to get to than others... I went to a show a couple of weekends ago and the venue was in a very awkward spot, was gonna grab an Uber but a mate gave me a lift instead... Stayed after the last train then had to got a night bus and an Uber home... Bit of a pain but it all added to the awesomeness of the evening... Last bus back to mine on a Sunday from the train station leaves at 7pm... 😬

My new job in Brisbane is gonna mean two and a half hours of commuting a day... Not looking forward to that very much...

One of the things I love about where I live: Too ill to go to work today, had to pop out to the shop so left it til the end of the day... The supermarket is about 500m away, rode up the quick way then came back the long way along the seafront, the sun's getting lower in the sky, cool breeze, got home and I could taste the salt on my lips... #noeuph

Bloody lovely... Even tho' I'm now coughing my guts up...

Ouch.

@lemonade:
Change of commuting times is something to consider when leaving London.
If you're out in the sticks that might even increase and mean car.

If you're in a smaller city, it might decrease drastically.
I have a 10 mins bike ride right now. Not even getting any miles in , my gut is growing and my legs are skinny and weak. Parenthood doesn't exactly help that :(

We've been contemplating an escape from SE23 for a while now, having been in this area for 20 years. It's the people we'd miss, but we are largely fed up with London except as a place to dip into for music, art etc. Now I've accepted a job offer in UB8 we are thinking about Chilterns, fresh air, bluebells, bike rides, red kites, views of something other than the stoneclad house opposite and parked cars. Commute will be very different and I suspect I will get fat and lazy.

You will get bored of the red kites after about 10 minutes ;)

I've seen owls a few times which is much more exciting

I am peaking in only 9 years! AND I am from the third world!!

Can I chuck in a vote for Gloucester? Just moved to GL1 last summer. Massive four bedroomed Edwardian townhouse in a 20mph residential enclave in the centre of the city (seriously, all I can hear is birdsong) with a 100ft garden. £219K.

Some of the best schools in the country within walking distance, nice parks, canals, docks. Booming foodie culture, restaurants, bars and breweries opening all the time. Tall ships being built and restored ten minutes walk away etc etc etc.

It is the city of Fred and Rose West admittedly (well, they moved here and did a good bit of their murdering around the corner from my son's daycare) but apart from that (and a really shouty loon who is always to be found in the gate streets) I really, and I mean really, am loving it so far.

Plus it's deep in the heart of perry country

I'd move to Sydney in a heartbeat if it wasn't on the arse end of the earth, although I guess that's relative

Just realised that the first house I remember was 10 Cranleigh Gardens in Muswell Hill - a few doors away from where Nielsen was doing his murdering at the time.... There may be a pattern here.

Sheffield is banging. I kid you not

@Crispin_Glover Sydney is a really shit place to ride a bike though

Don't know when you were last there but Sydney seems to be full of wankers now, it reminded me of a cross between Fulham and Canary Wharf...

Shame, beautiful place...

MASSIVE prawns..

There were even more wankers when I was there