You are reading a single comment by @tb and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@tb
I only lived in London for a hot minute compared to most in the thread, but I've recently swapped it for Amsterdam.
Spent two years living in Peckham after three years at Kingston uni. London's got tons of plus points: food, art and design is world class, there's a shop for just about everything, an amazing blend of people from all over the world. I especially liked SE, though I witnessed a massive amount of change in just the short time I was there. Change in a big city is inevitable but the speed at which it was happening was what started to scare the shit out of me. I got made redundant (not something you expect at 24) and that was a bit of a 'take the red pill' moment; it felt a bit like everyone was in a collective state of wilful ignorance about quality of life, costs etc and I'd suddenly been snapped out of it. Having no money coming in suddenly makes you question buying that second £5.50 pint whereas before you would've just handed your card over. I went from not being able to afford it to wondering whether I wanted to afford it.
I ended up doing a small amount of freelance in Amsterdam, which led to more, which then led to a permanent job. I've been here for 5 months now and it's great. I get paid 50% more than in London, rent is about the same and generally your money goes a bit further. Cycling everywhere is great. As someone that cycled everywhere in London the most refreshing thing is how completely entrenched it is. It's raining? Cycle. Need to get somewhere fast? Cycle. Need to transport your 2 kids, dog and weekly shop? Cycle. All ages and sizes can be found in a saddle. I've seen old ladies pull manoeuvres that make London couriers look like amateurs. The commute is 15 mins very relaxed cycle, most of which is through Vondelpark. The first few weeks are a bit of a shock because if you leave work at 6pm you can get home, cook/eat a proper dinner, and wash up by half seven - you suddenly find yourself with the rarest of commodities in London, free time. Here it feels like you aren't working purely to exist, work is just what you do during the day and there's plenty of time to do whatever else you like. All the beers are bloody delicious (and strong). Food's ok. People bringing a couple of joints instead of a bottle of wine is still pretty novel. Lots of stuff just makes sense - it's a very easy place to live.
Not to say that I don't miss certain things about London, my friends being the biggest one. I can't complain about my current commute but I do miss having 1+ hour per day of fairly intense cycling in London commuting (I also slightly perversely miss how dangerous it was). The small scale of Amsterdam can be nice but the variation of London is hard to beat. Worst of all, nowhere does chicken wings at 3am.
Unless the housing market returns to something resembling the real world I can't really see myself returning to London.