Moving out of London

Arrived in London in December 1990. Lived in Balham, Tufnell Park,
Kensington, Raynes Park, Forest Hill, Lower Sydenham and then Forest
Hill for the last 15 years. Commuted by bike almost all that time.

We have just sold up and are renting in Oxfordshire, and I drive 27
miles to work each day. A whole different lifestyle. We buy bog roll
in bulk, we have no neighbours and on weekday nights we can hear the
chinooks doing night flight practice. I don't know if I like it 100%
but there are many London things I don't miss at all.

hey @Ludd, how's it going now?

Similar to you I came to London in 1995 and have lived in: Holloway Rd, Hackney, Brick Lane, West Hampstead, Lewisham, Greenwich, Surbiton (OK, not London), Islington, Islington, Kilburn, Islington again, Oval and ended up buying in in Forest Hill. Spent 5 happy years there before being push/pulled out by needing baby space and the SE London bubble making selling up and moving out insanely tempting.

I still wonder if we did the right thing all the time. So much to be said for where we ended up. I love the house and the town we live in, but the quality of life trade-offs of the commute, the lack of diversity etc aren't small concessions.

Plus it turns out that both of us commuting into town just wasn't working in terms of childcare so my wife has just given notice. I'm currently sh*tting myself that my family's security is now entirely dependent on my famously terrible grasp of money management.

Life suddenly seems a whole bunch more real and scary than it ever has before. Bit of a shock to this tipsy dreamer to be honest.