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I don't want to stop Mr Sworld from answering because everyone has different experience to offer but I can let you know that the training to become a qualified electrician is available and can be completed for around £2k. You could then practice as an electrician without being registered with one of the trade bodies (Elecsa, NICEC etc.) It would help you to meet people in the trade while you are on the course. You need a few thousand pounds more to get kitted out with tools to practice on your own. You would also need to be extremely quick witted to learn the trade on your own in domestic situations! Working for less money and less efficiently while you learn to fix peoples problems in the real world is a challenge for anyone.
If you take a course like that you can go from relative beginner to qualified in a couple of months. It's not a recommended route, you would be considered a five week wonder by most fully qualified/registered sparks!
If you can find firms hiring apprentices you can train while you carry out the apprenticeship. Being an apprentice is about much more than simply learning the electrical code. You can discover a bit more about the kind of work you like within the trade, electrical engineering is a huge and fascinating field. Unless like me you practice as an electrician alongside another trade, you will probably need to find an apprenticeship. That's likely to be badly paid and hard work but it's pretty much the price of entry to the building trades. I'm sure there are firms who take on apprentices for work in large urban sites, I've not done much of that kind of work but there is a lot of building work like that going on in London.
The purely domestic game is really more of an artisan field!
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Airhead
What do you reckon is the best way into the trade?
I’m 30, have been self employed for the last 7/8 years as a museum technician, with the odd bit of building work thrown in. I’m reasonably capable (joinery, fabrication, dry walling, jack of a few trades, master of none) - I’ve got my own tools (mainly for woodworking).
I kind of see myself as not totally useless (compared to no experience, straight from school candidate for example).
Would any of this be usable in my favour to get a job with someone and train under them? Is that even an option? If you were to start from this position (no real electric experience beyond basic wiring), where would you look?