Moving out of London

£20k won’t get you a beach hut now!

you can still get flats in Hastings for £60k (last year you could at least) I looked at one in St Leonards but the service charge was £8k a year. in that big building that looks like a cruise ship, its having lots of work done as the past freeholder neglected it. if you can see the work out and hold your nerve for a few years you could still get a cheap place down there.

Marine Court. Funnily enough a bloke started nattering to me while I was taking some photos of it, he lives there and said his charges were now £11k pa... eeek.

My pal's place is in a nice and slightly ratty 30s bungalow estate up the hill. I like the rather mad mixture of properties in St Leonards... vast Victorian piles, the early 1800s stuff, some fake Scottish weirdness, all kinds of inter-war clobber... fun to dream of moving somewhere like this but my circumstances are not promising alas.

Coincidentally I was staying at an Airbnb in St Leonard's the other week, would very much like to have this view permanently

Knew about nothing about St Leonard's/Hastings before I went (had to book a holiday at the very last minute) but I was impressed, much nicer than I was expecting.

My grandad used to live opposite a hotel in St Leonards that looked like a fake castle his flat was great with crumbling a wooden and metal balcony over looking the sea. Loved that place

You mean the Highlands Inn? I used to live round that way on West Hill rd. Never cared for Hastings as a town otherwise. When I was round that way it was “a bit rough round the edges” and the town centre was pretty much a hole.

Also in Bexhill, Eastbourne and near Lewes from 98-01 and Forest Row as a nipper.

Marine Court is such a beautiful oddity!

I used to fantasise about living in Marine Court, such a crazy building... It was very tatty when I last saw it in the early noughties, I imagine it's been restored a la Isokon, which I also remember as semi derelict BITD...

@jaw
Ha yep that's it west hill Rd 🙌🙌🙌. Was nice round there he used to get his hair cut down by the jet that was on display . Spent lots of summers as a kid there.

@>>>>>> I knew a lady who lived in marine Court she invited me mum and my bro.to dinner her flat was great proper kitch styling with a bit of classic art deco that match the building.

Tragically @TS those 20k flats are but ghosts in our braincells, if I'd known then etc etc...

I know, crazy to think I turned my nose up... Didn't even need a mortgage, it was a loan job!!

Great to see how popular Hastings area is becoming. It used to be a total dive for ages and no one would touch it.

I met a bloke who bought an old pub and upstairs living quarters. Basically a massive building in St Leonard’s about 15 years ago for £100k. Made the pub part his studio and upstairs in to a really nice house. Literally, the dream

De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill is fantastic too. Wouldn’t recommend Bexhill for much else mind. Nice nature round there, pretty good cycling on country lanes.

Lewes I found ideal. You get the in/convenience of Brighton without having to live in Brighton and a great brewery thrown in for good measure.

FFS can we just GO now.

Flat went on the Market in October, the end is in sight, but fuck me is it dragging on now. I mentally checked out of living in London a while ago and just want to be moved now.

I know a few people have moved London>Edinburgh such as Rich, I'm considering it pretty seriously - what should I know/consider?

I am aware that income tax is slightly higher.

The bus lanes and bike lane colours are the wrong way round.
Although it's the 'posh' city the roads are full of potholes and there are discarded needles and smashed Bucky bottles to be found behind most of the benches.
You cannot get a drink on Sunday mornings.
A "taxi stance" is not the way you must stand to hail a cab, but a taxi rank.
Everybody has an Edinburgh accent. This shouldn't be odd or surprise you, but it is and it will, and then you will be surprised that you are surprised.

Would Scotland automatically incorporate the new anti-protest/anti-Roma bill into Scots law?

I'm coming up to ten years now. It's been good, overall, if it hadn't been for midlife crisis, depression and the likes, which has seen my social circle whittle down more and more. These days, while knowing lots of people in the greater cycling community etc, I feel increasing longing for the deep connections I had in my 20s even, before I left Germany, but that's all on the other side of the globe, literally. As you said, you just get on with it.

You do just get on with it, don't you? What's the alternative? Doesn't bear thinking about...

Since I wrote that post I've turned my life upside down again by changing jobs... Decided to go the less pay/more work route because I'm a fucking idiot! 🤪🔫 Was supposed to be slowing down not ramping up!!

I have been making more of an effort to see people, was supposed to go out to a gig last night and see all my Brissy musician mates but restrictions capped attendance at fifty... I think everybody decided to stay home instead! Also started regular catch ups with a few old bandmates, very grown up dinner nights at the German Club... We're all old and busy, two with kids, and three out of four of us don't drink anymore anyway! It's good fun tho', keeps us out of trouble...

Very different life to the one I was living in London... No more popping out for last orders on a Sunday night for it to turn into an accidental all-nighter... Don't miss that life TBH, it was killing me...

Come to Canada, it's fucking great!

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Can you live with the rain?

Do you need to be in a city? If you're remote working why not be actually remote.

it's not that rainy in edinburgh - only 15 days more rain than london
https://www.bp-tools.co.uk/blogs/news/uk-rainy-city-league-table

London is rainy too

Daylight in winter. Nearly an hour less at winter solstice.

don't and have never lived in (the bad and hated) edinburgh so will defer to anyone that does if any of this is wrong, but I'd say:

• edinburgh obv a significantly smaller city with therefore less in way of arts, theatre, restos etc but the quality of the arts, theatre etc that remain are very high

• since it's a smaller city (easier and cheaper to traverse) you'll probably have more opportunity to take advantage of those amenities (I know alot of my londoner friends don't actually avail themselves of all the stuff that's going on down there because it's a hassle and usually just stick to their neighbourhoods)

• there are LOTS of tourists in edinburgh, and because it's smaller, if you're in the centre, it's noticeable

• I gather it can get quite unpleasant during festival time, just due to the massive influx of people - not sure how many people do it but there is always the opportunity to decamp and rent out your property for MASSIVE wonga during this period

• in terms of arts, I'd say glasgow has the edge for live music but ed has the edge for art and theatre (excluding the festival period of course.) both cities have film festivals and glasgow is only a 45 min train journey away

• don't know about riding but you're not far from the pentland hills, which look decent for mountain biking

• edinburgh has a reputation for being a bit more polite and 'douce' than glasgow - this might be a bit unwarranted these days. it's definitely noticeable when visiting how many more stiff posh people there are kicking about and there are a stupid amount of private schools in ed

• most importantly probably, even though scotland is part of the united kingdom and westminster reserves powers in relation to many things and there are many things which remain similar/familiar with england... it decidedly feels like a different country, with a different civic life, different income and property taxes, free prescriptions, amazing tap water etc.

• on the flipside, these differences are not always positive. ime scotland is a lot less diverse than london. this is less the case perhaps glasgow but even then that's only in particular areas

Would Scotland automatically incorporate the new anti-protest/anti-Roma bill into Scots law?

• many of the provisions of the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill don't apply to scotland (as they pertain to reserved matters.) some of them will come into force automatically in scotland though - those are the provisions relating to (i) road traffic, (ii) extraction of information from electronic devices and (iii) remote hearings for terrorist/sexual offences

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaJFi0kuMqE
  

Thanks for taking the time to write that out. I'm thinking to take something of a punt on Scottish Indy going ahead, and by dint of being a resident of Scotland at the time becoming a newly minted Scottish citizen. I'd rather pay my taxes to a government that won't immediately give them to their immediate family and family friends (at least in such an obviously corrupt way as the current bunch in Westminster are doing).

I'm quite tempted by one of the smaller towns in the borders, but would really want a train service into Edinburgh rather than having to drive which I imagine limits things.

I moved to a very touristy place and I love it, being in a place where everyone wanted to be was one of the intangible attractions to London.