Moving out of London

Of course in Dunedin you stand more of a chance to have your house reduced to a pile of rubble due to seismic activity

he's from the north, but one of the shitty racist towns

I'm sure the south has plenty too.

This is an interesting thread.

My bro in law lived in London for a few years. Lived round the corner from our old place in bow. He worked in forest gate as a teacher.

After a few years he decided to sell his one bed flat and swap it for a reasonable house in Brentwood with a big garden loads of parking etc.

He's lasted a year out there and his house is going on the market next week. He still has to work in London for now. The suburbs are in the main, dull. There ain't a lot to do out in the stick unless you are lucky.

He's now moving back to East London, either Leytonstone where we are, forest gate, or slightly further north to Woodford. He is bloody lucky because net net the cost to move back should be negligible as he's house has apparently gone up a fair whack.

We thought about moving out to the sticks 18m ago. We had lived in London for 6 odd years. We looked at a pretty thatched cottage in a village outside bishops stortford. Had parking, half an acre, and was about the same price as we ended up paying for our modest terrace in e11. I'm glad we didn't make the move. Maybe in 15 years it'll be time when I'm in my 40s.

Whenever I commute to work on my bike (at negligible cost) and I'm going through the Olympic park or Victoria park, i look around and I actually say to myself; you are fucking lucky you live round here mate.

Then some cunt cuts me up and tells me he is going to kill me and I remember that this is London , and at some point I'll probably have to move before it consumes me and turns me into a nut case.

But for now, London is home and I'm pretty chuffed with it.

Dad's family is originally from south east London and the east end. His mum (Nana) was a proper cocker-knee. But I grew up in the sticks as did my wife (albeit Jamaican sticks). Been here in London the past 25 years and love it but get sick of it in equal quantities. It's the dirt, the attitude, the general pushy arsey bollocks that's normal but can grate.

Managed to buy a flat in Peckham 10 years ago. Had no idea how desirable the place would become. Plan is to move out to the countryside, buy another place within commutable distance (sadly work will most likely always be London based for me, my wife has more flexibility on that front) but keep the flat in Peckham. I couldn't sell it. I want a different pace of life but can't cut the ties completely. It's also a sound investment.

Other plans are out of the country but longer term. Got my Jamaican citizenship sorted out a couple of months ago. In time will buy a plot of land out there, probably near Mandeville and build a house on it for my wife's family. Also for us when we get older and English winters are even less appealing than they already are.

Just going to leave this here
http://www.citymetric.com/politics/great-exodus-net-number-30-somethings-leaving-london-just-leapt-quarter-1959

Is that because of this thread?

I really like Harry Leslie Smith's writing:

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/26/london-old-people-no-past-future-elderly

(Not strictly on topic, but a worthwhile article.)

Here are some vox pops, too:

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/24/london-from-the-outside-mayoral-elections-zephaniah-rankin-jackie-kay

Interesting articles, thanks Oliver. Since starting this thread I've sorted out a new job in Bristol so will be able to report back myself too...

Anyone ever lived down Kent way and commuted in? May be moving to Sevenoaks but continuing to work in London.

Speak to @Sam about Southeastern railways. You may regret asking.

But in theory, it's a doable commute with regular fast trains from Sevenoaks.

My old editor commuted in from Sevenoaks, she moved out there from Streatham... She had no problems, apart from her son becoming a layabout musician... Poor cow...

Used to roll in from Colchester on Abellio "Greater" Anglia. Most delays per mile of track in the UK, most expensive season ticket per mile of track in the UK IIRC.

I grew up in Sevenoaks. It's quite boring! Depends on what you're after I guess.
Regular fast trains into London. They do get crazy busy unless you're on one of the dawn ones. M25 real near. Nice countryside on the doorstep.

Hah, yeah, me, my mum, sister and young son, in a pram, were stood outside Tesco in Walthamstow the other day, just staring into space, obliviously, in the same direction, waiting for someone to buy something inside, when an SUV with a mum and kids swings into the car park and pulls up into our line of sight. She gets out, approaches us with a proper attitude and goes "do you know me or something?", I'm like no, not giving her the fight she obviously wants, and she goes "because you lot were looking at me" (her car had tinted glass so we weren't), and I just shrugged, again resisting the scrap. She pulled a face like we'd just shat in her handbag and skulked off. To make matters worse she'd parked in a disabled space, despite not needing it and not having a blue sticker.

I love this place but it's that kind of shit that's going to grind me down into a bitter hateful bastard if it goes on too long.

I mean a MORE bitter, hateful bastard.

That shit goes on outside of London too you know.

The only reason I can contemplate moving out of London, right now, is for pollution/health reasons.

It's doable. But it's fraught with pain and torment.

Anyone here live in Woking?
Is it a shit hole? Or is it ok. Seems more for your money than guildford.

Need to move that way at end of year.

My best mate is moving that way in July/August. He chose Woking for affordability, easy commute, new-build/help to buy property, and it not being an awful place. I guess I'll know more about it in a few months. Hey, it's pretty close to some nice hills in Surrey, and if you fancy some flat rides then the Thames Valley is easy to get to too.
I've only cycled through the town without stopping - looks very bland tbh. A lot like Clapham High street - chains, franchises, bit grubby without being totally run down. Could do with a bit of hipster gentrification.

A few mates grew up there and I spent a lot of time in that part of the world in my teens.

It's very suburban. Closer to the countryside. Guildford and London are easy to get to. I don't know if there's more to do now, but it was fairly dry when I was in my teens (20yrs ago).

I definitely wouldn't say it's a shit hole, I always thought of it as being more affluent, but it might depend on location. As I remember it you're much less likely to get started on than in Guilford.

I'm soon to be on my way out. Borehamwood.

I was previously dreading it, as suburbia has always conjurored up images of hanging yourself in your garage after neatly edging the front lawn.

Now I'm actually quite looking forward to it. Mainly because I haven't had a fixed home for coming on 2yrs and also accepting that I'm older and we're £150k short of anything we'd want in "London" (which isn't a huge compromise in one form or another).

We ultimately chose the area because;

1. it's a quick commute to Kings X (c.30mins)
   
2. in between our families
   
3. has lots of good schools
   
4. Friends with kids means all fun is now by appointment or via work
   
5. allows us to get a nice 3 bed with a decent garden, near a park, all without mortgaging ourselves to the hilt or really making any comprises to our property wish list.
   
   

The downside is no more walking or cycling and a fairly uninspiring high street.

We both really liked forest gate, but since January not one property that is actually for sale came up in the area we wanted. After that it just seemed like we were moving further and further to areas of "London" that involved moving further from friends and family while not giving a great deal of the benefits.

Still if I won the lottery I'd be straight back in a heart beat.

I was going to post in this thread ages ago, never got round to it and have only just rediscovered this thread on my phone.

South london born and raised and I can't see myself moving out of london to anywhere else in the uk. Studied in Newcastle way back when, worked in Manchester for a year and can never get over the fact that those places and the other cities I've visited/worked in (Liverpool/Bristol/etc) are so much smaller than the city I grew up in.

I want kids and have no problem with them being raised in the three bed flat I grew up in and now own. I want them to be city kids, comfortable with the madness and the bustle of london and to be Londoners, like I am. But I do yearn for more space, a shed/garage/bike man cave (probably been watching too much grand designs) but the outskirts of london/suburbs hold no interest to me, and currently my salary isn't enough to buy somewhere larger close to where I grew up. I want my kids to be around others who are dark of skin and as you head out of london into the south east coloured folks thin out. I want them to see and know people of different colours and religions and to feel comfortable around people from all over the place.

If I do leave london it'll be to another big cultural city in some other country (why I'm voting remain) as I'm a city boy and the countryside whilst lovely to visit and ride through isn't somewhere I want to settle.

Neat.