What are these?
Still, flying from London to somewhere else or taking a train to go outside, the difference in air quality before and after was noticeable.
London is an expensive city, you’ll need several million pounds for a decent family home but if you can afford it it’s an absolutely fantastic place to live.
Unfortunately the lack of affordable housing makes it less likely to be so in the long term.
Arguably it is developments like Canary Wharf and the associated planning concessions that have fuelled the London property market to make it practically unaffordable for the vast majority of people that do the real work.
Sports: neither spectator nor participation sports are a London speciality.
Clubs: if that means nightclubs, Manchester had a much better club-scene than London when I lived there (mid 90s). I'm too old for clubbing now!
Museums and architecture: people visit museums and gawp at architecture when they're visiting a place. Once you've seen a museum, you've seen it. Sure, it's pleasant to live among nice buildings; but most of the London cityscape is not anything I'd call architecture.
I lived in Central London for 20 years. I hated it for 17 of those years. It takes an hour to get across town on the (stinking) underground, which is the quickest way. Traffic is the most-aggressive of any place that I've driven in the UK. People are unfriendly; nobody lives in London to make friends, they live in London to make money. Everyone's in a hurry, presumably because they want to make a lot of money so they can leave.
It has such a great mix of things – you are constantly surrounded by history and there is always something going on.
Just not true. I grew up in a 4 bed house in a zone 4 area where such houses still go for under a million, especially if you're willing to do a bit of work.
I grew up in Hartlepool (North East of England), moved to Australia when I was 19 and I'm 35 now.
I moved because I was stabbed, and can't count on one hand how many times I'd been assaulted and mugged in the 10 years prior. To hear the rest of the country is heading in a similar direction is a horrid reflection on the state of affairs in the UK.
The city isn't a single place - it's a whole load of historical towns and neighbourhoods joined together. Experiences vary.
I would say it's pollution, crime and lack of avenues for small kids.
I was living on a skyscraper and the amount of black dust I was removing from next to the windows was mind-blowing. I still remember moving 1hr out of London and feeling like I was breathing again. Not what I wanted for my kids.
The amount of stabbing and theft going on was pretty crazy. It was all around you. Some parks are ok and touristy, some parks are straight up dodgy and you run into drugged up, drunk people, (homeless?) people harassing you.
There are almost no kids around so not super easy to find friends for your kids. Nurseries are small and crowded because real estate is at a premium.
Again, moving out from the city fixed all the problems. Town life in the UK is actually pretty great. Sure you will miss on the main pros of London, events and networking.
I'd recommend finding a nice town commuting distance from London to reap the most benefits.