7 ms·

So you’re moving to London

34 points by smikhanov 12y ago

14113 12y ago
A very touristy, and one dimensional view of London, and very different to my impressions of London. The author has clearly only really tried to experience the food and culture of the very centre, and likely only lived there as well. The only thing that they've got spot on is that london is essentially a collection of loosely linked villages. For a permanent resident, that means that where you live (probably one of the "village" areas) is a world away from what the centre of London is like.
- vidarh 12y ago
  Exactly. For me, "going in to town" means going in to Croydon - a city centre with it's own large high street and multiple shopping centres at the outskirts of London. Croydon town centre again is at the centre of a collection of smaller villages within the borough, each with their own high streets. I work near Waterloo, so I commute in to the centre, but outside of work I rarely see central London - it's pretty much a different city from my perspective. I also found the mention of City curious. City is also pretty much a thing by itself. I guess it differs by what skillsets you put on your CV, but I've never worked with someone who has worked in City. I've only known one person who did. I don't come across recruiters trying to get me to take bank jobs very often. London is not defined by City any more than San Francisco is defined by its financial district.
- k-mcgrady 12y ago
  >> "london is essentially a collection of loosely linked villages. For a permanent resident, that means that where you live (probably one of the "village" areas) is a world away from what the centre of London is like." Any good resources for trying to pick the right area? I'm planning on moving to London but besides the names of some of the areas I know very little about them.
  - 14113 12y ago
    The best thing to do would probably be to ask people on places like r/london, as (like the article says) London can have great areas right next to less nice areas.
    - k-mcgrady 12y ago
      Thanks for the tip, never thought about r/london
cliveowen 12y ago
What I'd like to know is how to move there with 0 experience and without knowing anyone who lives there.
- easytiger 12y ago
  A suprisingly common question on r/london
- jarmitage 12y ago
  Unless you're extremely enterprising and know you can meet people quickly, the general advice is don't. This sounds negative, but framing it the opposite way has worked for me and many of my friends: visit London first to make some contacts, then move here once you've got a job offer.
- alexbilbie 12y ago
  I moved to London a year ago and only knew about 3 people here at the time. One of things that threw me initially the most (having moved from Lincoln) was that everyone here seems to plan everything way in advance, I missed the spontaneity of my former social life. Anyway to make some friends I went to a few different meetup nights for technologies I was interested in. I joined an online dating site to try and make some friends; I had mixed results with this but it has resulted in some great friendships. I also made friends through colleagues and friends of friends. A year later I have about 10 close friends who I see regularly, plus colleagues and other people who I see semi-regularly and I do feel like I've gone a lot social spontaneity in my life again. All in all it was a bit lonely at first but I'm loving living here and really can't imagine wanting to leave any time soon.
- k-mcgrady 12y ago
  I'm planning on doing exactly that in London in a few months. I've done it once before (although in Toronto - which is much further away from me). As a freelancer I was able to scrape by in Toronto and I plan on doing the same in London until I can find a job. I've had offers in the past from companies in London so hopefully it won't be too hard to find something. As for meeting people I'm planning on sharing a flat with strangers. In Toronto I got a 1 bedroom apartment and it was the worst decision I made. I feel like if I'm living with 3 or 4 other people (at least for the first little while) I have a much better chance of meeting people and assembling a group of friends.
secfirstmd 12y ago
I'm from Dublin and it pains me to say it but London is the best city in the world. I've lived here for over ten years at various times and my god do I love this place.
darkFunction 12y ago
I have lived in London for six years. The tech scene is very vibrant, but I struggle with the 'big city' aspect. Strangers are generally ruder in public than elsewhere in the UK (not a reflection on them, more a side-effect of nobody ever having personal space). The commute is miserable, and nights out in Zone 1 & 2 tend to be overly commercialised, tacky and unfriendly, with the exception of a few hidden gems. It's not somewhere you can clear your head by going for a walk, even the numerous and beautiful parks are crowded with young families on a sunny day. Quaint, village-type areas are well known and swarming with tourists. "Going for a walk" means something totally different in London- you're not going to escape the bustle, and will probably end up spending money. If you are somebody who can deal with a complete absence of personal space while outside, don't mind being herded around like cattle, and the constant drone of traffic/sirens, London otherwise has a lot to offer (good restaurants, museums and art galleries, lots of tech Meetups).
- koyote 12y ago
  >It's not somewhere you can clear your head by going for a walk, even the numerous and beautiful parks are crowded with young families on a sunny day. Quaint, village-type areas are well known and swarming with tourists. "Going for a walk" means something totally different in London- you're not going to escape the bustle, and will probably end up spending money. I beg to differ. Yes, of course a place like Hyde Park will be full to the brim on a sunny day. But I have never had a problem finding a quiet area to walk around in London. Even walking about 5 minutes south-west from Hyde Park around the side streets of South Kensington you will quickly find yourself to be the only person walking around the beautiful houses. A nice park if you want some peace and quiet I can recommend is Richmond Park. It's massive and there's loads of space around to explore without being herded around like cattle or having to endure the constant drone of traffic/sirens.
- vidarh 12y ago
  > It's not somewhere you can clear your head by going for a walk, even the numerous and beautiful parks are crowded with young families on a sunny day So go a bit further out (and consider moving further out). Bromley or South Croydon is full of actual countryside and the occasional bit of woodland with far fewer people, and still in London, for example. You'll find quiet or quieter parks dotted around the outer edge of London if you just look a bit. If you don't need completely quiet, there are plenty of quieter places closer to the centre too. Like the river walkway from around Imperial Wharf (on the north side of the river) towards Barnes, and further towards Richmond (Barnes and Richmond and the area in between also have plenty of quiet areas). Especially if you walk into residential areas instead of near the commercial districts. The solution of going further out applies to pretty much anything in London: Avoid zone 1 and 2 unless you want big, loud, expensive and commercialised. It's fun now and again, but there are so many alternatives.
lukasm 12y ago
I'm in London (2 years in total) and it's really great. You can really complain about 4 things: - It is really hard to find a nice flat in a good condition (no mold etc.) with reasonable price. - Some good&services are overpriced (e.g. trains) - Taxes are a bit too high - Weather :) It's in top 5 big cities to live in the world for sure.
highlander 12y ago
If you want to work in tech in the UK but don't like the downsides of London, it's worth considering Edinburgh. The tech scene is really taking off here, with plenty of jobs (see this list of tech companies http://www.nobugs.org/deved/ http://www.nobugs.org/deved/). There is much more an 'ecosystem' of tech employers than there was a few years ago. Maybe you will make 75-80% of a London salary (your mileage may vary) but your living costs are way lower. You can live in a beautiful 2 bedroom Georgian apartment in central Edinburgh for £800/month and walk to work. The annual cultural festivals bring some great music, comedy, theatre, film and art to the city. The only major downside (IMO) is the weather, consistently a few degrees cooler than London.
grey-area 12y ago
This is an interesting take on London from an outsider. The villages point is important - to really get to know the town you need to get out of the centre and visit a few of the villages (Hampstead, Kilburn, Notting Hill, Camden, Kensington, Greenwich, Hoxton etc) - there's a lot of variety there and as the author says a lot of very mixed areas, each with their own personality. This can make travel a chore, but if you have friends in the same area, you don't have to meet them in the middle of town, and some areas are very well connected. It also gives the city interest as there's always a new area to discover when visiting friends. Walking and biking round London is also rewarding if you like cityscapes because it varies so much. Second, when a fast-food industry adopts some food type in London, it completely wipes away all other options to try it, leaving you only with a dull ersatz (this is what happened to sushi, for example). Just like with the music scene, the competition for a spot in a good restaurant can be fierce. This is not accurate, though I can see why you might have that impression if you live somewhere sterilised by big brands like the centre of town or Canary Wharf where the only option is yo sushi. There are plenty of horrible chains for every cuisine catering to tourists, but there are a lot of great sushi places in town, like Jin Kichi in Hampstead or Inaho near Notting Hill. So this doesn't ring true to me at all - if you're eating in London there's no reason to entertain a chain restaurant, and thousands of alternatives, even if the most popular to get busy on weekends. The analysis of financing rings true though - London does feel divided into those who work in the city (a different jurisdiction and a different world), and those who don't. Pay scales, careers and culture all change as you cross that divide, and unfortunately Canary Wharf is like an island insulated from the areas which surround it - most of London is quite different from that though. As the article says, funding for startups outside finance is not always easy (I'd love to hear contradictions of this). The things I treasure the most about London, having been here for a decade or so, are the genuinely cosmopolitan and egalitarian culture, and the mixing of world culture occurring here in the last few decades. While some resent this change for me it is the redeeming feature of London, the part which makes it feel like a world city, not just the capital of a small nation shrinking in importance. Take a typical bus in this city and you might hear a dozen languages spoken in the space of a journey, from all over the world. Perhaps this is something we'll see more of in every city as the world continues to shrink.
JazCE 12y ago
Living in London is to an extent, a young persons game. Many commentators are talking about being an hour away from people and home. I don't think that's a big problem. Sure it's not easy, I used to live somewhere where i was nevermore than 1/2 hours walk from anyone of my friends, now i'm generally on an hours tube journey. It's not a big deal and it's about being in an area you like. I love my area in west London, I could have moved closer to my friends in East London, but that would put me out with friends in West, South West and North London. I'm in Zone 2, so cycling to the middle isn't a big deal, but nor is taking a tube to east London, or south east London. If you don't like commutes and being within busy places, it might not be for you. You'll make friends with people who live and work all over london. If you're good friends, you'll make the time(travel) differences work. It's one of those things people who live in London deal with. I do think it's about being under a certain age/having that mindset though.
mherrmann 12y ago
I lived in London for three years as a student. I can't comment on the tech/startup scene but I can confirm that quality of living isn't great. Coming from Vienna, supposedly the city with the best quality of life, I am spoiled though.
frobozz 12y ago
> If everything above sounds like a description of city made for the rich, this is not the case. ... >There’s one thing that all districts of London have in common though: they are all expensive to live in. Make up your mind.
petercooper 12y ago
It’s the city of Beatles That would be Liverpool, 200 miles north-west :-) or a two thousand year old city, London has no antique palaces or medieval streets It's hard to say what "antique" is in terms of a palace, but I'd argue it has at least one: the Tower of London (officially Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress) was founded in 1066 and much of what stands today was the result of building in the 13th century. This is older than anything in Paris, say, but hardly on a par with Greece ;-) For a casual stroller London looks like a loosely linked collection of small villages It is. Even when my dad was a kid, even suburbs as far in as Kidbrooke, Blackheath and Lewisham were essentially considered unique places, often separated by greenery, and not physically joined to the larger conurbation. A lot of gaps have been filled in the past 50 years to make it feel like more of a whole. Heading south, I don't think you even see a field until you hit Coulsdon now..
- easytiger 12y ago
  Actually the beatles thing was a recent point of debate because their carrear only kicked off after moving to London
  - hipsters_unite 12y ago
    By that measure the Beatles could be said to be from Hamburg, as that was also formative for their career. Even internationally, I would argue that 'Cavern Club' and 'Beatles' are inextricably linked and more famous than anywhere in London they were associated with.
- mseebach 12y ago
  Also old: Westminster hall (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Westminster#Westminster_Hall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Westminster#Westmins...), built in 1097 and still in active use today. I could care less for the rest of the Palace of Westminster, but the hall is absolutely stunning. The best way to see the hall is to attend a public meeting hosted in parliament as it will be free.
- dagw 12y ago
  That would be Liverpool If you live in London, than you know that London is the only place worth mentioning, or even acknowledging, in England and thus if it happened in England and is worth mentioning, it must have happened in London.
voicereasonish 12y ago
> This part of England has the same weather throughout most of the year Sorry, but that's just ridiculous. We have seasons over here - clearly defined seasons. At the moment we're enjoying hot sunny days, rainy nights. We'll probably have some good snow in the winter, and a variety of things thrown in between now and then. If you're a fan of weather, then the UK is a great place to live. If you don't like weather then somewhere like California is a better option with its relentless boring sunshine.
- michaelochurch 12y ago
  Weather is one of those things that everyone complains about, everywhere. The only way to properly evaluate weather is to (a) figure out what you like, and (b) check the data on Weatherspark. Unless you're talking about the summit of Mt. Washington or Ben Nevis, the complaints will always be scarier than the reality. Take Seattle's notorious cloud cover and rain. Reality: 80% cloud cover in the winter, meaning 15-20 hours of sunlight per week-- not great, but not "constant overcast"-- and an hour or two of light rain on most days. Complaint: "you never see the sun in January and it always rains". It's unpredictable how someone will react to climate (especially because even specific locales have good and bad summers and winters from year to year). I've lived in Minnesota and New York City, and I always had worse winter SAD issues in New York, not because of anything to do with the weather itself, but for the damn buildings. "Urban sunset" is 2:30 in some neighborhoods, in the winter. (That said, the benefits of living in New York more than make up for it.) London's definition of "hot" is 20-25 C and mostly sunny. Personally, that's all the heat I need, but there are people in the US who hate the lack of a "real" summer (30+) in places like Seattle, London, or Paris. Most of the US, even in the North (Chicago, New York) gets summers that are very hot by European standards, and so some people get bothered when it's July and they have to wear a jacket in the morning. I don't. When I was in L.A. a year ago people were complaining about "June Gloom" because it was 22 C and cloudy. I couldn't believe it; I was like, "June is still spring, this is awesome!" It was probably a bummer to people who thought LA had year-round "beach weather", though.
  - voicereasonish 12y ago
    > there are people in the US who hate the lack of a "real" summer (30+) in places like Seattle, London, or Paris. But then they have AC turned up to full so it's freezing in their office! Funny old world...
peteretep 12y ago
I've lived for ~8 years in London, and ~8 years in Bangkok, a few years in Oxford, and a bit of time in some other random places. The striking thing about London is that EVERYWHERE is an hour away, and that impacts your social life. Unless you live or work next to your friends, prepare to see them rarely. In both Bangkok and Oxford, social life was effortless - someone would SMS you in the afternoon, and you'd swing by some restaurant or bar on your way home to see them. Oxford, everywhere was trivially walkable, Bangkok taxis are virtually free, but London? It's an hour on the tube. Because of this, everyone is BUSY. Busy all the time. If I want to see my friends, I book 6 weeks in advance - and I live relatively central (Zone 2, Camden). Summer in London is amazing - the parks are fantastic, there are some good bars ... winter is cold, rainy, and grey, and bluntly we're moving from London because we can't take another winter here. Just my 2p.
- voicereasonish 12y ago
  I agree. I went to uni in London for a year - worst decision ever. It's not somewhere you can just meet up with friends who live somewhere else in London. But then cities are generally like that - very lonely places swarming with strangers.
- easytiger 12y ago
  > .. winter is cold, rainy, and grey Last winter wasn't. We barely had the heating on at all. Year before wasn't that bad. I always find the people who care a lot about the weather to be rather idle-minded. Unless your main intellectual past time is playing golf i'm not sure how it can affect you. If you are busy doing something awesome the last thing you are going to care about is the rain.
  - voicereasonish 12y ago
    Perhaps they detest building snowmen, cuddling up in bed when it's cold, drying off in front of an open fire after walking through the rain, that awesome thunderstorm with cool rain after a boiling hot day, the neighbourly camaraderie assessing the damage after a storm etc etc I've never understood people who don't like the variety of weather and seasons. It must be so so boring to not experience, or enjoy weather.

34 points by smikhanov 12y ago

14113 12y ago

A very touristy, and one dimensional view of London, and very different to my impressions of London. The author has clearly only really tried to experience the food and culture of the very centre, and likely only lived there as well. The only thing that they've got spot on is that london is essentially a collection of loosely linked villages. For a permanent resident, that means that where you live (probably one of the "village" areas) is a world away from what the centre of London is like.

vidarh 12y ago
Exactly. For me, "going in to town" means going in to Croydon - a city centre with it's own large high street and multiple shopping centres at the outskirts of London. Croydon town centre again is at the centre of a collection of smaller villages within the borough, each with their own high streets. I work near Waterloo, so I commute in to the centre, but outside of work I rarely see central London - it's pretty much a different city from my perspective. I also found the mention of City curious. City is also pretty much a thing by itself. I guess it differs by what skillsets you put on your CV, but I've never worked with someone who has worked in City. I've only known one person who did. I don't come across recruiters trying to get me to take bank jobs very often. London is not defined by City any more than San Francisco is defined by its financial district.
k-mcgrady 12y ago
>> "london is essentially a collection of loosely linked villages. For a permanent resident, that means that where you live (probably one of the "village" areas) is a world away from what the centre of London is like." Any good resources for trying to pick the right area? I'm planning on moving to London but besides the names of some of the areas I know very little about them.
- 14113 12y ago
  The best thing to do would probably be to ask people on places like r/london, as (like the article says) London can have great areas right next to less nice areas.
  - k-mcgrady 12y ago
    Thanks for the tip, never thought about r/london

cliveowen 12y ago

What I'd like to know is how to move there with 0 experience and without knowing anyone who lives there.

easytiger 12y ago
A suprisingly common question on r/london
jarmitage 12y ago
Unless you're extremely enterprising and know you can meet people quickly, the general advice is don't. This sounds negative, but framing it the opposite way has worked for me and many of my friends: visit London first to make some contacts, then move here once you've got a job offer.
alexbilbie 12y ago
I moved to London a year ago and only knew about 3 people here at the time. One of things that threw me initially the most (having moved from Lincoln) was that everyone here seems to plan everything way in advance, I missed the spontaneity of my former social life. Anyway to make some friends I went to a few different meetup nights for technologies I was interested in. I joined an online dating site to try and make some friends; I had mixed results with this but it has resulted in some great friendships. I also made friends through colleagues and friends of friends. A year later I have about 10 close friends who I see regularly, plus colleagues and other people who I see semi-regularly and I do feel like I've gone a lot social spontaneity in my life again. All in all it was a bit lonely at first but I'm loving living here and really can't imagine wanting to leave any time soon.
k-mcgrady 12y ago
I'm planning on doing exactly that in London in a few months. I've done it once before (although in Toronto - which is much further away from me). As a freelancer I was able to scrape by in Toronto and I plan on doing the same in London until I can find a job. I've had offers in the past from companies in London so hopefully it won't be too hard to find something. As for meeting people I'm planning on sharing a flat with strangers. In Toronto I got a 1 bedroom apartment and it was the worst decision I made. I feel like if I'm living with 3 or 4 other people (at least for the first little while) I have a much better chance of meeting people and assembling a group of friends.

secfirstmd 12y ago

I'm from Dublin and it pains me to say it but London is the best city in the world. I've lived here for over ten years at various times and my god do I love this place.

darkFunction 12y ago

I have lived in London for six years. The tech scene is very vibrant, but I struggle with the 'big city' aspect. Strangers are generally ruder in public than elsewhere in the UK (not a reflection on them, more a side-effect of nobody ever having personal space). The commute is miserable, and nights out in Zone 1 & 2 tend to be overly commercialised, tacky and unfriendly, with the exception of a few hidden gems. It's not somewhere you can clear your head by going for a walk, even the numerous and beautiful parks are crowded with young families on a sunny day. Quaint, village-type areas are well known and swarming with tourists. "Going for a walk" means something totally different in London- you're not going to escape the bustle, and will probably end up spending money. If you are somebody who can deal with a complete absence of personal space while outside, don't mind being herded around like cattle, and the constant drone of traffic/sirens, London otherwise has a lot to offer (good restaurants, museums and art galleries, lots of tech Meetups).

koyote 12y ago
>It's not somewhere you can clear your head by going for a walk, even the numerous and beautiful parks are crowded with young families on a sunny day. Quaint, village-type areas are well known and swarming with tourists. "Going for a walk" means something totally different in London- you're not going to escape the bustle, and will probably end up spending money. I beg to differ. Yes, of course a place like Hyde Park will be full to the brim on a sunny day. But I have never had a problem finding a quiet area to walk around in London. Even walking about 5 minutes south-west from Hyde Park around the side streets of South Kensington you will quickly find yourself to be the only person walking around the beautiful houses. A nice park if you want some peace and quiet I can recommend is Richmond Park. It's massive and there's loads of space around to explore without being herded around like cattle or having to endure the constant drone of traffic/sirens.
vidarh 12y ago
> It's not somewhere you can clear your head by going for a walk, even the numerous and beautiful parks are crowded with young families on a sunny day So go a bit further out (and consider moving further out). Bromley or South Croydon is full of actual countryside and the occasional bit of woodland with far fewer people, and still in London, for example. You'll find quiet or quieter parks dotted around the outer edge of London if you just look a bit. If you don't need completely quiet, there are plenty of quieter places closer to the centre too. Like the river walkway from around Imperial Wharf (on the north side of the river) towards Barnes, and further towards Richmond (Barnes and Richmond and the area in between also have plenty of quiet areas). Especially if you walk into residential areas instead of near the commercial districts. The solution of going further out applies to pretty much anything in London: Avoid zone 1 and 2 unless you want big, loud, expensive and commercialised. It's fun now and again, but there are so many alternatives.

lukasm 12y ago

I'm in London (2 years in total) and it's really great. You can really complain about 4 things: - It is really hard to find a nice flat in a good condition (no mold etc.) with reasonable price. - Some good&services are overpriced (e.g. trains) - Taxes are a bit too high - Weather :) It's in top 5 big cities to live in the world for sure.

highlander 12y ago

If you want to work in tech in the UK but don't like the downsides of London, it's worth considering Edinburgh. The tech scene is really taking off here, with plenty of jobs (see this list of tech companies http://www.nobugs.org/deved/ http://www.nobugs.org/deved/). There is much more an 'ecosystem' of tech employers than there was a few years ago. Maybe you will make 75-80% of a London salary (your mileage may vary) but your living costs are way lower. You can live in a beautiful 2 bedroom Georgian apartment in central Edinburgh for £800/month and walk to work. The annual cultural festivals bring some great music, comedy, theatre, film and art to the city. The only major downside (IMO) is the weather, consistently a few degrees cooler than London.

grey-area 12y ago

This is an interesting take on London from an outsider. The villages point is important - to really get to know the town you need to get out of the centre and visit a few of the villages (Hampstead, Kilburn, Notting Hill, Camden, Kensington, Greenwich, Hoxton etc) - there's a lot of variety there and as the author says a lot of very mixed areas, each with their own personality. This can make travel a chore, but if you have friends in the same area, you don't have to meet them in the middle of town, and some areas are very well connected. It also gives the city interest as there's always a new area to discover when visiting friends. Walking and biking round London is also rewarding if you like cityscapes because it varies so much. Second, when a fast-food industry adopts some food type in London, it completely wipes away all other options to try it, leaving you only with a dull ersatz (this is what happened to sushi, for example). Just like with the music scene, the competition for a spot in a good restaurant can be fierce. This is not accurate, though I can see why you might have that impression if you live somewhere sterilised by big brands like the centre of town or Canary Wharf where the only option is yo sushi. There are plenty of horrible chains for every cuisine catering to tourists, but there are a lot of great sushi places in town, like Jin Kichi in Hampstead or Inaho near Notting Hill. So this doesn't ring true to me at all - if you're eating in London there's no reason to entertain a chain restaurant, and thousands of alternatives, even if the most popular to get busy on weekends. The analysis of financing rings true though - London does feel divided into those who work in the city (a different jurisdiction and a different world), and those who don't. Pay scales, careers and culture all change as you cross that divide, and unfortunately Canary Wharf is like an island insulated from the areas which surround it - most of London is quite different from that though. As the article says, funding for startups outside finance is not always easy (I'd love to hear contradictions of this). The things I treasure the most about London, having been here for a decade or so, are the genuinely cosmopolitan and egalitarian culture, and the mixing of world culture occurring here in the last few decades. While some resent this change for me it is the redeeming feature of London, the part which makes it feel like a world city, not just the capital of a small nation shrinking in importance. Take a typical bus in this city and you might hear a dozen languages spoken in the space of a journey, from all over the world. Perhaps this is something we'll see more of in every city as the world continues to shrink.

JazCE 12y ago

Living in London is to an extent, a young persons game. Many commentators are talking about being an hour away from people and home. I don't think that's a big problem. Sure it's not easy, I used to live somewhere where i was nevermore than 1/2 hours walk from anyone of my friends, now i'm generally on an hours tube journey. It's not a big deal and it's about being in an area you like. I love my area in west London, I could have moved closer to my friends in East London, but that would put me out with friends in West, South West and North London. I'm in Zone 2, so cycling to the middle isn't a big deal, but nor is taking a tube to east London, or south east London. If you don't like commutes and being within busy places, it might not be for you. You'll make friends with people who live and work all over london. If you're good friends, you'll make the time(travel) differences work. It's one of those things people who live in London deal with. I do think it's about being under a certain age/having that mindset though.

mherrmann 12y ago

I lived in London for three years as a student. I can't comment on the tech/startup scene but I can confirm that quality of living isn't great. Coming from Vienna, supposedly the city with the best quality of life, I am spoiled though.

frobozz 12y ago

> If everything above sounds like a description of city made for the rich, this is not the case. ... >There’s one thing that all districts of London have in common though: they are all expensive to live in. Make up your mind.

petercooper 12y ago

It’s the city of Beatles That would be Liverpool, 200 miles north-west :-) or a two thousand year old city, London has no antique palaces or medieval streets It's hard to say what "antique" is in terms of a palace, but I'd argue it has at least one: the Tower of London (officially Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress) was founded in 1066 and much of what stands today was the result of building in the 13th century. This is older than anything in Paris, say, but hardly on a par with Greece ;-) For a casual stroller London looks like a loosely linked collection of small villages It is. Even when my dad was a kid, even suburbs as far in as Kidbrooke, Blackheath and Lewisham were essentially considered unique places, often separated by greenery, and not physically joined to the larger conurbation. A lot of gaps have been filled in the past 50 years to make it feel like more of a whole. Heading south, I don't think you even see a field until you hit Coulsdon now..

easytiger 12y ago
Actually the beatles thing was a recent point of debate because their carrear only kicked off after moving to London
- hipsters_unite 12y ago
  By that measure the Beatles could be said to be from Hamburg, as that was also formative for their career. Even internationally, I would argue that 'Cavern Club' and 'Beatles' are inextricably linked and more famous than anywhere in London they were associated with.
mseebach 12y ago
Also old: Westminster hall (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Westminster#Westminster_Hall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Westminster#Westmins...), built in 1097 and still in active use today. I could care less for the rest of the Palace of Westminster, but the hall is absolutely stunning. The best way to see the hall is to attend a public meeting hosted in parliament as it will be free.
dagw 12y ago
That would be Liverpool If you live in London, than you know that London is the only place worth mentioning, or even acknowledging, in England and thus if it happened in England and is worth mentioning, it must have happened in London.

voicereasonish 12y ago

> This part of England has the same weather throughout most of the year Sorry, but that's just ridiculous. We have seasons over here - clearly defined seasons. At the moment we're enjoying hot sunny days, rainy nights. We'll probably have some good snow in the winter, and a variety of things thrown in between now and then. If you're a fan of weather, then the UK is a great place to live. If you don't like weather then somewhere like California is a better option with its relentless boring sunshine.

michaelochurch 12y ago
Weather is one of those things that everyone complains about, everywhere. The only way to properly evaluate weather is to (a) figure out what you like, and (b) check the data on Weatherspark. Unless you're talking about the summit of Mt. Washington or Ben Nevis, the complaints will always be scarier than the reality. Take Seattle's notorious cloud cover and rain. Reality: 80% cloud cover in the winter, meaning 15-20 hours of sunlight per week-- not great, but not "constant overcast"-- and an hour or two of light rain on most days. Complaint: "you never see the sun in January and it always rains". It's unpredictable how someone will react to climate (especially because even specific locales have good and bad summers and winters from year to year). I've lived in Minnesota and New York City, and I always had worse winter SAD issues in New York, not because of anything to do with the weather itself, but for the damn buildings. "Urban sunset" is 2:30 in some neighborhoods, in the winter. (That said, the benefits of living in New York more than make up for it.) London's definition of "hot" is 20-25 C and mostly sunny. Personally, that's all the heat I need, but there are people in the US who hate the lack of a "real" summer (30+) in places like Seattle, London, or Paris. Most of the US, even in the North (Chicago, New York) gets summers that are very hot by European standards, and so some people get bothered when it's July and they have to wear a jacket in the morning. I don't. When I was in L.A. a year ago people were complaining about "June Gloom" because it was 22 C and cloudy. I couldn't believe it; I was like, "June is still spring, this is awesome!" It was probably a bummer to people who thought LA had year-round "beach weather", though.
- voicereasonish 12y ago
  > there are people in the US who hate the lack of a "real" summer (30+) in places like Seattle, London, or Paris. But then they have AC turned up to full so it's freezing in their office! Funny old world...

peteretep 12y ago

I've lived for ~8 years in London, and ~8 years in Bangkok, a few years in Oxford, and a bit of time in some other random places. The striking thing about London is that EVERYWHERE is an hour away, and that impacts your social life. Unless you live or work next to your friends, prepare to see them rarely. In both Bangkok and Oxford, social life was effortless - someone would SMS you in the afternoon, and you'd swing by some restaurant or bar on your way home to see them. Oxford, everywhere was trivially walkable, Bangkok taxis are virtually free, but London? It's an hour on the tube. Because of this, everyone is BUSY. Busy all the time. If I want to see my friends, I book 6 weeks in advance - and I live relatively central (Zone 2, Camden). Summer in London is amazing - the parks are fantastic, there are some good bars ... winter is cold, rainy, and grey, and bluntly we're moving from London because we can't take another winter here. Just my 2p.

voicereasonish 12y ago
I agree. I went to uni in London for a year - worst decision ever. It's not somewhere you can just meet up with friends who live somewhere else in London. But then cities are generally like that - very lonely places swarming with strangers.
easytiger 12y ago
> .. winter is cold, rainy, and grey Last winter wasn't. We barely had the heating on at all. Year before wasn't that bad. I always find the people who care a lot about the weather to be rather idle-minded. Unless your main intellectual past time is playing golf i'm not sure how it can affect you. If you are busy doing something awesome the last thing you are going to care about is the rain.
- voicereasonish 12y ago
  Perhaps they detest building snowmen, cuddling up in bed when it's cold, drying off in front of an open fire after walking through the rain, that awesome thunderstorm with cool rain after a boiling hot day, the neighbourly camaraderie assessing the damage after a storm etc etc I've never understood people who don't like the variety of weather and seasons. It must be so so boring to not experience, or enjoy weather.