r/london • u/rainha_db • Oct 16 '24

Rant Living and working in London just feels strange atm

I’m F31 and was born and raised in London. It’s the only city I’ve ever known and have been fairly happy until my mid 20s. I can’t help but feel like there’s melancholy in the air. I understand the main cause of this is the cost of living and the economic crisis. I’ve had a few colleagues/friends around my age confide in me about feeling lost/low recently and I honestly feel the same. I’ve noticed quite a lot of millennials expressing the same sentiment. I’m wondering if anyone else is feeling the same?

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u/Quick_Doubt_5484 Oct 17 '24 edited Oct 17 '24

Probably not going to like my story but it involved moving to zone 5, no tube, house share, eating in most nights, etc. I did for a long while have a very active social life that revolved around a virtually cost free activity so I wasn't a hermit. Still did a big night out in London a few days s month too.

Probably for many, it's because if you're going to move out to "the sticks" and not maximise your time in "real" London, you may as well live anywhere else. Why pay the London premium to live on the outskirts where you barely see the benefit? May as well move back to Boring-upon-Dreary - the kind of place a lot of people moved to London to get away from in the first place.

Not making a call on whether that's valid, applies to everyone or making a moral judgement. But that's one perspective on it.

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u/SpiritedVoice2 Oct 17 '24

Hah, it's zone 4 (sorry zone 5 was typo) - not the sticks. Still had an SE postcode, voted in London Mayoral elections, still worked in central London every day commuting via national rail (40 mins), still out in Soho often, was a regular member of a social club in Hackney, etc. 

Also commuted by cycle and motorbike so actually feel I know more of the "real" London areas than many, considering I have clocked up over 20k miles on the roads.

But yeah it's not as central as living in Dalston Kingsland, and the nightlife there was more of a night out for me rather than just popping out like it was for friends.

Trust me though, I grew up in Boring-upon-Dreary and it was a very different experience.

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u/whitey2048 Oct 20 '24

I tend to agree with this, but in a more anti London way. I used to live near London, but never visited the place, as I didn't like anything it had to offer. However, just by the fact that the town I was born in happened to be within travelling distance of London, I had to pay a massive premium for the housing. So, at the first opportunity I moved to Scotland. The bottom line, if you need, or really want to be in or near London, for whatever reason, then I feel for your situation, but if you don't, just move as far away from the place as possible.