I finally have my meal ticket out of here, its been 12 years, but there are lots of things I’ll miss and lots of things I’ve never done or seen in the City.

It would definitely be much easier to get work again in London / Thames valley.

And it would be pretty cool for my kids to have grown up here

But, the trade off is I get a cheaper house on the edge of a National Park 🙂 cliched I know 🙄

So, any ex London types, have you regretted moving away?

HELL NO!

NEXT!

In more seriousness… 😉

I probably miss the proximity and immediacy of living in London. Pretty much everything is available now and right there.

Id never want my boys to grow up in London. Im originally a farming bumpkin, and I want them to grow up understanding rural life first, before urban life. Its easier that way around than the other IMO 🙂

I go to London one day a week, still have my London clients, and still hold on to just enough love for the City because I dont have to spend all my time there. I dont resent the City as much as I did as when I lived in London.

London isnt even in my top four “Cities Id be willing to live in” any more (Which is Vancouver, Stockholm, Geneva, Bristol…probably in that order…since you ask)

but there are lots of things I’ll miss and lots of things I’ve never done or seen in the City.

Are you forbidden from visiting once you leave?

Don’t miss the black bogies after a trip into town on the underground.

Nope. Glad I did it but even if you doubled my wages I wouldn’t go back. (3 years in That London, 12 years since then living on the edge of a National Park)

I go back for work or other stuff occasionally, when I arrive I think it’s great to be back and that I should go back more often, by the end of the day I’m happy to be leaving. I miss some things but they are probably more a product of my lifestyle at the time rather than London itself.

oh, and Sushi. Hard to find descent sushi in the sticks 🙂

Let me think what I miss about London….. NOTHING.

I have never been a city kind of a person, I just had the misfortune to be born in one.

oh, and Sushi. Hard to find descent sushi in the sticks

Yes, eating out in provincial restaurants is one obvious downside!

I’m in a similar position, I’m no more than a few weeks away from leaving the big smoke and going back home to Scotland. Can’t think of much I’ll miss, I’ve always been more of a country boy, grew up in the sticks, off home so the bairn can have a better quality of life. Living in the middle of some cracking mountain biking had nothing to do with the decision whatsoever. No sir… 8)

Yes, eating out in provincial restaurants is one obvious downside!

Except the pub opposite my folks house got a michelin star last year and he serves better grub than Ive ever had in London. No hard and fast rools.

Living in the middle of some cracking mountain biking had nothing to do with the decision whatsoever. No sir…

The lure of fell running and mtb from the front door is very very strong for me 😀

I miss it like crazy. I left too soon. Mrshora was more than ready to relocate back up north.

Whenever I go back, something ‘clicks’ and I just fall straight into the buzz/fast flow. I like that, back in the saddle again.

Manchester is **** compared. Quiet, dull, limited night life options but hey ho. No more North Downs.

Still the compensation was….the Peak district

6-1 Hora scores a late goal for the opposition

No hard and fast rools.

I see you have the same attitude to spelling 😉

Glad i tried it. Glad I left.
Having the outdoors just outside my door works for me.

Personally I cant wait to get back to surrey, not lived in london but loved growing up around reigate for access to london and countryside!

Glad i tried it. Glad I left.

This. Grew up in the Peak District, London for a bit, now in the Dales.

I love London as a tourist and bits of it will always be really familiar but, looking back, I was never really happy there. I’m too much of a country boy.

Not in any way, although I’m stuggling to find anywhere remote enough in the UK 😉

Most of our friends have moved out into the coutryside now too after having children.

Oh, and I disagree completely with this:

Yes, eating out in provincial restaurants is one obvious downside!

So many of the restaurants/ pubs in t’sticks cater for the ex-urban market. Loads of places obsessed with local food provenance and quality.

Is it really true that kids have a better quality of life in the countryside? At what age?

There is a hell of a lot of stuff to do in London. And also far more opportunity to meet people who like what you like and get to do a lot of it. Unless it’s MTBing, I suppose somewhat ironically 🙂

I grew up in a small town. No athletics track, no velodrome, no 50m swimming pool, no ice rink, no cinema, no art galleries, no museums, no concerts, no street art, no ballets, no operas, no theatre, no plays.. etc etc. And most of my school friends were country bumpkins with no ambition! That had a fair old effect on me.

Can’t wait to get out, for myself and my family.

Might miss my friends, but had my fill of everything else.

I grew up in the countryside, wandering through woods and fields. Never touching a road. Hence why I like to play out again on my bike now.

However theres just something about London. The choices it gives you for a night out. The things to do. Just living, hanging round some of the great places. Hard to describe.

If I won the lottery I think I’d have a place in Camden and a place in the Peaks. However I’d spend most of my time in London.

The Tubes didn’t bother me too much as I always rode to work or started silly-early.

Sometimes I miss the buzz of the place and I love visiting, but I love being a provincial moron with the clean air and not waking up murdered in my bed every day, more.

grew up in a small town. No athletics track, no velodrome, no 50m swimming pool, no ice rink, no cinema, no art galleries, no museums, no concerts, no street art, no ballets, no operas, no theatre, no plays.. etc etc.

^This.

I worked in London for a few years, then lived in Edinburgh before moving to countryside. On balance I love outdoors and coutryside most but I would avoid the general assumption that countryside = good and city = bad,

It depends where you move to and what is there. As above the big city has a lot of options.

I dont really miss it. Some times yes but mostly no; I have lots of options and things to do in Cadiz/Malaga though, as well as big open spaces and rural/village life.

I can also hop on a plane and get to London pretty easily if I want to.

I think London is a great place when you are young and have some spare money and no responsibilities, you can go out to a different place every night, meet a diverse range of people and there is a buzz about the place.

But now i am older, i enjoy going there occasionally to see an attraction or visit the few friends that haven’t moved away, but i really don’t miss living there and i don’t miss that feeling of washing the grime off my face at the end of each day and that feeling of walking out of my house onto a tube straight into artificially lit office and back.

I studied, worked & lived in SW London for 20 years & loved it. Moved abroad but always feel like London is my home, that’s where I’d most like to live.

Fortunately I kept a property there so have the chance whenever I want to go back. I’d think v hard before selling up & moving out as once done you are pretty much priced out the market if you want to go back.

Hope it helps

I moved from Islington to Ribble Valley…..

Do I miss London? Yes.

Do I wish I was back there? No

I don’t think I can compare where I live now, to where I used to live. They are so different, both have equal plus and minuses.

My commute is now a cycle through the gentle rolling hills of Lancashire…

Doing something very similar myself.
Been in London 12 years but moving away by the end of the year with our first kid on the way.
Priorities change, it was fun but I don’t think I’ll miss it.
Have to say that these last couple of weeks with the Olympics have been some of the best London weeks.
Maybe I’ll come back next time they’re here.

and not waking up murdered in my bed every day

When we lived in West Hampstead I witnessed an armed robbery, saw two scallies being resuscitated/stabilised for stab wounds at the top of our road, a womans body was stored in the boot of a Merc on my road, A Kosavan was stabbed to death at my tube station down the road and a fella kicked to death further down on a night out. I think thats it. Theres probably more.

Yeah, but when that happens in the sticks no-one finds out. 😉

My sister lived in a tiny village on the Welsh border for about two years or so. In that time someone was beaten to death a few houses away, and someone else was deliberately burned alive in his own house.

Grew up in small town in Cheshire, playing in the fields, making dens in the hedgerows etc. Went to London to visit my brother and cousins a few times in late teens and just decided that’s where I wanted to be: stuff just seemed to happen in London, small town had no excitement.
Came down at 18 for uni and still here (now 39) and no plans to leave.
However, in 2010 I moved up to Manchester – primarily to be closer to the Lakes (a few biking mates there), Peaks and N Wales. Thought it would be biking paradise and promptly missed London like I never expected.
‘Luckily’ I got shafted by my boss and lost my job. No work coming up in Manchester so I came back.
I love the buzz and the energy and the fact that stuff happens in London. Manchester seemed really empty and quiet in comparison.
Weather made a difference – so much sunnier down south.
And I overlooked the fact that most of my friends are in London/SE. Even tho most are settled with kids now, not having them on hand for a quick after work drink made a much bigger difference than I anticipated.
Best thing I ever did was leave London, made me realise how much I love it…
And as Hora says, Surrey Hills singletrack – missed that too.
Only major downside right now is Manchester has a velodrome, the London one won’t be available till next year 🙁

Manchester seemed really empty and quiet in comparison.

You know, thats what I think when I go through Manchester post-shopping hours. Even at weekends alot of the centre is quiet. Weird.

Apart from the meatmarket pubs in certain concentrated areas there really isn’t much life in or near the centre.

Plus the handgrenades don’t seem to have much oomph.

I think moving to the countryside or a nice provincial town would be nice.

Moving to another city in the UK would just feel like a lame version of London.

My sister lived in a tiny village on the Welsh border for about two years or so. In that time someone was beaten to death a few houses away, and someone else was deliberately burned alive in his own house.

Did she get away with it?

Can’t you buy a place “in t’ country” and keep the place in That London??

T’is what I did.

Weather made a difference – so much sunnier down south

Yes, a geordie mate who moved back to Newcastle 5 or 6 years ago always comments on that one whenever he is visiting us.

Can’t you buy a place “in t’ country” and keep the place in That London??

I’m not made of money! I could rent it out, but I don’t fancy the liability of all the debt.