I guess this is an April Fool, but I’m on a bus to work (down a lovely green valley, sheep and cows grazing today since you ask!), so I’ll pretend it was a serious question, as an ex Londoner until I was 26.
I’ve never lived in London, but have spent alot of time there as my 3 sisters and some friends have lived there on and off over the last 25 years. As far as entertainment and culture, there’s nothing else to compare in the UK.
I lived in London for a long time and agree with this. Most interesting cultural stuff either is done in London, or ends up coming to London.
However if you’re organised trains are darned cheap, from our station in Belper, Derbyshire, it is 2 hours to Kings Cross, and as long as you book tickets a week or two in advance, costs about fifty quid, which is way less than the weekly difference in rent / mortgage (we have a 3 large double bedroom mill workers cottage, costs us 650 quid a month). Obviously helps if you have family / friends to visit, although a day trip is actually alright.
It isn’t the same from a cultural point of view as living in London, you have to plan stuff, and put in more effort to find out what’s happening, but on the plus side I live in a beautiful valley, with hundreds of miles of walking and mountain biking rideable from the door, oh and the air is lovely and clear (i was really surprised how much I noticed that after London, every time I go back the air gets me now ).
One thing I wasn’t really fussed about when moving , but which turns out to make a big difference now is a kind of local community that you get in a small town, especially makes a difference once you have kids. In London, there are loads of communities like various groups of art people, or people who are into particular sub cultures or whatever, but I never really felt the same kind of geographical community, where everyone isn’t basically the same kind of person, they just happen to live in the same place and have to get on. In London, because so many people live so close together, there is a kind of social code of basically ignoring people outside your personal community of friends, or who aren’t your type, which you seem to get much less up here, had more conversations with random completely unconnected strangers in a couple of years here than in many years in London .