Being from London vs. Moving There As an Adult

i moved here recently, but most of my friends are original londoners. for them, the idea of growing up in the provinces is horrific.

i love living in london, all the more because i am constantly aware of the ways in which is it is different (and better, more fun, etc) to southampton. point is, outsider-looking-in is always a desirable position to be in. my friends have no idea what life outside london is like, and don't even appreciate the ways that living in london is unique, or weird.

so: coming from the provinces/suburbs to london, and appreciating what's good about both, is best. plus you're less miserable and more full of wonder. plus you get to fulfil a classic romantic dick whittington archetype! result.

Dave Q is of course right about paranoid, hard-hearted, cliquey Londoners, but it's a protective mechanism, like all communities have. I know I am both insular and impatient *and* kind and welcoming in reality - but because I'm a Londoner the former is a more public face, and makes outsiders like Dave feel threatened and excluded.

I've never moved anywhere to live intending it to be indefinite or permanent, so I don't really understand the true mentality of those who move somewhere new. But we're all looking after number one in our own/our community's own way.

Course I am all gay too as I live in Londong-on-Sea. But I love it and loving where I live is more important to me than anything else. I could never love London. I don't know whether people who have moved there in adulthood have a healthier kind of affection for the city than natives or not...

i think MOST transplants do well out of moving to the inner city...i'm just waiting for Gareth's contribution to this thread assuming he's going to make one.

However, I've always said that I live a small-town life in a big city. I find that I *am* surrounded by a big extended clan, some of whom I go back years and years with, but its kind of like some big amorphous extended group that people drift in and out of at will (not all native Londoners, although a lot of them are). But I reckon it's because of this that I'm glad, unlike other people I know, I haven't had to make that big break with friends and family in order to live and work in London.

Incidentally, out of the thirty-five or so people I work with, only three of us are native Londoners.

And SteveM is OTM.

I gave lousy directions, once, I swear this is true, football and telly star Ian Wr*ght asked me for directions to Acton Town Hall. I was like it's down there, you gotta turn left here, but I dunno if it's one-way or not, he just looked at me like I was a fool coz of my vagueness and sped off.

However, most of the time I give good directions, but this time I was trying to figure out if it was Wr*ghty or not, plus I'm a Spurs supporter.

There are some extraordinary insular people here, but this is true everywhere. Only being interested in London seems more understandable than only being interested in, say, Chippenham.

There are plenty of council estates/blocks in Z1/2 - presumably families/individuals who were able to get to the head of the local authority waiting list in the 60s/70s have stayed put, perhaps exercising their right to buy in the 80s.

what, they were forced at gunpoint? this is what i'm getting at

What are the options for a family on low income who have a roof over their heads thanks to [i] the existence of council housing and associated low rent, [ii] their good fortune* in being allocated same at some earlier date?

(* - I don't really mean that, but I'm not sure of the procedure).

I imagine they could move to Sunderland or Stoke or Totnes where even the private flats are cheap, but work far less available. I'm not sure moving to another country is much of an option economically. Live rough, I guess.

excuse the potentially offensive pandering to stereotypes there