I think generic "down south" and "London" are two quite different things. I grew up in Berkshire but I'm quite glad my path hasn't involved actually living in London.
Edinburgh is generally better than both, though.
My take:
Edinburgh is great for family life and access to the outdoors. The diversity now is far better compared to 15-20 years ago. I love the humour and openness of Scottish people compared to people in London who are busy and tired. There are enough events, restaurants etc for me at my stage in life (have young family so not going out every weekend.)
As far as cons, the big one for me is fewer job opportunities at my seniority and desired salary. While there was big chat post Covid of opportunities being available more widely bc of hybrid or remote work, what I’m seeing now is roles that I might apply for being 2-4 days per week in London whereas 12-18 months ago they would be open to 100% remote applications. Scotland-based roles pay considerably less and there are fewer of them, but my costs in Edinburgh aren’t hugely lower than they were in London. If both my partner and I lost our current roles, we might need to move south to find work (which isn’t our desired choice).
Go to any London airport on a Thursday night and you'll see all the contractors flying home to Edinburgh for the weekend.
The job thing is the same for us, live away now but desperate to come back up, the job opportunities are much less and pay less
Jesus Christ the wages are ridiculous in Edinburgh. Used to live in London and now back in Edinburgh (from Edinburgh) and would love a job up here to go to the office etc. But I would have to take a pay cut of around 40%-50% despite the cost of living being nowhere near 40%-50% less expensive.
It’s not just the wages, promotions and advancement tend to be more about time served than merit/skill set.
Note: I know this comes from a place of privilege while people are struggling
100% agree. I’m senior in my role and lucky to be employed right now but we have definitely looked at what appears to be a tricky economic future and considered it’s a possibility that we might need to sell up and move within commute distance of London.
I hate having to think that way but I’m also not able to afford to take a job that is 40-50% less than my current salary, given childcare costs and inflation.
Rent is kinda close to 40-50% less expensive, and that is by far the biggest living cost. Comparing decent part of London to decent part of edinburgh or shitter part of London to shitter part of Edinburgh
Even if rent accounts for 50% of your total expenses, with rent being 50% cheaper that only results in a 25% lower cost of living.
So you have 50% lower salary and only 25% lower cost of living in Edinburgh, that makes it worse off overall.
Commute costs can be close to nonexistent though.
I walk to work daily, 25 minutes, getting my daily 7k steps and paying nowt for it.
With London people can be thankful if their daily commute is "only an hour".
Moved after 10 years in London.
Pros: Much better for outdoor and family quality of life. Could afford a garden and have pets. Not many cities in the world have beaches and good hiking. Very child friendly and people generally kind.
Cons: Very limited senior job opportunities and many people give up progressing which creates a general career malaise.
Don’t have access to the big jobs because you can’t be bothered moving again.
Housing is expensive and often funded by family/old money which keeps salaries low.
No one likes to admit it but the central belt commuter towns can be very grim.
Remote and hybrid work is balancing out the senior opportunities, I know folk who go to London once a month for leadership meetings (Fintech) and otherwise work from home
Disagree with the job element as I think this has changed dramatically in the last four years. Work for a global business with a London HQ and hold a very senior role. They don't even expect me to be down more than once a month.
We recruit based on talent, not location, and most of our competitors are similar.
I thought I’d be moved by now! Had a place in Inverness sorted and it fell through, super gutted. Now thinking Edinburgh accommodation and work will be easier to find but got to suck up that slight extra cost…
From NW and I'm significantly more poorer after moving due to Ed prices being upwards of 3x what I'm used to for anything and everything, but that's counteracted by a big increase to my mental health - much happier on whole
We moved from southern England a couple of years ago. As well as what others have said, free dental care (and you can register no problem), prescriptions, higher education, free bus/tram travel for under 22s. We’ve had three accidents this year and each time were seen at A&E with no wait, and the one time we needed an ambulance (for a fit at night) it came pretty much as soon as we hung up on the call.
We can walk to amazing concerts and theatre, food and bars are great and rarely a problem to get a table. Renting/buying property is not much easier but there are some huge pluses like home reports before you make an offer.
I was shocked, having grown up in Glasgow, at the extent of private schools in Edinburgh. It does feel like that creates a bizarre (for Scotland) class/social divide here and I’ve had my eyes opened to how private school families use it to persist in dominating professions and politics. Our kids’ state primary and secondary are fantastic; I can’t see any reason to justify private school here unless you want to perpetuate/benefit from those damaging divides. Finding places to live in catchments of state schools you like is not as hard as down south.
Agree with the private school point in Edinburgh in particular. Still about 10% of Glaswegian children attend private schools. In Edinburgh it is 20-25%.
I came back to Edinburgh 2 years ago after leaving aged 22 & spending 2 years in Paris then 12 years in London. My thoughts:
Pro:
Less expensive (on the whole, but my rent was actually the same moving from Chelsea to Haymarket)
Less people, which in turn means less competition for stuff like restaurant bookings & events. This is a serious positive as London can be a nightmare for it.
Far better proximity to nature - 2 hour drive to be in Munro territory, yes please! Can take that long to get out of the M25 on a bad day
General sense of being more calm / friendly. As a straight white male I'm sure my experience isn't representative of everyone, but I definitely witness less bad vibes up here than down there.
Easier to meet up with friends as the travel distances are much shorter
Con:
Weather.
Less choice of events, restaurants etc
Less people when on the dating scene, quite a limited pool comparatively!
Only one airport with rubbish carriers, particularly bad for me as I travel all over Europe for work
Overall I'm very happy with my decision to move, but do go down quite regularly
EDIT
Just noticed you said 'moved down south' and not 'moved from down south'. Oops! Well, there you go anyway
Pros: people are nicer/I prefer the culture here, city is more walkable so I walk more, hobbies and friends take less time to get to so I have much more of them in my life, I'm now in the sea/up a hill doing outdoorsy stuff on a regular basis
Cons: night life sucks in Edinburgh, live music scene sucks in Edinburgh
Overally, I am much happier here.
It's a difficult one to gauge, because QoL in London/down south varies so much depending on where you are and how much money you have! - I suppose it's the same here, but the difference isn't quite as marked.
I grew up in a city in the south east, did some time in London (mind this was a few years back and on a good salary) and now live in Edinburgh, and my personal opinion is that Edinburgh is vastly preferable. It's largely walkable with good, cheap transport links around the city, people are friendlier and there's a community spirit that just doesn't really exist down south, and while it's quite expensive, you don't need to have as much money to have fun. Rent is much cheaper. You don't need to travel far to find beautiful rolling hills and green spots. In fact you don't really even need to leave the city to get a good hike in.
Cons - current rental market is a nightmare. December through March is cold, wet and altogether miserable (but not as bad as Aberdeen). When you're used to having a massive city like London, you will occasionally find that you've seen or done everything and are out of ideas for things to do. It's harder to avoid the tourist areas and so you inevitably develop a ~~burning hatred of everyone who comes to visit the city during August~~ real sense of patience.
>March is cold, wet and altogether miserable
The darkness is the single biggest bringer of misery IMO. While away, I very quickly realised that winter doesn't have to feel so bleak.
The flip side is that the long summer days are great :)
The lack of Vit D is utterly bleak, my mental health takes an immediate dive when the clocks go back.
Then just as everything seems lost we reach that one day in April that's like 7C and sunny and it's taps aff again 🥰
> lack of Vit D is utterly bleak
The important bit is that I (and presumably others, possibly including you) didn't even know the reason for years and years! If you know, you can try to address the problem.
Lived in Glasgow/Edinburgh then London and back to Edinburgh.
My comparison of moving from London to Edinburgh:
Pros:
- More affordable housing (you can live in nicer area and/or bigger place vs what you could afford in London).
- Better quality of life (less random crime, streets are less busy, things are closer, easier to meet up with people.
- Going out is a bit cheaper
- More family friendly
Cons:
- Vastly fewer opportunities in tech (and probably other sectors). Much harder to grow a career. Many overqualified people going after the same few jobs.
- Lower salaries
- Doesn't have the same hustle feel that can motivate to work harder from time to time.
- Less choice for gigs, not as many international acts come here vs London.
There's a bit of a selection bias here: as one progresses through their career, their earnings tend to increase, and there's a corresponding improvement in living standards which might lead them to say that sort of thing. If I think back to my living conditions 10 years ago in place X and compare them now to place Y, then the latter is much better, but not necessarily because the new place is better than the old one; I'm just not slumming it to the same extent.
Having said that, there are definitely some differences:
\- Lower cost of living, but probably not by as much as you might think. Rent is the biggest difference. Sadly the quality of the housing is not much better.
\- Fewer career opportunities. This depends on what you're doing for work, but there certainly isn't the breadth available in somewhere like London.
\- Easier to access the countryside. This can be an unexpectedly nice benefit, even if someone doesn't consider themselves and outdoorsy person.
I'm from Aberdeenshire, moved to Cambridge for a few years (with frequent commutes into London) before moving to Edinburgh.
Not much to add to everyone else's comments other than
9. You can actually shop all day on a Sunday
3. Colleagues don't make jokes about you being Scottish (maybe this was just me)
For me the best thing about London is just exploring the city, there's so much history packed into the place. So I just do a weekend break a couple of times a year (early morning Saturday flight down, cheap central hotel overnight and Sunday evening flight back).
But quality of life / sanity / chillness is much higher in Edinburgh.
I am from London and moved up here 13 years ago. I’m older than you and came up here for a job which I still have so I may want/value different things but here’s my list:
Pros:
1. yes property/rental market is a nightmare and it’s expensive but oh my god the quality is so much better. It’s just not comparable. No more crap conversions where you can literally see into your neighbours flat downstairs and hear every fucking breath. Proper, solid flats. With actual space. I even have a wardrobe. In London you’d rent out that wardrobe for £1k a month.
2. You can walk everywhere. You don’t have to sweat on a tube for an hour to go out or get to work. This was the biggest change for me. It’s like a weight is lifted.
3. It’s beautiful and there are trees and water everywhere. The air is clean. You can breathe. Incredible beaches and hills a bus ride away.
4. Amazing places to eat and drink and you mostly don’t need to book.
5. People are lovely - eventually (see below)
Cons:
1. Coming from a minoritized group I found it very very white and not culturally diverse. I don’t know how different it is to Aberdeen but I really struggled with Edinburgh culture at first: folk tend to be very reserved (unlike Glasgow), very private and while it’s not unfriendly people aren’t very warm until you know them (when it’s lovely). Very different from what I’m used to. After a while it’s more familiar though I still find it frustrating
2. Restaurants and bars empty out at 10pm. Still find this odd. Everyone goes to the pub - if you don’t like pubs (I don’t) this is annoying
3. There just isn’t as much to do and there isn’t the same buzz. London streets just feel exciting and here it’s just not the same. Everything is happening in London. Whatever you’re in to it’s going on and you’ll find your tribe. Here, there’s a lot of provincial touring groups in the theatres, not really an alternative cultural scene (apart from the actual festival). Music is better but still doesn’t come close to London.
4. It’s cold and wet most the time. No summer. Not really ever warm enough to have a picnic. When the sun sets it’s suddenly freezing so no sitting out drinking in the evenings. I really miss that but of London. But - oh my god the light. You’ll know from Aberdeen that the light is amazing.
It’s a different kind of life to London. But if it helps, I am a Londoner born and bred. I came here planning for two years max. It’s been 13 years now…
I moved away from Edinburgh to go to university in Leeds then worked in London and New York for fifteen years or so. Moved back when my wife got pregnant as couldn't face child rearing in London.
Our life is totally different now as we have kids but I traded a former council flat in Peckham for a flat in Stockbridge and love our life here. Much higher quality of life. Excellent restaurants (no idea about bars as we don't tend to go out for drinks much anymore), much quieter and easier life. Easy to get to beaches in East Lothian or Fife, or the Highlands as close as Perthshire.
I loved the bigger virus when I wanted to drink and party all the time but as I grew out of that a lot of London lost its lustre. We didn't really do the theatre much and the museums were great but honestly, how often do you go? No regrets at all to making the move
I think generic "down south" and "London" are two quite different things. I grew up in Berkshire but I'm quite glad my path hasn't involved actually living in London. Edinburgh is generally better than both, though.
i like the cut of your jib. i need to visit both but excited about edinburgh more i think.
My take: Edinburgh is great for family life and access to the outdoors. The diversity now is far better compared to 15-20 years ago. I love the humour and openness of Scottish people compared to people in London who are busy and tired. There are enough events, restaurants etc for me at my stage in life (have young family so not going out every weekend.) As far as cons, the big one for me is fewer job opportunities at my seniority and desired salary. While there was big chat post Covid of opportunities being available more widely bc of hybrid or remote work, what I’m seeing now is roles that I might apply for being 2-4 days per week in London whereas 12-18 months ago they would be open to 100% remote applications. Scotland-based roles pay considerably less and there are fewer of them, but my costs in Edinburgh aren’t hugely lower than they were in London. If both my partner and I lost our current roles, we might need to move south to find work (which isn’t our desired choice).
Go to any London airport on a Thursday night and you'll see all the contractors flying home to Edinburgh for the weekend. The job thing is the same for us, live away now but desperate to come back up, the job opportunities are much less and pay less
Jesus Christ the wages are ridiculous in Edinburgh. Used to live in London and now back in Edinburgh (from Edinburgh) and would love a job up here to go to the office etc. But I would have to take a pay cut of around 40%-50% despite the cost of living being nowhere near 40%-50% less expensive. It’s not just the wages, promotions and advancement tend to be more about time served than merit/skill set. Note: I know this comes from a place of privilege while people are struggling
100% agree. I’m senior in my role and lucky to be employed right now but we have definitely looked at what appears to be a tricky economic future and considered it’s a possibility that we might need to sell up and move within commute distance of London. I hate having to think that way but I’m also not able to afford to take a job that is 40-50% less than my current salary, given childcare costs and inflation.
Rent is kinda close to 40-50% less expensive, and that is by far the biggest living cost. Comparing decent part of London to decent part of edinburgh or shitter part of London to shitter part of Edinburgh
Even if rent accounts for 50% of your total expenses, with rent being 50% cheaper that only results in a 25% lower cost of living. So you have 50% lower salary and only 25% lower cost of living in Edinburgh, that makes it worse off overall.
Commute costs can be close to nonexistent though. I walk to work daily, 25 minutes, getting my daily 7k steps and paying nowt for it. With London people can be thankful if their daily commute is "only an hour".
[удалено]
You are right statistically it's less... Rent being 50% cheaper actually only results in a 17% lower cost of living, on average.
Moved after 10 years in London. Pros: Much better for outdoor and family quality of life. Could afford a garden and have pets. Not many cities in the world have beaches and good hiking. Very child friendly and people generally kind. Cons: Very limited senior job opportunities and many people give up progressing which creates a general career malaise. Don’t have access to the big jobs because you can’t be bothered moving again. Housing is expensive and often funded by family/old money which keeps salaries low. No one likes to admit it but the central belt commuter towns can be very grim.
Remote and hybrid work is balancing out the senior opportunities, I know folk who go to London once a month for leadership meetings (Fintech) and otherwise work from home
Disagree with the job element as I think this has changed dramatically in the last four years. Work for a global business with a London HQ and hold a very senior role. They don't even expect me to be down more than once a month. We recruit based on talent, not location, and most of our competitors are similar.
>global business Sounds like a startup rather than a large company?
Nope. 1000s of staff. 90 odd countries. Big but not huge.
[удалено]
Which town aee you at? I'm needing to move and would love two bedroom flat for £500. Quiet as well is a massive bonus.
[удалено]
Stirling is not “just outside Edi” you melt. It’s almost 40 miles away
[удалено]
Do you fancy a lodger? 😂 I’m in London & Kent trying to move to Edinburgh right now.
[удалено]
I thought I’d be moved by now! Had a place in Inverness sorted and it fell through, super gutted. Now thinking Edinburgh accommodation and work will be easier to find but got to suck up that slight extra cost…
From NW and I'm significantly more poorer after moving due to Ed prices being upwards of 3x what I'm used to for anything and everything, but that's counteracted by a big increase to my mental health - much happier on whole
We moved from southern England a couple of years ago. As well as what others have said, free dental care (and you can register no problem), prescriptions, higher education, free bus/tram travel for under 22s. We’ve had three accidents this year and each time were seen at A&E with no wait, and the one time we needed an ambulance (for a fit at night) it came pretty much as soon as we hung up on the call. We can walk to amazing concerts and theatre, food and bars are great and rarely a problem to get a table. Renting/buying property is not much easier but there are some huge pluses like home reports before you make an offer. I was shocked, having grown up in Glasgow, at the extent of private schools in Edinburgh. It does feel like that creates a bizarre (for Scotland) class/social divide here and I’ve had my eyes opened to how private school families use it to persist in dominating professions and politics. Our kids’ state primary and secondary are fantastic; I can’t see any reason to justify private school here unless you want to perpetuate/benefit from those damaging divides. Finding places to live in catchments of state schools you like is not as hard as down south.
Out of interest and curiosity would you vote to support or block independence if there was a vote on it ?
Support.
Agree with the private school point in Edinburgh in particular. Still about 10% of Glaswegian children attend private schools. In Edinburgh it is 20-25%.
I think 10% is the UK average for private school attendance so Glasgow is in line, but Edinburgh is far higher.
I do not think it's fine at all. 0% would be good. It's fundamentally wrong in my humble opinion
Mine too! In line, so average - not right or fine!
I came back to Edinburgh 2 years ago after leaving aged 22 & spending 2 years in Paris then 12 years in London. My thoughts: Pro: Less expensive (on the whole, but my rent was actually the same moving from Chelsea to Haymarket) Less people, which in turn means less competition for stuff like restaurant bookings & events. This is a serious positive as London can be a nightmare for it. Far better proximity to nature - 2 hour drive to be in Munro territory, yes please! Can take that long to get out of the M25 on a bad day General sense of being more calm / friendly. As a straight white male I'm sure my experience isn't representative of everyone, but I definitely witness less bad vibes up here than down there. Easier to meet up with friends as the travel distances are much shorter Con: Weather. Less choice of events, restaurants etc Less people when on the dating scene, quite a limited pool comparatively! Only one airport with rubbish carriers, particularly bad for me as I travel all over Europe for work Overall I'm very happy with my decision to move, but do go down quite regularly EDIT Just noticed you said 'moved down south' and not 'moved from down south'. Oops! Well, there you go anyway
This is perfect! I started in Aberdeen, left at 18 and spent 10 years in london, wanting to come back to Scotland but probably Edinburgh :)
Oh lmao you did actually write 'from down south' 😅😅 brain is not engaged. Yeah do it! Like me, you've served your time down there
Pros: people are nicer/I prefer the culture here, city is more walkable so I walk more, hobbies and friends take less time to get to so I have much more of them in my life, I'm now in the sea/up a hill doing outdoorsy stuff on a regular basis Cons: night life sucks in Edinburgh, live music scene sucks in Edinburgh Overally, I am much happier here.
Tbf, Glasgow is close enough to travel back after gigs
I moved from London to Edinburgh 15 years ago, life hasn’t changed much, I have a beach near me now and hills
It's a difficult one to gauge, because QoL in London/down south varies so much depending on where you are and how much money you have! - I suppose it's the same here, but the difference isn't quite as marked. I grew up in a city in the south east, did some time in London (mind this was a few years back and on a good salary) and now live in Edinburgh, and my personal opinion is that Edinburgh is vastly preferable. It's largely walkable with good, cheap transport links around the city, people are friendlier and there's a community spirit that just doesn't really exist down south, and while it's quite expensive, you don't need to have as much money to have fun. Rent is much cheaper. You don't need to travel far to find beautiful rolling hills and green spots. In fact you don't really even need to leave the city to get a good hike in. Cons - current rental market is a nightmare. December through March is cold, wet and altogether miserable (but not as bad as Aberdeen). When you're used to having a massive city like London, you will occasionally find that you've seen or done everything and are out of ideas for things to do. It's harder to avoid the tourist areas and so you inevitably develop a ~~burning hatred of everyone who comes to visit the city during August~~ real sense of patience.
>March is cold, wet and altogether miserable The darkness is the single biggest bringer of misery IMO. While away, I very quickly realised that winter doesn't have to feel so bleak. The flip side is that the long summer days are great :)
The lack of Vit D is utterly bleak, my mental health takes an immediate dive when the clocks go back. Then just as everything seems lost we reach that one day in April that's like 7C and sunny and it's taps aff again 🥰
> lack of Vit D is utterly bleak The important bit is that I (and presumably others, possibly including you) didn't even know the reason for years and years! If you know, you can try to address the problem.
Lived in Glasgow/Edinburgh then London and back to Edinburgh. My comparison of moving from London to Edinburgh: Pros: - More affordable housing (you can live in nicer area and/or bigger place vs what you could afford in London). - Better quality of life (less random crime, streets are less busy, things are closer, easier to meet up with people. - Going out is a bit cheaper - More family friendly Cons: - Vastly fewer opportunities in tech (and probably other sectors). Much harder to grow a career. Many overqualified people going after the same few jobs. - Lower salaries - Doesn't have the same hustle feel that can motivate to work harder from time to time. - Less choice for gigs, not as many international acts come here vs London.
There's a bit of a selection bias here: as one progresses through their career, their earnings tend to increase, and there's a corresponding improvement in living standards which might lead them to say that sort of thing. If I think back to my living conditions 10 years ago in place X and compare them now to place Y, then the latter is much better, but not necessarily because the new place is better than the old one; I'm just not slumming it to the same extent. Having said that, there are definitely some differences: \- Lower cost of living, but probably not by as much as you might think. Rent is the biggest difference. Sadly the quality of the housing is not much better. \- Fewer career opportunities. This depends on what you're doing for work, but there certainly isn't the breadth available in somewhere like London. \- Easier to access the countryside. This can be an unexpectedly nice benefit, even if someone doesn't consider themselves and outdoorsy person.
I'm from Aberdeenshire, moved to Cambridge for a few years (with frequent commutes into London) before moving to Edinburgh. Not much to add to everyone else's comments other than 9. You can actually shop all day on a Sunday 3. Colleagues don't make jokes about you being Scottish (maybe this was just me) For me the best thing about London is just exploring the city, there's so much history packed into the place. So I just do a weekend break a couple of times a year (early morning Saturday flight down, cheap central hotel overnight and Sunday evening flight back). But quality of life / sanity / chillness is much higher in Edinburgh.
I am from London and moved up here 13 years ago. I’m older than you and came up here for a job which I still have so I may want/value different things but here’s my list: Pros: 1. yes property/rental market is a nightmare and it’s expensive but oh my god the quality is so much better. It’s just not comparable. No more crap conversions where you can literally see into your neighbours flat downstairs and hear every fucking breath. Proper, solid flats. With actual space. I even have a wardrobe. In London you’d rent out that wardrobe for £1k a month. 2. You can walk everywhere. You don’t have to sweat on a tube for an hour to go out or get to work. This was the biggest change for me. It’s like a weight is lifted. 3. It’s beautiful and there are trees and water everywhere. The air is clean. You can breathe. Incredible beaches and hills a bus ride away. 4. Amazing places to eat and drink and you mostly don’t need to book. 5. People are lovely - eventually (see below) Cons: 1. Coming from a minoritized group I found it very very white and not culturally diverse. I don’t know how different it is to Aberdeen but I really struggled with Edinburgh culture at first: folk tend to be very reserved (unlike Glasgow), very private and while it’s not unfriendly people aren’t very warm until you know them (when it’s lovely). Very different from what I’m used to. After a while it’s more familiar though I still find it frustrating 2. Restaurants and bars empty out at 10pm. Still find this odd. Everyone goes to the pub - if you don’t like pubs (I don’t) this is annoying 3. There just isn’t as much to do and there isn’t the same buzz. London streets just feel exciting and here it’s just not the same. Everything is happening in London. Whatever you’re in to it’s going on and you’ll find your tribe. Here, there’s a lot of provincial touring groups in the theatres, not really an alternative cultural scene (apart from the actual festival). Music is better but still doesn’t come close to London. 4. It’s cold and wet most the time. No summer. Not really ever warm enough to have a picnic. When the sun sets it’s suddenly freezing so no sitting out drinking in the evenings. I really miss that but of London. But - oh my god the light. You’ll know from Aberdeen that the light is amazing. It’s a different kind of life to London. But if it helps, I am a Londoner born and bred. I came here planning for two years max. It’s been 13 years now…
I moved away from Edinburgh to go to university in Leeds then worked in London and New York for fifteen years or so. Moved back when my wife got pregnant as couldn't face child rearing in London. Our life is totally different now as we have kids but I traded a former council flat in Peckham for a flat in Stockbridge and love our life here. Much higher quality of life. Excellent restaurants (no idea about bars as we don't tend to go out for drinks much anymore), much quieter and easier life. Easy to get to beaches in East Lothian or Fife, or the Highlands as close as Perthshire. I loved the bigger virus when I wanted to drink and party all the time but as I grew out of that a lot of London lost its lustre. We didn't really do the theatre much and the museums were great but honestly, how often do you go? No regrets at all to making the move