The draws of London are too many to list. One of the world's great metropolises, perhaps only New York has the same gravitational pull that makes thousands of people each year pledge to make the city their home, flooding in from hometowns across the UK and far beyond - often, becoming Londoners in one go without ever having visited the city before.
If you're a journalist like me, the call to London is perhaps inevitable - but the same goes for lots of jobs. London is a hub of industry; the number of roles based here increased by around 1.2 million between 2010 and 2019, a rise of 25 per cent (compared to 14 per cent across England as a whole). And despite the pandemic, London's workforce was boosted by some 269,000 jobs in the three years from December 2019 to December 2022 - an economic uptick not seen elsewhere.
So whether it's the opportunities for better jobs, or the allure of London's culture, nightlife and - let's face it - the chance to meet interesting people, the reasons for coming to London are often multi-fold. I moved inside the M25 barrier only recently, leaving behind my native Newcastle (disclaimer: I also had a long sojourn in Luton; you can read about that here). Here are just some of the things that I have come to love about London.
Coffee, coffee, coffee... and bagels!
If, like me, some of your happiest moments are spent sipping artisanal coffee while sitting at a table outside a quirky café on a street corner - then London is a natural habitat. Coffee culture in London is unlike anywhere else; there are cafes for commuters, and then there are boho coffeehouses specifically for hanging out. I like my coffee strong, and luckily, I never have to ask for an extra shot in any of my local haunts, whether it's 215 Hackney Café in Stoke Newington, Shepherdess Café in Old Street, or River Gardens Cafe in Greenwich.
And for all the talk of high costs in London, the city is abuzz with cheap eats - which, you may notice, we regularly highlight at MyLondon, with everything from £17 pizzas to delicious Basque cheesecakes. I wasn't familiar with the importance of local bakeries, serving every wheat sundry under the sun, until I moved here and saw just how loved they are by the communities around them. But it's a tradition I respect and admire, even with only the partial knowledge of an outsider.
Bars, nightlife and... a whiff of romance
They say if you're bored of London, then you're bored of life - and it's true that London's nightlife is kaleidoscopic. There's something here for everyone, and it's impossible to sum up in a single sentence - that's what makes it wonderful. Whether you have a love of live music and gigs at legendary spots such as Camden Underworld, or you're at ease hanging out in Farringdon's famous Fabric nightclub, every scene and every grassroots movement has a base here.
For casual socialising, party zones like Soho still have a broad appeal even if they're no longer the intense nightspots that they once were. As a gay man, I love London, not least because it has perhaps the highest quota of same-sex attracted people in the UK according to the 2021 census, making the chances of meeting others much easier.
And although the closure of bars and restaurants is a pest on high streets across the UK, London's LGBTQ scene remains remarkably robust - with the likes of the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, Comptons of Soho and The Two Brewers of Clapham still anchoring the world's best gay scene, not to mention the soon-to-reopen Black Cap in Camden. London's annual pride celebrations also return on Saturday, July 5.
But on this note, I must state how much I love and miss Newcastle's pink triangle scene - a flurry of bars and clubs around the city's Times Square that makes for one of the best gay nights out in the UK, all within a very walkable distance. The same can't be said for London, where bar-hopping invariably leads to a Tube ride.
Culture
It's hard to talk about culture in London without sounding like a rep from the tourist board, but it's an inescapable fact that London's cultural offering is the best - not just in the UK, but on the world stage. Britain's arts, specifically its literature, music, film and theatre, is the nation's biggest export, an arena on which the phrase Rule Britannia still holds true.
Landmarks such as Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London need no mention - they're icons of Britishness that still turn heads no matter how many times you walk past them. I'd say anyone who can visit The National Portrait Gallery and not be moved at the sight of a Van Gogh or Holbein lacks a soul, as well as The King's Gallery or, when it's not in the news over alleged stolen artefacts, The British Museum.
Theatre in London is not just confined to the monumental offerings of the West End, with its plethora of Shakespearian plays and jukebox musicals. London also has a rootsy theatre scene, with smaller, intimate spaces such as The Yard Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, The Hampstead Theatre and Angel's The King's Head Theatre, to name just a few, showcasing dazzling new works.
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And finally...
A sombre note to reflect upon life in London is that, wonderful and exciting as it is, it's not cheap. Rents in London are notoriously more expensive than anywhere else in the UK, with average monthly rents surpassing £2,000, while the UK average is around £1,200.
Rent is estimated to swallow up more than half the take-home pay of most Londoners. It's one wonderful advantage of my home region of the North East that renting and indeed, housing buying, is remarkably affordable, with typical rents below £700.
But the buzz and the thrill of walking these streets, which, if not paved with gold, always carry the promise of something exciting around the corner, makes London an irresistible pull - especially to young people. It's a place that's impossible to outgrow; rather, we're more likely to leave it only once we're ready to slow down the pace of everyday life. Once you get a taste for London, it never leaves you, no matter where you may go.
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