Moving To/Living In London Megathread - ALL QUESTIONS TO GO HERE

FTA69

ballsymchugh wrote: »

just out of interest, if you had a blank canvas and enough money to survive, what part of london would you consider living in? nearly every time someone mentions an area, you seem to have some major reservation about it. clapham is too expensive, everywhere else seems to be a hole...

For me it would be Finsbury Park, I was never as happy in all my life as when I was there.

RiseToMe

no not paying anything, its a free from fees account and once i have direct debits and im lodging more than 1500 per month anything in my account earns over 4% interest which is appplied every month.
what I am getting is essentially the club llyods account with the insurence extras. maybe it takes a meeting with the bank in order to get the account free from fees but i have it here in writing and all it took was my passport to open it.

callaway92

zweton wrote: »

Guys,

What areas are considered good, total noob to london. I have been reading clapham is a good area, looking for somewhere safe, good transport and lively enough.

I live in Clapham. If you like your bars/restaurants you'd love it. Literally no good retail outlets here though. Mind you, there is the Northern Tube line which goes directly to Leicester Square at Clapham Common and Clapham North (both either side of the main high street).

Rent is expensive. If you don't think it'd be worthwhile paying high rent look in places like Brixton (South London) which are within walking distance/loads of buses to Clapham.

DrChristianTroy

Hey I'm starting work in London in 1st week of September and looking for some advice re accommodation....

I'm gonna try stay as close to work (near euston station) as i can for the first 8-12 mts...I know im gonna pay a premium for this but just think it might be best as i find my feet and finish a thesis....My question really is when should i start showing serious interest in rooms that i see coming up on spareroom......I have seen a few that are decent but dont want to take a place and then have it empty for August as it'll be a lot of money (~£750) but I also want to have a place sorted for when i get over. Can i afford to leave it til mid Aug?

Also how competitive is it to get a flat, ive seen i a few places that there can be serious competition to even get the rooms?!

Terrontress

zweton wrote: »

working on cannon street, i have not got a clue about where i would want to live there. can someone just throw out some areas which are nice and reasonable for rent. i can go from there.

Everyone will recommend their area of London. I'll make a go. If I were you I'd check out the south side of Brixton. Railton Rd, Poets Corner etc.

Commute, train to Elephant from Herne Hill is £40pm. From there it is 25 minute walk along Southwark Bridge Road to Cannon St or 15 minutes to collect a Boris bike and cycle along the cycle super highway to the dock on Queen Street.

Vibrancy? Brixton Village and Market, bars and nightclubs on Coldharbour Lane, Ritzy Cinema, quick trip to Clapham by 24hr bus, walk, taxi.

One of the best parks in London is on your doorstep, also a 'Lido' outdoor pool.

Victoria Line, Thameslink, overland to Victoria and Kent.

My two cents.

callaway92

Terrontress wrote: »

Everyone will recommend their area of London. I'll make a go. If I were you I'd check out the south side of Brixton. Railton Rd, Poets Corner etc.

Commute, train to Elephant from Herne Hill is £40pm. From there it is 25 minute walk along Southwark Bridge Road to Cannon St or 15 minutes to collect a Boris bike and cycle along the cycle super highway to the dock on Queen Street.

Vibrancy? Brixton Village and Market, bars and nightclubs on Coldharbour Lane, Ritzy Cinema, quick trip to Clapham by 24hr bus, walk, taxi.

One of the best parks in London is on your doorstep, also a 'Lido' outdoor pool.

Victoria Line, Thameslink, overland to Victoria and Kent.

My two cents.

Doing that walk daily sounds horrible.

Marcusm

callaway92 wrote: »

Doing that walk daily sounds horrible.

I suspect most would stay on FCC til Blackfriars (cost implication) or take the 344, 40, 133 or 35 buses depending on which end of Cannon Street was relevant.

Pigwidgeon

Has anyone any tips on finding bar work? My boyfriend has been looking for a week or two now, he has 5 years experience at home and so far, we haven't heard much back. Or even if anyone sees any bars around camden area looking for staff if they could send me a message that'd be great.

Terrontress

callaway92 wrote: »

Doing that walk daily sounds horrible.

It's quite a pleasant walk. The stretch of rail from Elephant to Blackfriars is congested so the train crawls along and frequently stops. To halve the ticket price, it's well worth walking.

danotroy

Pigwidgeon wrote: »

Has anyone any tips on finding bar work? My boyfriend has been looking for a week or two now, he has 5 years experience at home and so far, we haven't heard much back. Or even if anyone sees any bars around camden area looking for staff if they could send me a message that'd be great.

Get off your ass and look. Basically. I'm not being a smart ass. Start in your own area and walk into every bar with your CV and availability. If that doesn't work try the nearest places via night bus from your locality. Pound the pavements. If you have not got a job inside 48 hours either your attitude, CV or your dress sense are wrong.

And by dress sense walking I don't mean you have to look like a hipster or a punk rocker I mean that walking around Camden in a suit looking for bar work is not going to get you any jobs i'd reckon.

Pigwidgeon

danotroy wrote: »

Get off your ass and look. Basically. I'm not being a smart ass. Start in your own area and walk into every bar with your CV and availability. If that doesn't work try the nearest places via night bus from your locality. Pound the pavements. If you have not got a job inside 48 hours either your attitude, CV or your dress sense are wrong.

And by dress sense walking I don't mean you have to look like a hipster or a punk rocker I mean that walking around Camden in a suit looking for bar work is not going to get you any jobs i'd reckon.

That's what we thought when we came over and is what we have been doing but everywhere says they aren't looking and a good lot won't even take cvs. That's why I came here asking if anyone had any other tips or if people had seen somewhere with signs to help.

callaway92

Terrontress wrote: »

It's quite a pleasant walk. The stretch of rail from Elephant to Blackfriars is congested so the train crawls along and frequently stops. To halve the ticket price, it's well worth walking.

I'd know it alright but it's the whole daily thing. There'll be many days they'd no zero interest in walking that far after public transport. Add in the recent excruciating heat factor too.

Terrontress

callaway92 wrote: »

I'd know it alright but it's the whole daily thing. There'll be many days they'd no zero interest in walking that far after public transport. Add in the recent excruciating heat factor too.

Those trains are 30 years old with no air con. Being outside in the excruciating heat is better than in a busy train.

Marcusm

Terrontress wrote: »

Those trains are 30 years old with no air con. Being outside in the excruciating heat is better than in a busy train.

True enough but still better than the tube. Interestingly, these trains will be retrofitted with air con when they are moved away from that route and used between Liverpool and Manchester. They might be 25-30 years old but there's plenty of life in them yet.

danotroy

Pigwidgeon wrote: »

That's what we thought when we came over and is what we have been doing but everywhere says they aren't looking and a good lot won't even take cvs. That's why I came here asking if anyone had any other tips or if people had seen somewhere with signs to help.

The only personal experience I can offer with this is when I used to do the hiring in a bar I worked in in Melbourne the Irish were among the worst staff I came across. This is not a blanket stereotype of Irish bar staff as a whole, it is aimed at backpackers. They used to come in with an attitude and have a massive ego about them, a few themes seemed to come up time and time again "they were from Ireland and we have the best bars in the world, sure I worked in my local for a couple of months, ah the bar tenders here are ****". On saying this some of the English staff you come across here in the chain bars leave a lot to be desired.

If you are struggling go hit up an O'Neills Irish bars. A chain of bars that would happily employ an irish person. But I will repeat its not London that is the problem here, get out on the streets 8 hours a day calling into bars. Do not call at lunch time and always ask for the manager.

Fysh

I know from a couple of friends who moved over relatively recently that if you've got experience and are regarded as being decent behind the bar in Ireland you shouldn't have too much trouble being well-regarded here.

What might be a problem is being area-specific - somewhere like Camden is exceptionally popular and will attract loads of people/applicants, of varying quality, which can make bar managers reluctant to hire anyone they don't already know.

Google tells me that there's a specialist recruiter for bar work in London and the UK called BarZone, so you could try them as well. Other recruitment sites also have listings, so they're worth checking.

exiledelbows

I'd agree on the location-specific thing. I work in Notting Hill and see 'Help Wanted' signs in loads of pubs around here.

danotroy

I think that is a very good point on which I vaguely attempted to address in my comment about looking for a bar job in a suit. Countless times i've had people come into a bar I worked in in a suit when it clearly wasn’t the place one would wear a suit to. If you employ common sense when hunting for a bar job you should get a job in a day.

Don’t go around at lunch time
Don’t go around on Sundays
Dress up for fancy places
Dress down for Dive bars
Don’t put down you’ve managed a bar if you are just looking for casual work
Know your tools. Bud is not a beer. And there are more ciders that’s bulmers/magners.

Fysh raises an excellent point about Camden. Why not try Holloway road or Essex road. Both are near enough to Camden with plenty of bars.

Pigwidgeon

Thanks for the tips, we've already starting expanding our search and been to places like kentish town, archway and Highgate and looked up various bar groups online and Bega applying to them. Have an interview this afternoon so fingers crossed for that!

seanrose

Hi,

I am determined to relocate to London. After 9 years of working in a business environment, I am in the process of selling my business. Could take 3 months, could take 6 months.

I intend with my girlfriend to take a trip to London for a few days in September to suss out areas to live. I would like to narrow down my focus so as we get as much done in the 4 days we intend on being there to look at job availability.

I will be finishing my dissertation for my honours degree in business in September and my girlfriend is a senior beauty therapist. I am not fussy on what job I do. It does not have to be business. I stacked shelves before in a supermarket and if that what has to be done at the start I am prepared for that

We will have a bit of money saved up and I am very aware of the price of rent re deposit and 1 month. We intend on house sharing. Just hoping guys/gals that certain areas could be narrowed down

Thanks

Grandpa Hassan

seanrose wrote: »

Hi,

I am determined to relocate to London. After 9 years of working in a business environment, I am in the process of selling my business. Could take 3 months, could take 6 months.

I intend with my girlfriend to take a trip to London for a few days in September to suss out areas to live. I would like to narrow down my focus so as we get as much done in the 4 days we intend on being there to look at job availability.

I will be finishing my dissertation for my honours degree in business in September and my girlfriend is a senior beauty therapist. I am not fussy on what job I do. It does not have to be business. I stacked shelves before in a supermarket and if that what has to be done at the start I am prepared for that

We will have a bit of money saved up and I am very aware of the price of rent re deposit and 1 month. We intend on house sharing. Just hoping guys/gals that certain areas could be narrowed down

Thanks

London is vast, and you have to give us something to go on. From, say, Hackney in NE london to Southfield in SW London is about 12 or 13 miles! At a rough estimate, assuming that you live anywhere within 5 miles of the city centre, you are talking an area of 80 square miles. Even if you exclude the very centre, and the very expensive areas like Kensington or Fulham, you are talking a vast area

Do you want a quiet area, near parks for running, cycling etc? Or a busy area with a load going on? Are you hipsters? What's your budget? What kind of accomodation?

You need to throw out as much info as you can about what you want in the area that you live

seanrose

Grandpa Hassan wrote: »

London is vast, and you have to give us something to go on. From, say, Hackney in NE london to Southfield in SW London is about 12 or 13 miles! At a rough estimate, assuming that you live anywhere within 5 miles of the city centre, you are talking an area of 80 square miles. Even if you exclude the very centre, and the very expensive areas like Kensington or Fulham, you are talking a vast area

Do you want a quiet area, near parks for running, cycling etc? Or a busy area with a load going on? Are you hipsters? What's your budget? What kind of accomodation?

You need to throw out as much info as you can about what you want in the area that you live

Thanks for the reply. We intend to sit down at the weekend and have a good session of brainstorming. Currently live in Donegal so a mixture of city/country living would be nice. Not interested in the whole pub/club scene, yeah so nice parks would be a massive bonus.

Id say we would budget for 700-800 per month on accomodation. I already rent out my house to people and live there so house sharing wouldnt be a problem. Preferably share with a couple.

No we are not hipsters and we are both in our early 30's. We both do big hours at home so we are there to work, and are prepared for long commute + work etc.

I no this may sound contradictory, but we are both looking for a new way of life, meet new friends. We have both got bogged down in work,working big hours and not having a life, both know that may not change in London

Harps

West London is probably your best bet if you want plenty of parks, I live in Ealing which is a nice enough area with good amenities and transport links, easy access to the city but a lot quieter and more laid back. I wouldn't think you'd find anything close to country living unless you want to be outside the M25 though

Check out places like Ruislip and Harrow as well, further out from the city but if you want a more laid back lifestyle then I'd advise you to avoid anything central. South west is nice as well (Richmond, Kingston) but you'd want plenty of money to get anything half decent there

FTA69

There are also places in North London such as Cockfosters, Oakwood etc which are on the tube and have a more village like feel.

dice3344

Hi Everyone,

My boyfriend and I are planning a move in early October. We're not sure of where to live yet, we can stay with
his sister and her husband for the first month/6 weeks so hopefully will give us some breathing room. We'd
like to have jobs sorted and then decide what area would be best from there.

I'm wondering would anyone have any advice about when would be the best time to start looking for a job?
I work in Customer Service/Digital Marketing and would like to stay in the same area, my boyfriend is
finishing a BIS based masters but has a few yers managerial experience also.

Should we be applying now with the view to moving over in 10/12 weeks, or should we wait until we're there
and have a fixed address etc.? Sorry if it seems like a basic question! I've been reading all the FAQs and threads
on this forum for the last few months and it seems like a great support!

I've lived in Cork 7/8 years since college and this'll be my first big move so I'm nervous but very excited (also realistic, but there has to be more going on than Cork)!

Thanks!

jonnyfingers

seanrose wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. We intend to sit down at the weekend and have a good session of brainstorming. Currently live in Donegal so a mixture of city/country living would be nice. Not interested in the whole pub/club scene, yeah so nice parks would be a massive bonus.

South East London could be an option to. We live in Beckenham which is quite nice. It has plenty of parks and green areas and feels like a village, lots of coffee shops and local shops on the high street, but it's only 8 miles and 20 minutes by train to either Victoria or London Bridge so you can easily get to the centre of things for work. I often go for a run through the local golf course and you'd forget you're in a London borough only for one point on the course which has a nice view of Canary Wharf! Also Bromley and Croydon are nearby if you need larger shops but don't want to travel into London, e.g. Ikea, M&S, Debenhams etc. It's connected well enough by roads too, takes about 20 minutes to hit the M25 which can bring you all around London and to some even more leafy parts of Kent and Sussex, 40 minutes to Gatwick and you can get to North East London, e.g. Hackney and the Olympic village, in around 40 minutes through the Blackwall Tunnel depending on traffic.

Rent may be a little higher than you're looking for though. Two bed properties are mostly £1100 - £1200 a month, one bed might be £900+. I know you're looking to share but I don't know how much that would be.

seanrose

I would like to thank everybody for their replys. I appreciate people taking the time out as im sure you answer the same questions over and over again.

I know I will never be fully prepared for London but the least I can do is make the best of the advice I am given and hence make the transition just a little bit easier.

For some reason Canary wharf has always stuck in my head when I thought of London and when I went through a list of areas it stuck out at me again.

I take it areas such as north greenwich are close to canary wharf. Is Canary wharf mainly banking jobs, financial services type jobs

Harps

In not familiar with Canary Wharf but it's one of the financial centres of the world so safe to say most jobs are finance related. It's not a particularly nice area from my brief experience, it's mostly big impersonal glass buildings and surrounded by a lot of wasteland.

Greenwich seems like a nice area but I'd imagine very expensive

Harps

dice3344 wrote: »

I'm wondering would anyone have any advice about when would be the best time to start looking for a job?
I work in Customer Service/Digital Marketing and would like to stay in the same area, my boyfriend is
finishing a BIS based masters but has a few yers managerial experience also.

Should we be applying now with the view to moving over in 10/12 weeks, or should we wait until we're there
and have a fixed address etc.? Sorry if it seems like a basic question! I've been reading all the FAQs and threads
on this forum for the last few months and it seems like a great support!

Never too early to start looking, obviously you'd have a better chance of getting a reply if you're living here but no harm in trying now, just make your situation clear when applying. You'll probably never hear back from 95% of your applications but if you do get something it's a great security to know you've got something to move for rather than relying on friends & savings for your first few weeks

Marcusm

seanrose wrote: »

I would like to thank everybody for their replys. I appreciate people taking the time out as im sure you answer the same questions over and over again.

I know I will never be fully prepared for London but the least I can do is make the best of the advice I am given and hence make the transition just a little bit easier.

For some reason Canary wharf has always stuck in my head when I thought of London and when I went through a list of areas it stuck out at me again.

I take it areas such as north greenwich are close to canary wharf. Is Canary wharf mainly banking jobs, financial services type jobs

Canary Wharf is a financial centre with lots of office jobs of all types (incl kitchen, canteen, coffee shops, security, reception, messengers) not just what people might see as high finance positions. Certainly, there are a lot of people working there with varied income levels and backgrounds. Lots of retail, bar, restaurant positions also.

It's not fair to suggest that it's surrounded by any sort of wasteland. With the exception of the Wood a Wharf site on which building is about to commence, there us not much undeveloped land.

North Greenwich's centrepiece is the Millenium Dome/The O2 so lots of retail restaurant, bar type jobs. Lots of offices are being built there also.

While North Greenwich is only 1 stop from Canary Wharf, it's the other side of the river and the only crossing is the Blackwall Tunnel if the tube is not working.