Moving to London...?

Discussion in 'The Guru's Pub' started by BLEH!, Jul 30, 2014.

  1. BLEH!

    BLEH! Ancient Guru

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    Hey Gurus

    This is mainly aimed at UK-based Gurus I guess... I'm nearing the end of my PhD, looking at starting the next stage of my life, and there's a possibility I may be moving to London (or Bath) for a postdoc job. Any tips on how to live there without bankrupting yourself?

    Cheers

    BLEH!
     
  2. IcE

    IcE Don Snow

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    Everything I've ever heard about this subject involves "don't" or "no".
     
  3. AndreasGuido

    AndreasGuido Guest

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    Move to Bath instead :)
     
  4. antonyfrn

    antonyfrn Maha Guru

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    Well I live central London and it costs a bomb full rent depends where you will be working if you can give an idea as by me we have loads of medical students who work at Guys and Saint Tomas hospitals what are near to me.

    I do know my local doctors surgery has a lot of people who just finished studying there no idea how they can afford to live in the area im in most places now are selling for over £1,000,000 seen one bedrooms for that price just before I moved to Spain back in 2008 rent will be not pleasant if its private best bet would be to get a place from the local council if your lucky.

    But personally if had a choice I would live near bath only issue for me would be I cant legally drive in the UK and do remember from times I used to stay down in Warminster with my ex at the time if it wasn't for her cousin we would have been stuck with her family all the time so driving is important down that end.
     

  5. Veteran

    Veteran Ancient Guru

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    Move to Oxford and commute into London. I went to Oxford for my Stag party, we all agreed that Oxford has more women in one place that outnumber men than anywhere else in the world.

    No joke!

    Good place to commute into London from.
     
  6. Labyrinth

    Labyrinth Ancient Guru

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    Yeah move to Bath, hell I'd live in Toxeth before London
     
  7. BLEH!

    BLEH! Ancient Guru

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    The post is at UCL, I do drive and am willing to commute if in easier. I'd be looking at a house share if moving down anyway.

    Bit far for commuting, really, and pricey. The rent in Oxford is astronomical, too.

    The post in Bath is a separate thing. London pay is likely to be better and a longer contract.
     
  8. Omagana

    Omagana Guest

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    Not true actually, my brother did it for two years and he lived in Oxford for 5 years renting as a student. There is a direct coach between Oxford and London called the tube. Lots of people do it, just depends if you can live with the commute everyday. I've done it a few times myself, it doesn't take that long.
     
  9. BLEH!

    BLEH! Ancient Guru

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    I commuted 45 mins a day each way into Manchester for a while but that became unbearable after 2 years so I moved there.
     
  10. AndreasGuido

    AndreasGuido Guest

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    It might be higher pay but you have to remember that prices will be higher too. I was offered a job in London with better pay than Bristol, looked at rent prices and had to refuse that offer. What about MK? My friend lives there and most of his friends commute to London
     

  11. BLEH!

    BLEH! Ancient Guru

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    That's another possibility, my potential supervisor lives there and commutes. The place is a 5 min walk from Euston
     
  12. antonyfrn

    antonyfrn Maha Guru

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    knowing that look around SE17 SE1 SE16 in London there is a lot of student housing by me there is a street of old Victorian house 4 & 6 bedrooms all divided up into one bed room apartments if I can ill try keep an eye out see if they got any rental sign up near there.
     
  13. BLEH!

    BLEH! Ancient Guru

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    Cheers. I do still need to pass the interview first.
     
  14. Extraordinary

    Extraordinary Guest

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    If you're moving to London, my best tip-of-the-day is:

    Win the lottery first ;)

    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    twice
     
  15. Pzykotik

    Pzykotik Guest

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  16. Loobyluggs

    Loobyluggs Ancient Guru

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    Depends how fast you need your internet to be.

    1GB sequential is available in *some* parts of London and Bristol through a company called Hyperoptic and is for apartments/tenancy.

    You can (like me) move to the country and commute with the same access speed via Gigaclear.

    All other parts of the UK are still using copper for the last mile, so you can't get much more than 150mb/s, nearly ten times slower.

    In general terms, London is great to visit, but horrid to live in. Bristol is awesome and I miss it greatly. Bath was ten minutes down the road from Bristol and I found it frankly overpriced and extremely dull for what was and is there. No action.

    Over London and Bath, I'd pick Bristol anyday of the week. I'm not sure if this will mean anything to you, but Bristol also has the largest cup size in the whole of the UK - hence the rhyming slang 'Bristol cities'.

    It's also a party town. 24-7.

    Oh, it also has some pretty excellent educational establishments right in the centre. And it's 2 hours on train to London. And it has an airport. And I'm sure there is another Guru on the forums who lives there, I'm sure he'll pimp onto the thread and tell you how awesome Bristol is.

    Bristol.
     
  17. antonyfrn

    antonyfrn Maha Guru

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    +1

    oh and third time just as a backup.

    Oh and if you need good internet SE17 is mostly fibre loads of BT FTTC boxes around every corner I get 80Mbps easy.
     
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2014
  18. allesclar

    allesclar Ancient Guru

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    As someone who daily commutes 4 hours in total to london to enjoy the affordability of housing outside of london but the wage to suit the job i would highly suggest you live in the outskirts of london.

    Maybe not as extreme as me but areas such as Kent etc are only 30-40 mins on the train and the savings in housing are huge even when taking into account the cost of commuting.

    House prices in central london are so only the very rich and those on the council housing schemes can get them.

    To put it in perspective,

    My house, 4 bed detached with conservatory, garage and good size garden £185,000
    Season ticket is £6100 a year.

    My old boss recently bought a 1 bedroom flat in camden for £320,000. Go figure!! lol

    Houses in Kent can range around £180,000 mark for 2 bedroom terraced etc which are alot more affordable with commuting costs around £1500 p.a mark.
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2014
  19. BLEH!

    BLEH! Ancient Guru

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    Got the job, now to plan the move...
     
  20. eclap

    eclap Banned

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    Gratz!

    Living in London sucks btw, unless your filthy rich. It's annoyingly busy. Stress, smelly people on the tube. Good luck.
     

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