#137

Joking aside, i’ve got one more move in me before settling down, probably to the Lake District or somewhere on the Yorkshire/Lancashire border long-term. Having spent literally years doing an on-the-road job the conclusions i’ve come to are that the only places really nicer and as convenient as South Manchester are:

  • Brighton
  • Bristol
  • Leeds
  • Dublin

So one of them, i reckon, then sell the rental properties when i turn fifty and live in a crumbling manor house in the middle of a village.

#138

There’s a statue of a lemming (from the computer game) as well.

#139

Ha, yeah no chance. The median privately educated student - no problem. The top tier guys - different universe.

I went to a lower ranking Russell Group establishment which was essentially a dumping ground for people from top tier private schools who didn’t get the grades to get into Oxford/Cambridge. Again - eye-opener.

#140

Children under the age of 5 make up a much higher proportion of London’s population than the rest of England.

#142

Yeah, I knew local people who were middle class compared to everyone I grew up with, but their parents were teachers or high up in the council or whatever. When I went to uni I met real middle class people who were from generations of professional jobs and big houses and I felt like a real scummer compared to them. With hindsight I was a bit chippy but someone did once ask me what a council house was and I don’t think I was unfair to call her a moron.

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#143

Same here - and on a course with such a strong emphasis on critical thinking and stuff like that, I really struggled.

#144

We were half an hour’s drive from the nearest train station to London, so that was kind of out of the question until we could start driving, and even then it was still about £20 to catch the train in.

#145

Same here. I turned up at halls on the first day and realised that loads of people already knew each other having met at various events over the summer, and were not interested in getting to know anyone who wasn’t already in that circle.

I think it’s probably different now, with sites (Facebook, Student Room etc) introducing people to each other before the start of term, but it was a bit of a shock to me.

#146

I guess I was more fortunate to be close to a stage that was a busy commuter route, with trains every ten minutes. I’m a bit older than you too and I think train fares have risen exponentially during the time between me being 15 years old and you being at that same age.

#147

We did similar, but it’s not the same. Most of my friends were still from my town, and it’s not like we were exploring proper London. We’d head to the west end, Camden, etc, then head home. No ticket barriers back then either.

My wife grew up here and had a far more interesting and enlightened childhood/adolescence than I did.

#148

My son held a ferret at the farm in Vauxhall. Only cost £2.

#149

I’m 39, so went to uni in 1997. Perhaps I’ve been reading your posts wrong, but you’ve always struck me as someone a fair bit younger than I am!

#150

Yeah, I forgot to mention that my dad’s sister lived in Shepherds Bush and we visited regularly so even as a little kid I’d be wandering through the market on my own, looking at the “exotic” food and merchandise on sale, the Africans and other types of people that we didn’t see much in our town. So, yes, although I didn’t grow up in London I saw the real London regularly while growing up. And apart from going to gigs in Camden Town, I went to punk squat parties in Hackney and to all kinds of other places too, made friends on demos and crashed at their homes in places like Kentish Town and Wood Green and Camberwell, etc. So I wasn’t visiting just as a tourist.

#151

I thought you were a fair bit younger than that . Ha ha. We’re the same age.

So maybe fares were affordable for me because it was a busier train route. (A bit like now how getting the train from London to Brighton is way cheaper than going from the same London station to Lewes.)

#152

Yeah I don’t know if this was by accident or design (I’m guessing the latter but not really sure) but when I rocked up in halls everyone on my corridor (10 rooms) were state school lads of similar ilk (apart from the two overseas students from Thailand). The adjacent corridor was all private/boys school lads. Don’t think it’s commonly acknowledged how much pure luck plays a role in the university experience tbh. I’m still mates with all of those lads now.

#153

Stevenage was my closest station, and it wasn’t really the cost, but getting to the station in the first place. You’d have to cadge a lift off a parent heading there for shopping, or expect them to do an hour round trip to pick you up every time.

There was also minimal jobs for teenagers in the town, so people didn’t really have much money to spend until they could drive and work.

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#154

Yeah re: children London would be an awesome place to have them and bring them up IMO. Although if you want to live a middle class lifestyle and you don’t have family money to help with housing/childcare to do so you probably have to either have a lot of energy or very well paid job. I think when a lot of people say London’s a bad place to have kids or whatever they’re more thinking of the impact of the experience on themselves rather than on their kids. Not a criticism that.

#155

I could walk to the station in ten minutes. Big difference, yes.

#156

Yeah, same here - Sevenoaks station was just under an hour’s walk from me and that was a lifeline to London. Went to first gig in London at 14 and managed to get into my first club at 15. Train fares were expensive at that age, although not as bad as now, plus you could just bunk them if you were so minded. Getting home was always a bit of a killer, but that’s why you’ve got so much energy/sleep so much at that age right?

#157

Not saying that it’s the case in this thread, but I think the wider perception is driven more by people’s fears of their kids experiencing crime and non-white people, while saying that they want more space or a garden.

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