I have lived in and am hence acquainted with most of west London, from SW5 in the south, to W9 in the north.
‘Dodgy – Hugh Grant’, hehehe... As I recall in that film he lived in a rather nice place, Elgin Crescent IIRC. Though as one might expect, all was not quite as met the eye.
This was the site of the ‘Blue door’ -
. It’s now black, as the blue one was very soon sold off at Christies no less. Unlike in the film, it doesn’t open to a house, but a courtyard, in which a detached mews like house is situated. That was owned by Richard Curtis, the films director, but he sold it during the fanfare of the films launch. For some inexplicable reason ‘Scully’ of the X-Files (Gillian Anderson) used to live just around the corner on Portobello, opposite Tesco. God only knows why, esp. as she had a young daughter. That area has always been very rough (drugs, crack-whores, the lot).
I keep coming back to the idea that ‘The rich man knows how much is enough’. It doesn’t matter how much it is, it is that it is enough to provide for what you need and wish. That is the riches referred to in this context, and not outright material wealth, and I see no virtue in wealth for wealth's sake. So if one reaches that point, why would one aspire to more? There is no purpose or plan for it, and neither would it fund things that in any case you do not wish or plan to do. Beyond your point of arrival, it is work, stress, a burden. I find it quite curious that even from my family I am getting shrieks of ‘No, don’t sell, never sell!’, and meanwhile it would be me with the burden who is never allowed to say ‘That’s it, I’ve achieved what I set out to achieve, now to set the sails for a different direction’. Ironic also that the nay-sayers have never been landlords... so what can they know of what it's really like?
It is not just London that has changed, but as expected I have too. Isn't this an expat conundrum? I probably wouldn’t naturally like who I was if I had to meet him now, but it was what was required at the time. Retirement/early retirement/the shift to self-employment involves a huge shift in ego and it is not a natural step. Suddenly all the easy badges via which you socially identified and defined yourself – ‘Yah, I’m a director at Morgan Lynch Sachs’ – are stripped away. You’re on your own
And at that point people who still pull the ‘I’m this XYZ big-shot’ become incredibly tiresome, as it no longer matters, and it comes over as just desperate. I no longer want to live amongst people like that, and have to try and co-operatively run a share-of-freehold building with such people any more.
‘The Good Life’. OMG... my family used to watch that religiously back in the 70s. It was so of it’s time. That could be me eh, looking for a deeper meaning, versus the grabbing snobby banker neighbours hehehe.... . And like Richard Briars (?) and his comely wife I don’t care a jot what the neighbours think... But hold on; that was scripted in Surbiton (prime commuter belt), and I’m looking to get away to a regional/SE city. It wouldn’t be rural, it would be walking distance to the city centre, and an hour or less from London. I grew up in the country (by which I mean genuinely remote) and it was fantastic. That said I don’t underestimate the challenges that can come with it, isolation, access to shops, etc. Hence why say in a city, a miles walk to the centre will now feel relatively kampong in some ways but only in view of where I’ve lived since leaving home (Uni, London, then expatted).
Your point ‘The other thing that I find is that the "England" you left behind may not be the England of today’ is a good one. It changes, but we do too. I was back in the UK briefly about 2 years ago. My old neighbourhood feels so strange to me. I love the streets and architecture, but the people are new and alien. I used to enjoy ‘being local’ knowing neighbours, knowing local shopkeepers, feeling like it was *my* neighbourhood of which I was proud to be an active part. Now the place is subsumed in Range Rovers, Porsches and vulgar people, it feels like an alien place.
The new CGT coming in is seriously pernicious. As long as I kept that flat and rented it out, from Apr-15 the CGT liability will grow year on year by more than the *gross* annual rent. So, as a place we might keep for an occasional weekend ‘up in town’ it makes no sense at all. In fact occasionally staying at the Dorchester (no less) would be a veritable bargain by way of comparison.
And that is why the thinking is.... a home in a regional city near to London. A house, with no shitty power-crazed co-owners to deal with, a 15’*30’ patch of of a terrace/lawn. Then later, if it makes sense to get a bolt-hole in London then so be it. But then again and perhaps equally so, why not say Barcelona or somewhere warm.