During the pandemic, many of our clients moved out of London. They were drawn by the promise of a quieter life, countryside walks, grammar schools and close-knit village communities. Five years later, many are moving back to the capital. We explore the reasons why so many are once again drawn to raising a family in London.
Culturally, London has it all. Museums, galleries, parks: many of them free. The transport (whilst not perfect- Bakerloo Line- say no more!) is pretty good. The Cotswolds may be idyllic. Somerset also. Kent, Buckinghamshire, Lincolnshire and their grammar schools have proved a real draw for some of our clients. For some families, especially those moving to vibrant towns, like Tunbridge Wells, the shift has been successful. For others, being holed up with teenagers in a village with only one bus a day, can be stultifying. For parents, the taxi drivers, and adolescents who cannot easily meet friends after school, the countryside dream often goes awry.
One client, Aurélie, a company director, cites a lack of cultural life and difficulty making friends as some of the reasons for her family’s relocation from Somerset back to London. ‘Everyone in our village was very kind’ she says. ‘And I can’t fault that. We were invited for supper, to the village pub and asked to joined other families on walks. But there’s only so many conversations you can have about the repairs to the village hall roof, who’s coming to Saturday’s barn dance or the child who punched Henry in the playground. Culturally, I needed more. I wanted to walk out of my front door and go for a coffee, hear other languages spoken in the street, watch a Spanish film. I also felt my children’s social circle was limited.’ All of these concerns fuelled Aurélie and her family’s move back to London.
For those of us raising families, a London education, both state and private, is a factor. 17 out of the 50 of the country’s best state schools are in London. Some of them, such as Brampton Manor Academy, get more children into Oxbridge than Eton. Others, such as Camden School for Girls, Greycoat Hospital School in Westminster and St Anselms’s, in Harrow, are similar to private schools in their quality of teaching and approach. Plus, London gets the best exam results in the country. London comes out on top when it comes to GCSE results. More state school pupils in London get strong grades and students from less privileged backgrounds consistently achieve higher GCSE results than their peers elsewhere. There continues to be a big regional divide in the quality of state education. Unlike the regions, London has excellent international schools such as Halcyon, the American School of London, Jeannine Manuel and the Lycée Charles de Gaulle in Kensington. If you are an international family, your children attend an English-speaking school, but you want them to keep up their written German, for example, there are excellent Samstagschule, Saturday schools. Away from London, there is less modern language provision outside the mainstream. Private schools, such as City of London School for Girls and City of London School for Boys are incredibly culturally diverse, academically outstanding and offer generous bursary and scholarship provision.
If your children opt to live at home during university, London boasts some of the best in the country: London School of Economics (LSE), Imperial, University College London (UCL), Birkbeck, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Theatres, like the Almeida in Islington, offer brilliant youth acting programmes. Musically, children are well-catered for with numerous orchestras, choirs and the Royal Academy of Music’s Junior Programme. Plus, having lots to do: galleries, museums, youth clubs, sports, voluntary work, keeps teenagers out of mischief.
Finally, for that transition to adulthood and early career opportunities, London is unparallelled. For those applying for medicine, voluntary work opportunities abound in hospitals, care homes and charities. One of our clients, Sophie, a data scientist, is considering moving back to London, having relocated to Lincolnshire, for grammar schools and quality of life, during the pandemic. Her eldest daughter, aged 16, is studying fashion design in sixth form. ‘The fashion internships and summer work placements are almost all in London’, says Sophie. ‘My daughter is missing out on key work experience opportunities here in Lincolnshire. Although we live near beautiful countryside, how often do we enjoy it? Yes, we have a quieter life, but I feel we have lost out, both culturally and socially.’
A move outside London may be positive for some. However, many families who quit London for the countryside regret it.
For advice on state, private and international schools, both in London and throughout the wider UK, please contact us.
