You need to live in London once: 101 Reasons…

Tempted to move to London when you graduate? We tell you why it’ll be the best decision you ever make…

Deciding what to do with your life is tough. Apparently professional bed tester jobs are few and far between, and very few people are lucky enough to leave university with the small fortune you need to go travelling.

Robin Edds posted on May 13, 2013

101 reasons you need to live in London once

You’ve probably got one of three options. Stay in your uni town and get a job. Move home and get a job. Or follow the yellow brick road (or grey tarmac motorway) to London… and get a job.

It’s big. It’s busy. It’s loud.

It’s without doubt the most fun place for someone in their twenties to spend the last few care-free years of their lives before things like matrimony, mortgages and *whispers* children are thrown into the equation.

It’s not for everyone, but you owe it to yourself to find out.

Here are 101 reasons why everyone needs to live in London once…

1. You feel really smooth when you use your Oyster

2. You WILL bump into people more than you think…

3. …and when you do it feels like the greatest thing ever

4. When you understand the tube map you’ll realise how painfully simple it is

5. Everyone knows someone who lives there

6. Online dating is totally acceptable

7. No matter what you want to do with your career, you can do it in London

8. The Natural History Museum is totally free

9. As is the Science Museum

10. And the British Musem

11. And the Tate

12. And the Tate Modern

13. OK, naming all of them would probably be cheating – but there are a whole world of free galleries and museums

14. There are 4500 pubs & bars

15. Sitting in the park on a summer’s day

16. You don’t have to be nice to strangers

17. There are hundreds of thousands of single people

18. You see famous people all the time

19. You feel really smug when you go back home and tell your friends about London life

20. It’s one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world

21. Whatever type of food you want, you’ll find it

22. Your commute will take you past some of the most famous landmarks in the world

23. It rains a lot less than it does in the north

24. The view from Waterloo bridge looking east

25. The view from Waterloo bridge looking west

26. Drinking by the Thames

27. It’s more expensive, but you’ll earn more there than anywhere else

28. Topshop on Oxford Street

29. Westfield Stratford is the largest urban shopping centre in the EU

30. The Olympics showed that all Londoners can be nice when they want to be

31. Miss the countryside? There are urban farms

32. Once you know you way around, there is no greater feeling than a tourist asking you for directions and you actually knowing the answer

33. The fancy double doors on the Jubilee Line

34.  So many Markets

35. London gets less rain per year than anywhere else in the UK – just 700mm, compared to 1200mm in Cardiff

36. People who live in London live 5 years longer than the national average

37. Every band who tours plays in London

38. You can just hop on a train to Paris when you get bored

39. It’s home to some of the most famous sporting venues in the world – Wembley, Twickenham, Lords, Wimbledon…

40. Home is always just a few hours away

41. You can never be bored with TimeOut telling you what to do

42. Nightbuses. You can always get home thanks to nightbuses

43. The top deck on nightbuses: the party continues

44. Stunning views from The Shard, The London Eye and Primrose Hill

45. EVERYONE goes for drinks after work

46. You can always drink without worrying about how you’re going to get home. NO ONE drives

47. Want to still feel like a student? Move to Clapham

48. Infernos

49. When it rains it never lasts that long

50. Running along the river makes running much less depressing

51. When you watch the Apprentice you’ll be able to recognise everywhere they go

52. If leaving uni is making you feel old, moving to London will make you feel young again

53. There are a seemingly endless number of high-end burger restaurants

54. Getting angry at tourists who are getting in your way is weirdly liberating

55. Boris

56. Curries on Brick Lane

57. Laughing at the word ‘Cockfosters‘

58. In depth conversations with taxi drivers

59. Warehouse parties where no one looks twice if you enter wearing a horse’s head

60. You’re always going to meet someone who is stranger than you

61. Free gigs – up and coming bands that can either be sh*t or become mega superstars

62. Sample sales

63. Vintage markets

64. Boris bikes

65. There are endless exercise fads for people who hate the gym – e.g. sober disco dancing

66. It’s a great place to be single

67. It’s a great place to be in a relationship

68. Musicals

69. Fringe theatre/ performance art: where else can you see a woman crack an egg using her lady parts? OK, maybe Bangkok.

70. When you live here, you can do all the tourist things during off-peak times

71. Retrace favourite film character’s steps: Notting Hill, 28 Days Later, Harry Potter…

72. Christmas markets the size of your uni town

73. Top hairdressing schools = free hair cuts galore

74. Book exchanges = free books

75. People back home will think you’re really tough for living in London

76. Museum Lates – you can get drunk AND learn

77. Zoo Lates – you can get drunk AND look at animals

78. You can watch a play at the Globe for a fiver

79. There’s always a house party

80. There’s always an after party

81. There’s always a new street, a new park , a new pub to discover

82. Love hipsters? East London is your Mecca

83. Hate hipsters? Move to South London. They’re too scared to cross the river

84. When friends visit you, feel really smug about how scared they are

85. The Queen lives here

86. You’ll almost certainly bump into Prince Harry on a night out

87. When you leave work, your town is coming alive not winding down

88. There are outdoor swimming pools all over the city

89. 14.5 million tourists visited London in 2010, ranking London the most visited of all European cities. They can’t all be wrong

90. Wherever you go on holiday it will feel cheap by comparison

91. We have buildings called things like the Gherkin, the Shard, the Cheesegrater and the Walkie Talkie

92. The circle line pub crawl has 27 pubs

93. We throw a great party…

94. You’ll fall in love on the tube around 17 times a day

95. Everyone passes through London at some point, so you don’t have to visit anyone

96. You can go out on any night of the week

97. In the summer it’s always hotter in London than anywhere else in the country

98. THERE IS GOING TO BE A CAT CAFE

99. There are more hot people here than anywhere else

100. There are a LOT of airports if you need to get away

101. studentbeans.com is based here – feel free to drop by and say hello, or Like us on Facebook and we’ll say hello to you with more lovely articles like this!