Living in London?

Before you go, stop by Costco and buy plenty of toothpaste, mouthwash, floss, deoderant, shampoo, soap, and other personal hygiene items. These are items not in normal use by the Europeans in England, are hard to find, and expensive when you do find the rare store that has them.

You better stock up on the XXXXL shirts and pants whilst you are still in the US, there are not quite so many branches of 'Fat Ass Bastard Clothing' in the UK. Also remember to pack lots of long white sports socks, preferably teamed with XXXXXXL khaki shorts and don't forget your fanny pack. Oh yeah remember to tell everyone you are a Canadian, everybody hates Americans over here, most Yanks wear a Cnadain Maple lapel badge to stay safe.

hahahaha! i am an american, but i had a good laugh on that one! good banter amongst the stereotypes....

Boots wrote:

Before you go, stop by Costco and buy plenty of toothpaste, mouthwash, floss, deoderant, shampoo, soap, and other personal hygiene items. These are items not in normal use by the Europeans in England, are hard to find, and expensive when you do find the rare store that has them.

i appreciate that this is posted by "Boots".

It is GD expensive.

Most likely you will be working in Canary Wharf. Transport there is mostly *into* the city, then out, so a bit of a drag.

Hampstead Heath is a good place to be for running. But again this puts u 45 minutes by tube from work.

Social life is huge, but again, there are a lot of yobs and barrow boys w/ dosh to throw around, so dont try to compete or you will be in seriously over your head.

Lay low, save your cash, and get a good accountant.

Boots!

Made me laugh,but Yanks don't do irony do they?

Hey mate. I'm an American and have been living in London since mid-July. Lived here for three months last year as well.

It's an expensive city to begin with... but when you combine the atrocious USD/GBP exchange rate, it's outright ridiculous.

One thing I'd recommend for the first few weeks you're here is to rig up the exchange rate calculator function on your mobile phone... just to get an idea. Right now, it's about 2.10 dollars to 1 pound, so if you go out and spend 4 pounds on a pint of lager (not uncommon) you're spending USD$8.40 on a pint. Scary, innit?

Rent is what's the real killer. I live up in Neasden, and pay 40 pounds a week but live in a loft which resembles a homeless shelter under a bridge on I-95. But we've got cable and I don't pay any utilities so it all works out.

Try to be careful with eating at restaurants. Shop at places like ASDA and TESCO if you can and always look for deals. Get an Oyster card - that'll save you money on subway/tube/underground transportation as well as on the buses.

And yeah if you're going to go for a big night out I recommend getting completely blasted at home drinking Foster's Lager (you can find 7 big cans for 5 pounds in most supermarkets) so that'll save you some coin.

And one last thing - remember those coins have a lot of value. You can have just a 2 pound coin - which looks like a gold and silver quarter - but it's worth $4.20! One coin!

London's a cool town and you'll love it. Not many Americans here, but heaps of Aussies, Kiwis, South Africans, and just about everything else you can think of.

Enjoy your stay here.

£40 a week?

That must be the cheapest flat in London!

American in london, you are on letsrun in Neasdon!! hehe i just moved here i live by church road.

how is your running?

"Made me laugh,but Yanks don't do irony do they?"

-if mr. bean is an example of that, then that would be an emphatic "no".

I lived in London for 1 year in '87, and about 6 months in '98.

In '87 I was pretty junior, it seemed expensive to me then. But what a blast. Crazy drinkers I didn't even try to keep up with. No Canary Wharf then, most everything finance was city bound. I lived in Kensington, beautiful area, but it was a really crappy flat, very depressing. Met my wife in London in 1987, on 19 October 1987 no less, hard to forget.

'98 was totally different, a lot of fun except for missing family life for some long stretches. Fantastic restaurants that didn't exist in '87, but the beef lovers were hurting, guys that could would make trips to NY just to go to Homestead for dinner, not sure why the Brits I worked with loved that place so much, whatever. London seemed about equal in expense (NY) to me in 1998. I lived on the 3rd floor of a townhouse owned by a lunatic scotsman credit arb trader. He had brought down 4 scottish laborers to dig out the basement of the house by hand, they slept down there every night for 3 months while working. I think they were paid in distilled spirits or something. Me and the scotsman made a killing when Thailand went upside-down, the Brazil market tanked too for no reason, I had just been in Brazil with an Italian guy from CAMBI visiting local banks holding T-Bills in trust for him, so I was sure Brazil was solid. We bought all morning, I went to lunch and came back, the positions were closed, our year was made.

I travel to London 2 or 3 times a year now on my own dime, it is ridiculously expensive today for a USD visitor. Are you there as ex-pat with any adjustment or what?

Make the most of your London job, it is amazing the opportunities that open for you back in NY. (Assuming you are American and go back)

I wasn't really running at all then, except treadmill at the gym.

I am another American who will soon be moving to London. Do any runners on this board have any insight into good clubs for middle distance training in or near London? I am willing to travel anywhere reasonable by tube, train or bus to join a good training group. Also, what is the indoor track scene like in the UK? Are there any banked indoor tracks like the BU, Harvard or the Armory? Thanks.

indoor track is excellent, starts in Jan/Feb i think. look on uka website.

The tracks here put the usa tracks to shame. Nearly all are 200m, gentle banking, mondo surface with stands beside the track and no pillers blocking your view.

I turned up at the Huskey indoor areana last year expecting the same and thought you have got to be joking me!!! Why cant americans build indoor tracks?

wassat? meters what? all my tracks are ballpark 180 yards, i stepped it out ma self god darn it!

To be fair though...

The entire South of England to my knowledge has one full indoor track used for competitions which was only completed last year- thankfully that is in London.

We may have nice indoor tracks but there sure aren't a huge number of them!

euro bounder wrote:

I am another American who will soon be moving to London. Do any runners on this board have any insight into good clubs for middle distance training in or near London? I am willing to travel anywhere reasonable by tube, train or bus to join a good training group. Also, what is the indoor track scene like in the UK? Are there any banked indoor tracks like the BU, Harvard or the Armory? Thanks.

There's a good group that meets at the outdoor track at Battersea Park every Tuesday and Thursday 7pm and Saturday 11am. Some good London clubs are Woodford Green, Belgrave and Shaftesbury.

Not many indoor tracks as our winters aren't that harsh.

Anyone have experience with living a little outside of London to save a bit? I've heard some good thing about Croydon and it seems to have solid transport links.

Croydon is awful but has good transport links, there are some lovely places just a short 20-30 minute commute to town, St Albans, Harpenden, Maidenhead etc... worth a look, in terms of value North is very good for short commutes to Kings Cross, a 30 minute train journey can see a reduction in rent by about 30-40% even on a shity part of London

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Croydon is less than 10 min on the train into clapham junction (the main railway interchange in south london), which is a further 10 min into waterloo or victoria stations which are both well connected to the tube system. Croyden has a few open grassy areas for running and is the venue for the surrey xc champs every january. It is also the home of Croydon harriers not far from crystal palace track. Further, its not far from Gatwick airport if you want to travel in europe a bit. However, it has the reputation of being a bit "chav-tastic" and due to the excellent train links into London is a commuter haven which inflates the rental/house prices meaning it isn't that much cheaper than living in London when you factor in your transport costs.

Transport into the city from the fringes is already expensive and set to rise an extra 10 - 15% next year.

Is your finance job in Canary Wharf?

If so, you're probably best looking for a house share in Isle of Dogs, Mile End, Bethnal Green or Hackney. None are very nice places, but you can find somewhere cheap to live and running is quite good due to the proximity of parks and canals. All are within short run / bus ride of Canary Wharf. (London buses are ok and reasonably priced, but from time you'll end up sitting next to some very strange people.)

There are loads of local type running clubs in London. Most have a handful of quick athletes, but if you're faster than 30 - 31mins for 10km, you're best off looking at NEB or WGEL if in the East, Belgrave if West.