It is still the best place to work and live
By Ali Ansari
Every few years, London is declared to be in trouble. Too expensive. Too taxed. Too crowded. Too tired. And yet, it takes barely a day of walking across the city to see how little that story matches reality.
From early morning coffees to late-night trains, London moves with intent. Pavements are full. Restaurants are busy midweek. Parks are used, not admired from a distance.
People meet after work, argue, laugh, build, trade, and plan. This is not the atmosphere of a city in retreat. It is the unmistakable energy of a city still very much in motion.
To understand why London continues to stand apart, you have to look beyond balance sheets and headlines and ask a simpler question: how does a city actually improve our lives?
The Key Value Drivers of a Cosmopolitan Life
A city that works adds value in clear, human ways. London does so across five interlocking dimensions; five ways urban life becomes richer, easier, and more meaningful:
Access – how effortlessly you reach what you need.
Opportunity – how far the city lets you go.
Society – how safe, connected, and visible life feels.
Culture – how much meaning exists beyond work.
Affordability – whether participation remains possible, not just theoretical.
Most cities do one or two of these well. London continues to deliver across all five.
Access: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
London’s quiet superpower is proximity. Almost anything you want from work, education, healthcare, food, culture is already nearby. If one option fails, another exists a few streets away. Choice is constant, and that choice creates momentum.
Food tells the story best. London eats well at every level. Street stalls, neighbourhood cafés, late-night kebabs, regional Indian kitchens, bakeries, bistros, Michelin stars often on the same road. Good food here is not an event; it is a daily pleasure.
Education and healthcare reinforce this advantage. World-class universities, schools, and hospitals sit alongside systems that remain free at the point of use. They are stretched, imperfect, but still extraordinary by global standards.
Then there is movement. London works without a car. Trains, buses, and the Underground stitch the city together. And beyond it, Europe is effectively next door. A cheap flight or train can turn a normal weekend into Paris, Barcelona, Lisbon, or the Alps. Escape is easy and that makes the city easier to live in.
Opportunity: Where Ambition Has Room to Breathe
London is not built around one industry. It is built around possibility. Finance, technology, media, law, healthcare, academia, fashion, and the arts collide daily. Careers here are not linear; they are layered.
Yes, wages have lagged. But London pays in exposure, reinvention, and compounding opportunity. People move sectors, build networks, and discover paths they did not arrive with. Over time, that matters more than any single salary point.
And crucially, opportunity does not stop at 6 p.m. London’s after-work culture is alive and informal. Talks, meet-ups, exhibitions, panels, pop-ups, and conversations spill into evenings across the city. Work turns into learning. Learning turns into connection. Connection turns into momentum.
Society: A City That Shows Up
London still lives in public. Streets are busy. Public transport is shared. Parks are full. Cafés spill onto pavements. People exist alongside one another rather than behind walls.
Crime is part of the conversation and rightly so. But behaviour speaks louder than headlines. Londoners walk home. They gather late. They use public spaces confidently. For most, safety is something felt day to day, not anxiously calculated.
In a world where many cities have retreated into cars, compounds, or private spaces, London remains open, visible, and social.
Culture: Not Just Diverse; Celebratory
London’s culture is not a museum piece. It is lived, loud, and constantly renewed.
The city does not simply “have diversity” it celebrates it. Christmas lights sit comfortably alongside Diwali displays. Eid is marked publicly. Lunar New Year fills streets. Pride takes over entire districts. Neighbourhoods decorate, institutions participate, and the city leans in.
This matters. Celebration is belonging made visible. It turns difference into shared identity and gives London its unmistakable texture.
Add to that free museums, world-class theatre, live music every night of the week, and ideas constantly in circulation, and culture stops being something you consume and becomes something you live inside.
Affordability: The Price of Energy
Let’s be honest: London is expensive. Housing is costly. Taxes are high. Space is tight. Luxury is no longer casual.
But affordability in London is not one-dimensional. Free healthcare, free museums, public parks, subsidised transport, and access to high-quality education all soften the edges. Taxes return value in visible, everyday ways.
London is demanding but it is not hollow. It asks a lot, and it gives a lot back.
The Bottom Line
London is not easy. It never was. It challenges you, stretches you, and occasionally exhausts you. But across access, opportunity, society, culture, and affordability, it delivers something rare: a complete urban life.
Ignore the noise. Walk the city. Take the train at rush hour. Eat midweek. Watch people meet after work. See how many lives intersect in a single day.
And you will know why this is the best place to live and work.
