Wow, this is a very categorical view that does not provide any additional data or useful information.

As somebody who a few years ago was looking to move to London and was getting depressed reading all sorts of alarmist comments I feel the need to respond. This place is wonderful!

Concrete data:

* I pay a bit over 1/8 of my salary (_excluding_ stock, I consider that extra) on rent. I live in a nice two bedroom apartment in zone 1 and share a room with my GF; the second bedroom is rented by a friend of ours.

* I walk to work; pay nothing for transport unless I want to go visit something. I don't own a car and don't need it.

* The culture is awesome. For example, I like music a lot and I constantly find stuff I love that I can see live. I go to at least one concert a month. I don't think there's another city that tops London on music (at least for the genres I like).

* The food is awesome, quality is way, _way_ better than anything I've had in the US. Super varied and affordable - there are plenty of street markets selling delicious food for £5-8 / portion during lunchtime in the week. I don't have catered food at work, but I think I would still prefer the street food.

* I didn't realise how _green_ the city is. There are a lot of trees, parks and nice places to walk around.

* The weather's nice enough that I can run outside a few days a week for the duration of the year. The summer's lovely and there are loads of places to spend time outside.

* I don't have kids and am not interested, in the short term at least.

* I was lucky enough not to need any medical assistance / GP services so can't comment on that.

Please stop with these baseless categorizations. I lived in Slough for almost a year so I understand that there are places less than perfect here but let's try and base the discussion on objective facts.

Median London salary is ~£35,000, or £2,247.27/month after tax - 1/8th of which is £280. Most people are paying a lot more than that, even for a room share, way outside of Zone 1. I would suggest yours isn't a representative financial situation.