Anyone living in London?

[thomasaevans]

Coz I need some advice.

[penny]

I live in London, but I don’t think I would be much help on the advice thing though.

[Ian Symes]

I live in London, and am excellent at it. What’s the matter, dear?

[Phil]

Yes, you should put some pants on.

[thomasaevans]

Me and my mate are at an all time serious low. We’re considering moving to London (for various reasons). Can anyone give advice about living in the city? ANY advice is SERIOUSLY welcome and will be repaid with drink upon our arival!

[Ian Symes]

Rent is ridiculously high, so don’t expect to get anything good, and don’t expect it to be slap bang in the middle of the city. Living in Zone 3 or 4 is best, as a compromise between rent and location. Living costs aren’t that much higher than anywhere else, despite the reputation. Beer is more expensive, but that’s only if you go to shit places. Food and utilities are the same as anywhere else. In fact, petrol is significantly cheaper, but that’s probably because having a car isn’t terribly necessary. Getting work isn’t as easy as you’d think, so do be careful before you take the plunge. The tube is ridiculously easy to use, and anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot. It’s also much better than any other form of transport anywhere in the country, but after six months or so, you’ll find yourself slagging it off at every opportunity.

And if you’re going to walk down Oxford Street at any point, DON’T SUDDENLY STOP WALKING. This simple piece of advise seems to evade most non-Londoners.

[thomasaevans]

Appreciate that Ian, thanks. Tube has never worried me… tis piss easy.

What you reckon rent-wise? On average?

[Seb Patrick]

For somewhere decent, you’re looking at about ?100p/w minimum. Unless you go further out than zone 3, which – if you’re intending to work or socialise in the centre – I don’t recommend, because nobody will ever come and visit you.

However, despite its flaws, living in London is GREAT.

[penny]

I’m paying ?290 per month inc bills in a flatshare in Brent Cross….Got it off Gumtree, which isn’t all about sex like I thought it was.

[Dave]

London isn’t as scary as anyone will try to tell you.

Seb’s not wrong about the zoning, I live in Zone 4 (and down the road from Penny as it turns out) and only really socialise in the centre. It takes me about an hour on the tube each way.

Most Londoners can’t drive and those that can, can’t drive well.

Try and line up work before you come, but my sister discovered that the jobs she wanted only started replying to her when she gave my address (i.e. a London one)

Do you have a line of work you are trying to pursue or are you willing to take the first shop job thay comes along? Except during Summer, there is always alot of temp work going in the square mile. I can root out some smaller agencies, they are less likely to lose you in the mix than the big’uns.

[Jason aka Smeg4Brains]

Most importantly…how easy is it to get weed?

[Dave]

I weed in the toilet, and once behind a tree

[Seb Patrick]

I moved down without a job, went round some agencies on the first weekday after moving on a Saturday, expecting to have to settle for some crappy temp work for a while. Had a completely demoralising day where the agencies were all crap with me, until I went into one at the last minute to see if they had anything. By the end of the day, I had my job with a telly writer’s agency.

So, moving without a job can be done, but I don’t recommend it unless you’ve saved up at least a month’s worth of rent and food money beforehand. I just got lucky, but I wouldn’t wish the associated can’t-sleep-nervousness on anyone…

[Seb Patrick]

(although, as Dave says, it’s much easier to get actual jobs – as opposed to temp agencies – to pay attention to you if you’re already living there, rather than just saying “I’m planning to move soon”. I commute from Brighton at the moment, but I doubt I’d have got my job if I’d done that to start with)

[Danny Stephenson]

> And if you?re going to walk down Oxford Street at any point, DON?T SUDDENLY STOP WALKING.

I’m rather na?ve when it comes to stuff like this.

[Mr Flibble]

I think the better advice is to just not go down Oxford Street at all.

[Danny Stephenson]

But why though? why not just stop walking?

[Ian Symes]

I moved down without a job, went round some agencies on the first weekday after moving on a Saturday, expecting to have to settle for some crappy temp work for a while. Had a completely demoralising day where the agencies were all crap with me, until I went into one at the last minute to see if they had anything. By the end of the day, I had my job with a telly writer?s agency.

So, moving without a job can be done, but I don?t recommend it unless you?ve saved up at least a month?s worth of rent and food money beforehand. I just got lucky, but I wouldn?t wish the associated can?t-sleep-nervousness on anyone?

For the opposite story – Jo (singingpotato1979) moved down here in August, without a job, and it wasn’t until mid-November that she got one. That wasn’t the best three months…

[John Hoare]

I will probably be moving to London this year.

Expect sickness.

[penny]

> (and down the road from Penny as it turns out)

Oh!

[Ben Paddon]

I moved to Los Angeles without a job, but I had somewhere to stay so it’s not quite the same thing.

If you’re looking to work in London, you might want to consider finding somewhere cheap to rent in Luton and commuting down, although that can work out expensive.

[thomasaevans]

Thanks for all the great advise guys. Here’s how It stands.

Myself and two mates all work at a (Nameless) Cinema, so we’re hoping to get a transfer to one of the central London branches until we get another job. HOwever Im looking to study at Drama School for a year, or mabey just job around with the acting like Im doing at the moment here in south wales. Its obviously much harder to find work in London, but luckily I have some friends who may be able to help me out.

Bound to be seriously hard, but pretty exciting Im thinking.

[Danny Stephenson]

> I weed in the toilet, and once behind a tree

Some seriously dodgy dealing there..

[Ian Symes]

I seem to have quite a few friends that are jobbing actors (which is what comes from using cheap/free actors in uni projects, I suppose) and it seems to be harder to be a jobbing actor in London than anywhere else, due to the stiffer competition. Having said that, on the plus side, you could do what one of my friends managed pretty easily – get a staff job at a theatre production. It would be similar to what you’re doing at the moment, cinema-wise, but with the added bonus that you’d be around actors all the time, learning how theatre works, drinking in the atmosphere, etc. Long hours, but apparently worthwhile.

[Seb Patrick]

>you might want to consider finding somewhere cheap to rent in Luton and commuting down

Although if you’re going to commute, you might as well find somewhere nicer than Luton ;-)

[Tanya Jones]

Ian is right. Many famous actors started off as assistant stage managers and the like.

[Andrew]

Also, many long-time stage managers started off as wannabe actors…

[Baz]

You could always sell your body to strangers on the street corner for extra money, just hang around Soho. Good-looking bloke like you, posh accent, nice legs, you can make a bomb. Just stick a pink carnation in your hat and make the old sign.

Girlfriend and I will be looking for a decent one bedroom flat towards the latter half of the year, within 1 hour’s commute of the centre, looking to pay ?500-?600 (plus more from girlfriend’s student housing expences) pcm. I don’t want to live in a dump and need to be about 15 mins walk max away from a station. Zone 4-5 is acceptable, from Croydon I pay ?120 a month travel, don’t want to pay more than that. I’ll be finding out how realistic this is over the next few months.

Say, all us Dwarfy types in London, perhaps we could start a commune. Call it “Io House”.

[Ian Symes]

I’d say you’d be looking at a fair chunk more than ?500 a month. We pay ?800pcm here for a one-bed flat, and that’s without bills. We’re paying for the area, though – Zone 3, slap bang in the middle of two tube stations. If you go out another zone or two, you might be all right. I previously lived in a slightly-run-down four-bed-plus-two-large-reception-rooms town house in Zone 5, and that was only ?1400pcm.

[listerssock]

I live in the suburbs of west london (Zone 6) and 10 minutes from a Metropolitan/ Picadilly line service. The outer reaches of the city can also be a good area to live as long as you don’t mind loads of “Adidas Dads”/ Chavs roaring about in there mini souped up cars. I used to work in Ealing and it was great apart from being on the bus going through Southall :-/

[Seb Patrick]

Hm. I know me and Capps got a bit lucky with our place – which was ?1000pcm for a two-bed flat directly opposite a zone 3 tube station – but we were looking at other properties in the same area that were in roughly the same ballpark…

[Seb Patrick]

(it’s worth bearing in mind, of course, that the amount you’ll pay per person exponentially decreases as you increase the number of bedrooms in a flat. If you can, going for a two- or three-bed place is by far the best. I’d never live in a one bed flat unless I was sharing it with someone.)

[Dave]

>it seems to be harder to be a jobbing actor in London than anywhere else, due to the stiffer competition

I’m a jobbing actor, in London, and I don’t think I’d agree with that entirely. There is more competition, but there is also more work. I spent along time temping and auditioning occasionally, then when the temping dried up I decided to audion for everything I could, which without an agent wasn’t that much, but work started coming in.

January is always a bad time, November/December is always a busier time. If you can’t get acting work at Christmas in London, you never will.

You can’t get TV experience without TV experience, but Fringe theatre auditions will see anyone.

Most of the paid work I’ve had, has been crap. Most of the things I’ve done for free have had a little more artistic merit and some have lead to paid work. It sounds terrible to say it’s not what you but who you know, but if you are casting something on a short timescale you are more likely to think of your mates.

[Phil]

>Most of the paid work I?ve had, has been crap. Most of the things I?ve done for free have had a little more artistic merit and some have lead to paid work.

Is it out of line to ask?

[Dave]

Short of giving you the whole CV, paid I’ve done my share of Legz Akimbo-esque theatre in education, corporate events as twat in top hat and I’m the current face of autism:

Yep.

Unpaid I’ve been in some great comedy stuff that should have reached a larger audience, some Shakespeare, some mad Marxist re-enactments and a couple of things on the horizon.

[penny]

> Myself and two mates all work at a (Nameless) Cinema, so we?re hoping to get a transfer to one of the central London branches until we get another job

Cool! …Hey, you never know but you may end up working at the cinema I’m working at.

We have Opera happening every few weeks and they are hoping to have it everyday with some acting happening during the interval. Some of the staff will be ushers for this and we’ll be dressed in smart 60’s clothes…This is what we’ve been told. I’m abit confused it’s 60’s (maybe I misheard).

[Baz]

>Cool! Hey, you never know but you may end up working at the cinema I?m working at.

Which one is that?

Don’t worry, I can’t stalk people until the police give me my stalking mac back.

[penny]

Haymarket…If you go in there and see a guy called Bevin give him a Red Dwarf quote he’ll find it funny as he the only other person there who like Red Dwarf it seems.

[Phil]

>I?m the current face of autism

I absolutely loved that. No idea how much exposure it gets, but you might possibly be able to get away with insulting strangers for the hell of it now.

[Dave]

There are three other ads in the series, but I didn’t want to link to them all and hijack someone else’s thread.

[Tanya Jones]

That’s a great ad. It’s always interesting to see what posters look like.

[Phil]

I still prefer thinking Dave doesn’t have any eyes or hands.

[Dave]

>I still prefer thinking Dave doesn?t have any eyes or hands.

They were prosthetics

[Mr Flibble]

I quite like those ads. There’s been some really good and accurate ads around highlighting disabilities recently.

[Mr Flibble]

Although they’re a bit OTT.

[Author]

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