I live in London and I find it extremely overrated. The only appealing thing about it is the job market.
Moved to Barcelona and the difference is night and day.
i.e. it takes 40m to get anywhere... But there's an incredible variety of things & places to which you can get in 40m!
Night and day difference living out there on the edge than living closer in within one of the neighborhoods having restaurants, cafes and local pubs on your doorstep and being able to walk to work.
Both are conurbations (of differing size) where you can find yourself wandering various little town centres each with their own unique vibe. It just happens that London is bigger.
That's only the subway; a better comparison would include at least parts of the RER network, which covers 360 miles; let's say half of that in a range comparable to London subway. And London is much more spread out than Paris, so comparing mileage is not a very interesting metric. Subway station density is another one where London “loses”.
Personally, I found London subway OK, with stations a bit too far away for my taste. The bus network however is better than in Paris, especially their frequency of passage.
And the museums, theatres, cinemas, galleries, pubs, clubs, restaurants, markets, festivals, parks etc.
But if you don't use any of those then London is just a noisy, dirty, expensive hell - you might as well live in the suburbs somewhere
I assume that is specifically within UK? And not job market in the EU or Global Scale?
3 Brits
2 Americans
1 each of Ukrainian, Irish, and French.
The head of the department is also French.