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Who has worked in London/WHV in London?


soisbelle

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Thinking of doing it next year, and would love to hear your stories.

What did you do for work, how long did you stay, what part of London did you live in?

Did you travel around much?

What did you enjoy the most/least?

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I have a friend who is currently 7 months in to her WHV. She is an interior designer by trade. She is currently on her second contract job. Shes moved around within central London initially living in Chelsea and now just outside of the city in Southwark. As far as i know she loves it. The only compplaint she has is that it is super expensive BUT also on salary jobs she gets paid once a month. The majority of her travelling has been done to other countries (the flights within london are cheap). Shes been to Dubai, Venice, Milan and Paris

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i used to live in london for about 4 years, had an aweseom time, worked with clothing and later on recruitment. its an expensive city to live in but it all depends on where you live and as most people tend to share which helps. generally you could say aussies/antipodeans tend to stick with west london (sheperds bush, earls court and so on) and its usually a really good atmosphere in those household, i personally found ehm the easiet to get along with :D

as for travel, london is a great hub and most people visiting london from your side of the globe tend to travel around quite a bit. you'll easily find people to go with once youre in town.

best thing: easy, its all the great people you meet and the antics you get up to. lots of stuff to see, and easy find a job and place to stay. great nightlife, probably the best and most diverse in europe. they serve imperial pints!

crap things: expensive, and even for quite a bit of money people (estate agents, watch out for these fuckers) still try and rip you off. the weather isnt that fab compared to what youre used to hehe. they serve imperial pints..

hope this helps out mate! now get goin!

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Hey moklas sounds like you did have a great time! I love reading these stories. Yes, the weather will be the biggest challenge, especially as I sit here having come from the beach and thinking nothing could be better than this!

Did you find it easy to get work there?

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  • 3 weeks later...

I lived in London for two years from '00-'02 and had a brilliant time. My company transferred me there for a couple years, so was able to live in central london. I had no idea where to live, but would have stayed in west or sw london if I did it again.

Best part of living in London was the easy and cheap travel to the rest of europe. I was able to get to the continent at least once a month, mostly on weekend trips. Other great things about london are... the pubs, the nightclubs and the live music scene and summer music festivals are good fun too. Food is generally crap, except for some of the ethnic stuff like north african or Indian and the very high end places. Pub food is edible, but it gets boring pretty quick... just drink beer for dinner.

The worst thing about london are the prices!

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west london is shit as!!!

try to stay EC shoreditch/dalston area, or perhaps islington. go as far up dalston to stokey (my current endz)!!

stay well away from west london unless your balding and like to chat up the waitresses at sushi dives in picadilly on business hours.

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true, west london can be pretty yuppie but i had to drive to my office which was close to heathrow, so couldn't do anything east, although i did like islington a lot. still, lots of cool shops, clubs and restaurants in west, sw london and there are plenty of younger working professionals to meet, not just the upper crust. shepherd's bush is also in west london... so it's not all bad.

there are some nice neighborhoods on the northern line too... camden, chalk farm, golders green...

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I live in the westend now, and it's actually a really nice place to be. We were really lucky finding our flat (one room studio flat, 200quid a week) since everywhere gets snapped up really quickly and usually goes for a fair bit more. Once you're further out from the centre prices drop quite a bit though.

Work isn't exactly impossible to get, but if you're not willing to work whatever hours your potential employer wants it can be pretty tricky, I've also heard that employers favour British citizens (though if that were true I'd have a job by now)

Things are expensive, London's probably one of the most stupidly expensive places to live in Europe, but since there are universities here, it's easy enough to get by, or students would all be starving to death!

shoreditch/hoxton is where all the trustafarians live, but it is a really cool place. Apparently everything's starting to get more expensive there now because it's 'trendy' and whatnot.

It really depends on where you're looking to stay/what you're looking to do.

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'scuse the bullet points cos but I'm knackered.

I've lived in London all my life when I haven't been travelling or studying and I have to say that a WHV there will change your life, but I can think of a dozen better places to go to. I'm headed back there at the end of March and I'm not really that excited.

I work for myself but know from friends and clients that there's plenty of casual work about if you want it, it just depends on what you want you're prepared to do. Do you have any skills or a trade that will help you?

It's a pretty frustrating city to live in at times and everything is expensive, not least the exhorbitant day to day transport costs. Be prepared and save as much money as you can before you get there. The australian dollar won't go far.

I'd agree with Mr. Highstreet and Seraphim that there's definitely distinct districts in London but be advised that just cos a place is cool and edgy doesn't mean it's great to live there. At all. I live south of the river and like it very much. There's a nice balance of everything .. a huge community of travellers and a vibrant music, bar and restaurant scene, plus space and parks when I want it.

Any questions or anything shout.

Thankyou.

Goodnight.

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"Where can you be in the centre of town and also bang in the middle of shoreditch in ten minutes."

"Is there such a place I prithy?"

"Why yes, New Cross of course."

"But I thought it was a shady shithole full of roustabouts and stabby crack whores!"

"It is yes but the people of New Cross have enlisted their help to ensure their paradise remains a secret."

"I'll take some of those onions if you please."

"Tip top! See you in the New Cross Inn..."

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"Where can you be in the centre of town and also bang in the middle of shoreditch in ten minutes."

"Is there such a place I prithy?"

"Why yes, New Cross of course."

"But I thought it was a shady shithole full of roustabouts and stabby crack whores!"

"It is yes but the people of New Cross have enlisted their help to ensure their paradise remains a secret."

"I'll take some of those onions if you please."

"Tip top! See you in the New Cross Inn..."

New Cross/Deptford very much IS a shithole. A shithole full of students and drug dealers. The cheapest place to drink there is the Hobgoblin/Union bar, and even they aren't that cheap. The Thai place opposite the Goldsmiths Library has a special deal on food, a sort of happy hour which is good. There's a Sainsburys nearby...and...that's about it.

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New Cross/Deptford very much IS a shithole. A shithole full of students and drug dealers. The cheapest place to drink there is the Hobgoblin/Union bar, and even they aren't that cheap. The Thai place opposite the Goldsmiths Library has a special deal on food, a sort of happy hour which is good. There's a Sainsburys nearby...and...that's about it.

lol.. yeah.. new cross is alright though, alot of parties and stuff because of the art schoolers. i was living there a while :) but now in stokey :)

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west london is shit as!!!

try to stay EC shoreditch/dalston area, or perhaps islington. go as far up dalston to stokey (my current endz)!!

stay well away from west london unless your balding and like to chat up the waitresses at sushi dives in picadilly on business hours.

So are generalisations ;) I've lived in London for the past eight years, started off in Fulham (no atmosphere at all) moved to Streatham Hill (quite shady but dirt cheap and close to the South London oasis that is Brixton) Lived in Hommerton for six months (rough as fuck but cheap) then moved to Westbourne Park, best place I've lived by a mile, an amazing market, amazing record stores and some of the best vintage clothes stores in London are all about ten minutes away from my house...

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My girl used to live in Queens Park and we used to go to the Skiddaw but now the Harrow Road acts as an invisible barrier and I tend to stay South of it. If I had one complaint about West London it'd be the pubs, I fucking hate the Westbourne and the Cow, full of coke worshipping, self-important pricks...

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Me and the lady used to live in Queens Park too. Completely agree with you on the Westbourne Grove pubs. The same applied with the ones in Queens Park itself - too many people carrying overpriced Fresh&Wild, sipping Cappo's and having pushchairs that bear more resemblance to a car than anything else. The best thing about places deemed 'cool' in London is that there's always a shady Irish pub around the corner that are too rough for the gakheads. Mine's a pint and I'll have a small bottle of miscellaneous screwtop white wine for the lady please...

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See, the cunning New Cross plan works. Next thing you'll be saying that Stokey is in London and that Shoreditch is boss.

you what?

i moved out of london, but stil live half time in stokey, which is in london, how can you say its not??

shoreditch is a trendhole but atleast its not pretending otherwise, its alright.

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There's a road sign in Stokey that says something along the lines of 'London 12 Miles'. Great bit of useless trivia that really annoys people who live there. It is a bugger to get to though, you cannot deny that London's transport system has failed to acknowledge the place. And as for the 'Ditch; it kind of has a get out of jail card in that Plastic People is one of the most ridiculously loud places I've ever been to.

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How on earth could it be 12 miles away? It's closer into the centre than Tottenham and try telling people from Tottenham that they're not Londoners...

But yeah, fuck going to Hackney or anything on that huge road that is Kingway, Stoke Newington High Street and about 5 other different things, it's a pain in the arse I avoid at almost all costs

Shoreditch is a general waste of time, as is general London snobbery about where people live (not directed at anyone here, just a general point). South of the river, North of the river, East, West... who the fuck cares, that's what we have bikes, feet and Oystercards for. Live, eat, drink, shop across London, get the best of everything

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There's a road sign in Stokey that says something along the lines of 'London 12 Miles'. Great bit of useless trivia that really annoys people who live there. It is a bugger to get to though, you cannot deny that London's transport system has failed to acknowledge the place. And as for the 'Ditch; it kind of has a get out of jail card in that Plastic People is one of the most ridiculously loud places I've ever been to.

stokey is in the burough of hackney you dick... plastic people houses good nights, the areas trendy but so fucking what!!

12 miles to london means 12 miles to the actual center, thats like st albans or something! ahah. but thats like saying anyone who doesnt live in WC or EC post code are not in london? your thick as.

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Someone explain to me how the fuck Stoke Newington can physically be 12 miles from the centre of London, unless you walk in circles for about 4 miles before starting your journey:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&hl=en&layer=&ie=UTF8&saddr=Leicester+Square,+Westminster,+London+WC2H,+United+Kingdom&daddr=stoke+newington&sll=53.098145,-2.443696&sspn=10.884837,27.949219&z=12&om=1

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Listen, I didn't put the sign up there and it's been there for longer most signs. As I wrote earlier the sign does not actually say it's twelve miles away but there is definately a very old sign that points in the direction of London. As it is an old sign you can read it to mean Stokey is not in London. And seeing as we're all in pedant mood the close of the message mentioned that it winds the fuck out of people. Like it is now. Besides it takes so long to get to Stokey that it may as well be twelve miles away.

Seeing as we're all from London let's just look moody and not talk about this ok...

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CHEAP EATS IN LONDON:

in central, best bet would be china town

my favs are Won Kei (ask for sweet n sour prawn with rice. not on menu but its cheaper than getting the dish on its won for some reason)

misato, a japanese restraunt

various dim sum places,

good greek fallafell shops in soho and along tottenham court road, between leicster sq and tottenham court road tube station

the korean restraunts arent too bad as well for set lunches. good ones are Nara and Gamma

the belgian chain, Belgo in covent garden is decent for food before 6, for under 6 GBP

keeo an eye out on the daily paper, metro, coz they will have details of coupons and sepcial offers.

but the best thing is to either work in yo sushi or make friends who work there.

they cant keep anything overnight so they throw it out or you can take it home

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to follow up on the eats;

yoshino is a cheap (for uk) deli style sushi store in the basement of japancenter in picadilly, well worth a visit for a quick light lunch whilst your on the run.

ricewine shop on brewer street (picadilly end) is the best japanese food store in london, and the official highstreet fam hangout (groceries and some onigiri (rice balls)).

for stores, be sure to check out;

kokon to zai (greek street, soho)

pineal eye (broadwick street, soho/carnaby)

concrete on marshall street (next to carnaby street)

as much as i hate camden, its definately worth checking the vintage and military stores under the arches at the far end, cheap as chips and lots of good stuff if your lucky. dont walk about there with your nice camera out though, get some hoodrats about there looking to rob tourists all time.

if you say your interests a bit more im sure people can tell you more about good things to do.

t

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Nawwhhhh you gotta find the vietnamese community restaurant in Dalston if you want cheap food. Or Head to Tooting or Wembley for a curry.

ahah.. i was gonna say walk up kingsland road way to get a vietnamese! hhaha.. i went to 'cafe hanoi' last week with some friends, wasnt too bad :)

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as uncool as it probably is, i actually like some of the food in camden a lot. used to love the vintage shops there but i haven't been for a while!

oh and that shitty glass monster thing they threw up right in the fuckin middle of the market couldnt look more out of place :confused:

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