In a previous blog post, I briefly listed a few resources you can consult if you’re moving to London and planning on bringing your pets. Most pet owners do, after all—not doing so would, for them, be akin to leaving a child or a leg at home.
In any case, over the last few days, I’ve participated in discussion threads on forums like London Living and The London Expat American Meetup Group that address pet relocations in terms of London’s pet-friendliness, so thought I would also do so here.
Overall, London is quite pet-friendly—dogs can run without leashes at many city parks and are permitted entry to various shops and pubs. I never cease to be impressed by how docile these animals manage to be, especially when they ride the Tube But I have to say I think the local dogs are more reserved than some of the Yankee renegades that come over, as my friends’ American dogs will tear through out of control like cowboys riding the untamed Wild West. I had a good laugh at one of my friend’s tales about his puggle at Hampstead Heath: while the British dogs were trotting at their owners’ sides and only required a single command at an indoor-voice volume for them not to stray, his dog proceeded to run ragged and fall into ponds, then rub his muddy hide up against the Burberry raincoats of proper older British ladies.
Anyways, see below for a list of sites that offer up pet-friendly locales:
And do consult Yelp for Londoner’s ratings on assorted pet-friendly venues: Yelp.co.uk
Now when it comes down to pet-friendly flats, we’re entering different territory. The biggest obstacle you will encounter in this respect is finding a building that allows pets; if the building doesn’t allow them, it doesn’t matter if the individual unit’s landlord doesn’t mind them. If the building says no, it’s a no.
If the building says yes, but the landlord says no, that might rest at a no as well. However, while many landlords may not be keen on having a dog or cat in their owned property, they may be willing to negotiate. Ways to sweeten the pot for them when negotiating your lease is meeting the asking price rather than trying to haggle it down, if not offering more than the asking price (indeed, some landlords may require an additional fee). In addition, they may be inclined to allow it if you are able to offer them additional months’ rent in advance as a way of bypassing additional costs.
There’s no way around the fact that having a pet versus not will be more of a property-finding challenge. BUT it’s possible, so keep faith. And if you’re employing the services of a relocation specialist like London Relocation Ltd., that expertise on your side will give you that much more of an edge, as we know the local contacts to call. I’m just sayin’…
Established in the late 17th century, Seven Dials is a tucked-away shopping district located in Covent Garden. The seven streets that radiate out from the central monument were designed this way originally as a means of squeezing more housing onto the property to maximize the developer’s profit. Since then, the site has been a bustling location of residences and commerce, with an eclectic assortment of shops to wander amongst. I’m heading over there tomorrow night for the launch of Energie & Killah’s Spring/Summer collection, which will offer 20% discounts, live music, and some freebies (I love free things!). They required an RSVP, but an upcoming event likewise offering a 20% discount open for registration now is the Seven Dials Shopping Evening on Thursday, 29th April.
If you do end up swinging by, within short walking distance of Seven Dials is the must-see Stanfords travel bookstore…Oh…My…Stars…this store is gigantic by any city’s standards, especially for a store specializing in only travel texts. Here, you will find travel guides, memoirs, children’s books, and maps for any destination you can think of on the planet. The maps cover not only roads, but mountains and oceans for whatever adventurous navigation you have ahead of you.
So when you’ve dialed up London Relocation Ltd. at +44 (0)207 229 0757 to arrange your viewings upon moving to London, step on out to Seven Dials and the other shopping pleasures Covent Garden has to offer to unwind and treat yourself to something nice
The upper deck of the 328 bus brought me eye-to-eye this morning with the yellow-green buds starting to sprout from the trees. Ah, Spring is in the process of springing in London!!! I’ve just returned from a wonderful week-long visit to my hometown, Chicago, and am delighted to be returning to the noticeably Springier weather. Sure, it’s still overcast and taunting us with an impending rain shower, but the milder temps are already giving us free license to shed our woolen winter coats for lighter-weight trenches. And the fashion is back on the streets! When not having to layer and dress practically against the winter elements, I am finally getting my sidewalk catwalk back and giddily observing more fun footwear and colorful, whimsical clothing peeking out from thinner jackets.
Photo credit : (cc-by-nc-nd) Bruno Monginoux / www.Landscape-Photo.net : nature and urban photography, free stock photos
I will give my hometown props for its beautiful Spring weather that for the most part still trumps London’s…with the EXTREME exception of, um, well, yeah, okay, a couple days snow. Yep, snow. Last Friday, I had skipped into a delightful coffee shop (one of my favorite old haunts back home) to meet good and dearly missed friends—I was sans coat as it was sunny and 65 degrees Fahrenheit. When I skipped back out a few hours later, it had since dropped 20 degrees to 45 F, and the next day we all woke up to snow-cover. Crazy. But that’s spring in Chicago, where March both comes in and goes out like a lion, always testing its loyal residents to the brink with one random snowstorm before officially yielding to bluer skies and greener grasses.
This weather has me feeling really restless. Just as you will likely encounter when you move to London, we’d hosted a slew of visitors last spring through fall, but this year we seem to be hitting a slow-down. This warming climate has me antsy to go touring London’s city centre and hopping a train out to the neighboring countryside to wander…guests are the perfect excuse to do this, but we shouldn’t wait for them—we need to almost build in a playtime discipline by which we can structure our days around the fun stuff as much as the everyday responsible adult stuff. London is a massive playground to frolic within and climb and slide upon, so don’t make excuses for not taking advantage of this immediately after your London relocation.
Because London Relocation Ltd. specializes in quick-turnaround flat-hunting and moving in, that’ll carve out that much more time for you to venture out and do the things you really want to do, the things you moved here for. Happy Spring—now get out and play!
Relocating to London from abroad is a daunting task on a vast array of levels, but one aspect that is particularly of concern for families moving over is where to send the kids to school. For many parents, their children’s education is of utmost priority, and many who contact us specify that where they live will be dictated by what school their child enters. So, if choosing the school is required before you can make decisions on everything else, where can you turn to?
The Good Schools Guide offers an annual book that should cover just about every question a parent would have regarding the selection of a London school. The education system operates differently here than in other countries, so there are different classifications of schools to understand that can become very confusing—for instance, what is called a “public” school in the States is considered “private” here, and vice-versa. The website itself (http://www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/) offers comprehensive guidance as to admissions, exams, international schools, Special Education needs, fees, tutoring, etc., so this is your essential resource in initiating your research process.
Just as you educate yourself on schooling options, London Relocation Ltd. will educate you on the property and cultural climate here in London so that you find your optimal neighborhood in relation to the school’s location.
I’d like to devote today’s blog post to making you all aware of the discussion forums we’ve made available to you to talk relocation—specifically, relocating to London. As a London relocation specialist, we would be remiss not to provide you the opportunity to communicate with others who are or already have gone through what you are. This is your chance to share your own insights as well as benefit from those of others who have already been there-done that and can offer you guidance so your total transition can go more smoothly. There’s more involved to moving to London than just flat-searching and setting up bank accounts–it’s an emotional adjustment that often gives one pause to reflect on life choices and goals. Think about it: on moving here, you’re plucking yourself out of a familiar environment and exploring new territory, perhaps starting an entirely new job or career or redefining your professional and personal roles in other respects. It’s a new leaf, a blank canvas on which to paint the new pathways you’ll stride upon, and once you see you’ve surmounted that challenge, there’s no end to the possibilities of new directions you might take!
In light of this, we invite you to share your experiences and/or learn from others’ at the following forums:
Flat-searching in London and wondering what the heck these agents are talking about? Perhaps not if you’re a local, but for anyone moving to London from the U.S., Canada, or elsewhere internationally, it can be a completely different language. To reiterate our caution put forth in a previous blog post about flat searching in London, it’s no easy feat without a relocation specialist when the property market works differently here.
As much as the realtor (called a “lettings agent” or “negotiator” here) might not understand you when you reference your “condo” back home, you may not understand some of the terms that they put forth, such as a “mews” or that the “first floor” is actually what you know to be the second floor and not the ground level. Perhaps the first and most frequent source of confusion is the quotation of rent prices, whether online or verbally–these will be in terms of PER WEEK as opposed to per month, which can serve to tease your expectations. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, as they say. So, to convert that per week figure to a monthly one that is more conducive to your budgeting, multiply it by 4.33 (which is the equivalent of multiplying it by the 52 weeks of the year and dividing by 12 months).
With that monthly figure in mind, add to that 6 times the weekly rent to capture the first month’s rent and 6-week deposit that you will have to pay up front to the agency representing the property. This does not yet include any additional administrative fees the agency may tack on (which London Relocation Ltd. will cover if you go through us so that it would be no extra cost to you). Of particular outrage especially during the summer months is when students are asked to fork over up to 6 months’ rent in advance unless they can provide a UK-based guarantor of the funds–and even then, there is no guarantee the landlord will accept them under that condition.
This is a case where the art of negotiation must come into play to find compromise with demanding landlords or risk losing the property. Also necessary to negotiate are aspects like furniture (what will be provided/replaced/put in storage by the landlord) and whether the rent price also includes utilities—and brace yourself, because whereas landlords in the States would not pass on their property taxes to their tenants, such is not the case here with the council tax. YOU, the tenant, bear the responsibility of paying that bill, not the owner of the property. That one stings expats every time when they’re not accustomed to that practice in their home country.
But getting back to negotiating items like furniture, you must be wary of your lettings agent—unless the landlord is there in person to vouch for it (which is rare), it is very common for the agent to make promises that the landlord can not or will not deliver. It is so cynical to say, but so many in the industry will say whatever they need to in order to make the commission. If they make a white lie that you discover will not be followed through on only after you’ve already signed the tenancy agreement and paid your upfront costs if not already moved in, no matter how much you kick and scream, that agent will have still made money off you, so why should they care? They’ll have already moved on to their next source of cash. Our advice if that happens? You probably won’t make much progress with the landlord if they didn’t agree to whatever the agent promised to begin with, so go straight to their supervisor and lodge a complaint. Don’t be shy about going over their heads—they need to learn some way.
While the lease itself will likely look standard to what you’ve seen at home (and they typically are), just be advised that there is no industry-wide standard, so the terms may vary agency to agency. As I also addressed in my previous post, “M.L.S. = M.I.A.,” you might want to include a break clause in your contract that will give you an optional out after a specified duration of time (typically 6 months), with no penalty. You may also want to read through the language thoroughly to make sure that it holds landlords accountable for respecting your tenant rights should any maintenance and repairs be required within the property. What is reasonable for you to expect with regard to their responsibilities should be clearly defined at the outset.
One aspect in working with lettings agents that can be tricky to gauge is their inevitable sense of urgency—especially if you’re relocating from another country, they know that you probably feel a sense of impulsiveness in just wanting to get your living situation sorted already, and they’ll prey on that for certain. That being said, however, their repetition of how the property will probably fly off the shelf by the next day if you don’t put forward an offer soon is not entirely unfounded. Property does move fast in London, and we have had clients who lose their top choices due to hesitance. If you are offering less than what the landlord is asking, not taking them up on a preliminary acceptance might indeed mean losing your London flat the next day to a higher bidder. And in the summer, even if you’re willing to meet the price, an offer could have flown in just after you toured the flat and been accepted on the spot. This can be terribly nerve-racking and filled with much second-guessing when there is so much money on the line and it’s a decision that will impact your standard of living for the next year or so!
This is why London Relocation Ltd. prides itself on our selection of 18-25 properties that you will view in one day—the quantity ensures you are seeing the spectrum of what you could reasonably expect for your budget in a given locale, and the one-day timeframe ensures you can make the comparisons and conduct your process of elimination expediently to arrive at a decision that you’re comfortable with by the end of that same day. Don’t believe that that’s possible? Just ask our previous clients!
Earls Court was pimped out Monday evening to welcome the biggest names in the British and International music scene for the 2010 BRIT Awards (UK’s Answer to the Grammys). Earls Court’s versatile convention facility that one week houses the UK’s largest beer fest then showcases the latest in baby products the next (and is slated to house volleyball tournaments in the 2012 Olympics) is practically unrecognizable on the inside with the elaborate set designs on stage and opulent table seating for the stars and industry-connected—reserving the upper nose-bleed balcony seats for the regular schmucks like me. I don’t think a majority of the public realizes that you can, indeed, attend the award show for a mere £75 per person. Sponsored by Mastercard, when the tickets become open to the public a few weeks before the event, Mastercard holders get priority access for the first week or so before it then becomes a free for all.
And let me tell you, it is SO worth it: it’s an excuse to get dolled up in the sparkles and bling that you bought for fun but really never have any place to wear, and you can bring your wine or beer right to your seats to sit back and just enjoy the show. Even for me, whose musical tastes are more alternative than the pop stars the awards seem to glorify, there’s nothing like a live performance—and we all know that sometimes the top mainstream hits we like to pretend we hate are now and then the ones we bust out singing and/or dancing to when we’re alone. Nothing wrong with indulging guilty pleasures once in a while.
Speaking of performances, the bass was booming in the house and throbbing in my chest when the likes of Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Dizzee Rascal, Florence & the Machine, JLS, Kasabian, Robbie Williams, Lily Allen, and Lady Gaga graced the stage and emitted their total energy through the microphone (I deliberately leave Cheryl Cole off this list as it’s been speculated she was the lip-syncer…there’s always one, isn’t there). The award presenters in themselves are a treat to see, such as Dame Shirley Bassey (she’s a legend!), the Spice Girls (well, at least Scary & Ginger), comedian Alan Carr, and the gorgeous Cat Deeley (people in the States may know her from So You Think You Can Dance; speaking of guilty pleasures, that show is one of my faves).
Lady Gaga really cleaned up with her 3 awards for International Female Solo Artist, International Album, and International Breakthrough Act. Her own performance was a bit of a shock—rather than delivering one of her better known hits like “Just Dance” or “Paparazzi,” she shifted gears to sombre, avant-garde renditions of “Telephone” and “Dance in the Dark,” which she dedicated to her friend and fashion designer, the late Alexander McQueen. Almost as shocking as her towering blond bouffant was the electric orange wig worn by Lily Allen when she accepted her award for British Female Solo Artist—evidently, she was so convinced she wasn’t going to win that she deliberately disguised herself so the cameras couldn’t capture her disappointment if she lost. She herself had delivered a darling performance of “The Fear” (I could listen to that song set to loop for ages…), reminding me very much of a darker version of Madonna’s “Material Girl” with her black leather leotard and combat soldiers parachuting down holding dainty pink-trimmed umbrellas. Florence & the Machine’s unlikely pairing with Dizzee Rascal for their duet overlapping Florence’s “You’ve Got the Love” with Dizzee’s “Dirtee Love” was a glimmering spectacle for the eyes, and my other favourite was Jay-Z and Alicia Keys thumpin’ out the edgy urban soundscape of “Empire State of Mind.”
So there’s one more item to add to your list of London Things-to-Do when you move to England. Look forward to it next February, and, in the meantime, to have a comfortable set within which to stage the performance that is your rockstar life, contact London Relocation Ltd., the London relocation specialists, as your home search provider.
Concluding with our series of posts on British Airways’s High Life magazine’s 1,000th thing to do in London, below are a few readers’ suggestions of how to appreciate the markets and other miscellany to be enjoyed here:
“Shop at Alfie’s Market on Church Street near Marylebone. Inside the former Jordan’s department store is a magical labyrinth of small shops. A real treat for both trophy-hunting tourists and fans of 20th-century design.”
“Stand on the bridge in St. James’s Park and look towards Whitehall—all the different roofs make a magical fairy-tale scene.”
“For a unique and highly amusing experience, see the overstuffed walrus at the Horniman Museum. The taxidermist of the time (circa 1870) failed to account for the folds of skin that would normally be present. It’s certainly one of the more unusual pieces in the natural history collection.”
“The Greenwich Foot Tunnel, designed by Sir Alexander Binnie, opened in 1902. Made up of 200,000 white tiles, which line the walls, this historical phenomenon links the London Docks with Greenwich.”
“Visit the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. It’s an incredible way to absorb the atmosphere of the Tower without thousands of other tourists. By the end, you feel honoured to have been allowed to witness it.”
If you’re moving to London, you’ll eventually be eager to side-step the tourist trail and discover these hidden nooks on your own. Once the relocation specialists at London Relocation Ltd. assist you with your London home search, you’ll be ready to explore and surely discover your own list of 1,000 things to do here!
Imperial War Museum - image from http://readthisblog.net/2005/07/
Following up on our previous post of British Airways High Lifemagazine’s 1,000th thing to do in London, below are a few readers’ suggestions of how to appreciate various aspects of the city’s history:
“Lord’s, the home of cricket, is where the sport originated. It still has the headquarters of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and it’s the dream of every cricketer to play there.”
“The trench experience at the Imperial War Museum. Everyone should be made aware of just how lucky we are to be born at the right time and not to have had to experience this first-hand.”
“West Norwood Cemetery is the burial place of the richest, most famous, iconic and inspirational people to have set foot in or shaped the city of London. With thousands of plots, monuments and mausoleums—each with a unique story to tell—and the fascinating history behind the ancient catacombs it’s here that you’ll get a real glimpse of the movers and shakers of the city’s past.”
“For a slice of history, visit Temple Church near the embankment. It’s one of the most beautiful, magical and historical places you’ll see. It dates from the 12th century and was built by the Knights Templar. The church is nestled among a collection of ancient buildings, which make up the Inner and Middle Temple. If you can, attend a service there—the choir is second to none.”
“The Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum give you a real sense of wartime London. An absorbing experience where time stands still.” (I personally endorse this one—I’ve been there twice and could easily go again today if I could. A fascinating, authentic experience that is not so overwhelming in size that you can’t take your time and peruse all the information and reflect on its impact—be careful visiting in Spring, though, when student tour groups may flood the narrow and intimate corridors!)
“Few people realise that London is one of the most important urban archaeological sites in the world due to the history along the Thames. Pull on some wellies and head out at low tide to spot 200-year-old clay pipes, bits of Tudor pottery and many other wonderful items.”
And to see history-in-the-making:
“Watch democracy in action at the Strangers’ Gallery in the House of Commons.”
If you’re moving to London, you’ll eventually be eager to side-step the tourist trail and discover these hidden nooks on your own. Once the relocation specialists at London Relocation Ltd. assist you with your London home search, you’ll be ready to explore and surely discover your own list of 1,000 things to do here!
But I have to say I think the local dogs are more reserved than some of the Yankee renegades that come over, as my friends’ American dogs will tear through out of control like cowboys riding the untamed Wild West. I had a good laugh at one of my friend’s tales about his puggle at Hampstead Heath: while the British dogs were trotting at their owners’ sides and only required a single command at an indoor-voice volume for them not to stray, his dog proceeded to run ragged and fall into ponds, then rub his muddy hide up against the Burberry raincoats of proper older British ladies.
