Best and Worst Areas to Work in London
Curious to hear people's opinions.
What do you think are the best and worst areas to work in London if you are in finance?
Main finance areas:
Mayfair / Marylebone
- Firms: Blackstone, KKR, Apollo (now actually in Soho), PJT, Robey Warshaw, Lazard, most private equity firms, hedge funds, boutiques
City of London
- Firms: Rothschild, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, HSBC, Nomura, UBS, Standard Chartered, RBC
Canary Wharf
- Firms: Citi, Morgan Stanley, Barclays (HQ), JPMorgan (European HQ), Moody’s, S&P Global, Fitch
Regent’s Park
- Firms: BNP Paribas, Santander
Southwark / The Shard
- Firms: ARMA Partners, other boutique advisory firms, various private equity and asset management firms
Would be great to hear what people like or dislike about these areas.
Which ones are the nicest to work in and which ones are a bit grim?
Apollo isn’t in Mayfair/Marylebone
Yeah, sorry, just realised they moved from their St George Street office a while back.
bump
I've interned in Mayfair - I didn't like it. Navigating past tourists was not it for me, nor were the higher density of scammers and American candy shops in Piccadilly.
Farringdon was easier for me to be honest due to a relative lack of tourists on that end.
We can all agree Canary Wharf is the worst
Respectfully disagree. It's clean, it's quiet, and there is a much much lower risk of being robbed or your phone stolen compared to City (I have worked in both CW and the City). You go there for work, not the 'vibes'. Go to the City for drinks, it's not far
Everyone unironically seems to be forgetting that mayfair has easily the highest chance of getting your phone robbed.
clearly has never been to London bridge
Interned in Mayfair, loved it. Amazing area with nice cars always around (I'm an enthusiast) and always plenty to do. Work in the City now, not the best but still beats CW since it's more Central and much quieter on the weekends, which I personally prefer (I live close to my office)
Interned in Mayfair, honestly when I worked weekends it felt quite nice, everything was open and good vibes.
The City in the weekend is horrible - everything is closed and it's a ghost town.
General consensus is Mayfair > City > Canary Wharf
Mayfair's main advantage is that it allows you to live in the best parts of London (Chelsea/Kensington, Paddington, Marylebone) with little commuting
Though I don't think CW is all that bad. You now have an excellent connection to central London (Elizabeth/Jubilee), decent restaurants/bars, and above all some of the best value for money accommodation in London. It's not like Paris, where La Défense is clearly a soulless place to live..
But who works at La Défense to be honest, except SocGen and big 4
Should really be segmented.
High Comp / Don't care about saving / Mid level ASO+: Mayfair >= City >>>> Canary Wharf
'>=' Here comes from the fact that everybody seems to be forgetting how insanely high the theft rate is. My shop in mayfair has to literally brief interns during their induction about preventing their phones being robbed since it has happened to a few interns in the past.
Everybody Else: City >= Canary Wharf >= Mayfair
Frankly, as AN A0 making 50k base after tax, 4k per month, you dont really want to be dishing out 2.5k of your salary to live within a really good commute distance of mayfair as the commenter above posted. Yes, you see cool cars and rich architecture, but it feels more like walking through an entirely new country with the populace of saudi arabia and the crime rate of stratford. A stolen phone / watch will put a dent in your pocket unlike the group listed above and frankly you will never have the liberty of being able to solely walk to your office and skip out on the sweaty train experience. Not to mention the reasonably priced food options are pretty mediocre and the good options are extremely overpriced, not representative of your £3 - £5 stipend premium. Canary wharf is safer and cheaper, though significantly less lively (Not really an issue for an A0-A2 for reasons that dont need to be explained). City is at about the same safety level as mayfair, perhaps slightly safer since the crime is directly targeted at finance professionals in mayfair. But the livelihood for the city is unmatched, the commute areas are fantastic, and if you look really hard, you can find a place that competes with the canary wharf commute areas by PCM.
Lol it's not hard to find cheap rents within a ~30min commute of mayfair. If you're paying 2.5k you're just stupid
I dont think you got his point. Commenter above OP said 'best parts of London (Chelsea/Kensington, Paddington, Marylebone)' was a pro for mayfair. You would be hard to find anything that is not a shithole / 5 man flat share in these areas. Also, the whole point is you have to say 'within a ~30min' commute of mayfair. Realistically, for the price point (and assumedly safety?) you're looking at that means living near the city. So yes hypothetically you could get away with 1.8k pcm for a city-ish 1 bed, but then you have to commute 30-45 mins (inc. walking) on a humid train every day, while your Bank of America neighbour could walk to the office. But hey, atleast you get to people watch wealthy fat saudi men, outside overpriced nouveau coffee shops on your daily commute :)
Do they just try to snatch phones when someone is holding them or talking on the phone, or is there more serious robbery? Like someone forcing you to hand over your phone/wallet at knifepoint?
Daytime = Snatch, Night time = Force
Objectively it's:
Mayfair >>> City >>>>> CW.
How is Islington (near King‘s Cross) to live at?
Angel’s fucking brill mate if that’s what you are referring to, quite a young and upper class area once you go 5 mins out the station . Clerkenwell has a Marelybone-ish feel with less going on
Is Mayfair/Marylebone safe to walk at night? Would you personally wear a watch in those areas?
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