Moving to London for a year, got any tips?

Mon, 03/08/2009 - 15:58 — James Andres

I'm currently living in Vancouver, Canada working at a small agency Work at Play. My wife just got accepted into a grad program at the University of London, so it looks like we're off to explore England! I would greatly appreciate any advice you might have, relating to:

Finding contract / free-lance work in London (Drupal, and other development work), I am planning to have a work visa.
Fun things to do in London, including Drupal meet-ups!
Side-trips and small vacations around the UK
Good neighbourhoods, we are looking south of the river ... rent needs to be fairly inexpensive
Good places to eat :-)

I will be arriving in early October, but my wife is planning to land in mid-September to do some flat finding. Much appreciated! James.

General

Mon, 03/08/2009 - 22:06 — websesame

James, James; * Finding

James, James; * Finding contract / free-lance work in London (Drupal, and other development work), I am planning to have a work visa. - Much of this depends on luck really. You have freelancers who are engaged all year round and you have a lot more who need to scour Tesco for cut price groceries. I hope you come well funded and with fall back finance plans other than freelancing though. * Fun things to do in London, including Drupal meet-ups! - Talk to Robert Castelo and Greenman * Side-trips and small vacations around the UK - You may be disappointed I am afraid. But I guess the weather may not be as lousy as in Canada.It's certainly not the Carribeans here. * Good neighbourhoods, we are looking south of the river ... rent needs to be fairly inexpensive - Depends on what inexpensive is for you. Go take a look at www.gumtree.com and you will get an idea of what going rates are and lots of alternatives. * Good places to eat :-) - Aaargh! Don't go eating kebabs in NE London I may have been pessimistic I realise; but better for you to come very well prepared. It's not exactly heaven here but heck you are only coming for one year innit ? www.websesame.com

Tue, 04/08/2009 - 04:46 — James Andres

Thanks for the realism

websesame, I wouldn't call it pessimistic, just realistic. I'm aware the "economic climate" in London isn't what it used to be, which is likely affecting the technology workers. I know it is affecting a lot of my friends here.

I do have a fallback plan, I can freelance remotely in Canada using my contacts here. Making the pound would be a lot better though...
Vancouver is pretty rainy too. I'm used to it :-)
Thanks for the pointer to GumTree, looks like a valuable site.
What's wrong with the kebabs in NE London? Or should I not ask ...

Thanks!

Tue, 04/08/2009 - 08:45 — websesame

What's wrong with the kebabs

What's wrong with the kebabs in NE London? Erm... I no speakee da Eeenglish :) Cheers ! www.websesame.com

Fri, 21/08/2009 - 13:06 — badlydrawnben

Hi James, If you're moving

Hi James, If you're moving to London and won't know many people then maybe you'd be interested in visiting us for a few hours a week whilst you are looking for something more permanent. We're a small charity that runs a website on drupal and we have an online budget of £0 so we're always on the look out for people to join our 'Talent pool'. http://www.warchild.org.uk/features/talentpool We're a friendly, international bunch based in NW London. If you'd like to donate a few hours of drupal or web dev skills in exchange for some good cups of tea and a few London recommendations then we'd love to hear from you. I appreciate that your focus will of course be on finding something more permanent and paid... but the offer's there. Thanks, Ben

Tue, 25/08/2009 - 04:08 — James Andres

Sounds interesting

I appreciate the offer Ben, I'm not sure exactly what my time commitments will be like when I arrive, but I probably will have a little free time ;-). I'm definitely interested! Thanks, James.

Tue, 25/08/2009 - 09:36 — hunthunthunt

My tips

James, London's a great city with so much to offer, not particularly welcoming to newcomers, so it pays to be organised. I arrived from Melbourne, Australia 6 years ago so can appreciate your predicament. * Finding contract / free-lance work in London (Drupal, and other development work), I am planning to have a work visa. A work visa is a MUST, try get one with the least restrictions. Are you eligible for a an Ancestry visa? If you want to freelance you need to have a UK bank account and have your own company. Not as complicated as it sounds - places like http://www.1stcontact.com will do it all for you. The most popular job site for IT in London is www.jobserve.co.uk also look at http://tntonline.co.uk/tnt_today/ great advice for newcomers. * Fun things to do in London, including Drupal meet-ups! There is too much to list here, Time Out London is great for an overview. But you can be certain that whatever niche interest you have will be catered for. I really like using meetup.org for free fun social things to do. * Side-trips and small vacations around the UK I've not traveled much in the UK. The trains are too expensive. It's much cheaper to fly/eurostar to Europe. Places you can easily do in a weekend: Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Amsterdam, Brussles, Olso, Dublin, Galway, Porto... * Good neighbourhoods, we are looking south of the river ... rent needs to be fairly inexpensive Cheap vibrant neighbourhoods in South London include: Brixton, Stockwell, Camberwell, Peckham, Lewisham (South East basically) * Good places to eat :-) Again, too many to mention, some highlights for me are Japanese in Soho, Vietnamese on Kingsland Road, Burrough Market and Stingray Globe Cafe on Columbia road does the best pizza in London :)

Wed, 26/08/2009 - 04:16 — James Andres

Extremely helpful!

Thank you hunthunthunt! Very useful advice!

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