{"id":388585,"date":"2025-09-01T04:44:55","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T04:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/388585\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T04:44:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T04:44:55","slug":"why-leaving-london-was-the-best-thing-ive-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/388585\/","title":{"rendered":"Why leaving London was the best thing I\u2019ve done"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love London and I will never say anything bad about it. But saying that, leaving has been really transformative for me [says Freya Barnes, 46 ].<\/p>\n

I spent 12 years working in public relations and communications, specialising in the charity sector. I felt rewarded by the work I was doing, but day to day you have to deliver and get the job done. It felt great to be achieving things and working for a good cause, but I ended up burning out with the long hours and constant rushing.<\/p>\n

I had been doing it for years and years and I reached a point where I couldn\u2019t keep going like that.<\/p>\n

There were other things going on too \u2014 a long relationship ended, my father died, and the last workplace I was in was quite toxic.<\/p>\n

I suffer from an autoimmune disease and I have always had quite low energy. My health was getting worse, and I was also experiencing anxiety and stress.<\/p>\n

Then, in late 2022, I was made redundant. I was actually quite relieved, because I had been questioning whether I wanted to continue with that job anyway, and it gave me the opportunity to go freelance and start to rebalance my life.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

\u201cI love London, but there were a number of ways that I was not satisfied living there,\u201d says Barnes<\/p>\n

I set up Freya Barnes PR and as I was building my client base I realised that since so much of the work was remote, leaving London was an option.<\/p>\n

I love London, but there were a number of ways that I was not satisfied living there. Everything revolved around work and careers, and it was really hard to pause. I had lovely friends but we were all so busy that you had to schedule things weeks in advance and then travel for 45 minutes to go for a drink or get a coffee.<\/p>\n

Another consideration was that I grew up in the countryside and was very connected to nature. I think you hit a point in life where you want to reconnect with that.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

Barnes knew within a week or two that St Leonards was the right place<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

I started googling \u201cboho towns in the UK\u201d and found St Leonards-on-Sea in East Sussex. I read about how it was up and coming and there were lots of Londoners moving down and a thriving culinary scene, which was important to me. I spent a weekend there and I loved it.<\/p>\n

Last year I dipped my toe in for three months. I own a one-bedroom flat in Hackney and a friend who was renovating their place stayed there while I rented an Airbnb in St Leonards. I knew within the first week or two that it was the right place for me: the sea, the slightly slower rhythm of life, but still sociable and friendly.<\/p>\n

After the three months I went back to London. In November I let out my flat for \u00a31,900 a month and rented a flat on the seafront. It also has one bedroom but is bigger than my Hackney flat and costs \u00a3925 a month.<\/p>\n

Everything has worked out so well. I am still doing the work that I care a lot about and it means I can enjoy it more because I am not constantly stressed and pressured.<\/p>\n

\"Beachfront<\/p>\n

Walks by the beach are one of the many positives of St Leonards<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

I have got more space to do things outside work \u2014 I can go for a walk on the beach in the morning, sit on my balcony listening to the Beatles and reading a book, and I have really thrown myself into local life, joining classes and groups. I have built a lovely new network of friends and acquaintances.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest things for me is that I feel as if I am rediscovering who I am. I used to love music, I used to sing, play the piano, and write songs, but I\u2019d not done anything like that for 30 years. Here I have joined a jazz singing class and at the end of term they do a show \u2014 it is absolutely terrifying but exhilarating too. It is like I am getting back parts of myself that I had forgotten I needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I love London and I will never say anything bad about it. But saying that, leaving has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-388585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115127223896140865","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}