Travel: Setting up shop in London

Every Australian knows someone who is in London, has been or is planning on going. The allure of the mother country is bound to tempt most of us at some stage and this guide aims to answer some of the questions that most people have about setting themselves up to work in “the mother country”.

Types of Australians in London

A friend of mine once gave me an analogy about the types of Australians you might find in London breaking them down into two kinds.

The first usually younger group has lived with their parents probably in an area outside or on the outskirts of the main cities of Australia and when they arrive in London they will move to an all Aussie area like Acton or Earls Court, spend every weekend at the Walkabout or the Redback usually with a job in a pub near to where they live. The other type is normally a bit older, possibly professionals, who actually live a normal lifestyle as they would back home, just in a different country and usually make English and non-Australian friends.

So in terms of living an English life the only English people the first type of Australians meet are the ones they serve in the pub, whereas with the second type, the only Aussies they meet are the ones serving them in the pub. Now while this is a broad scathing critique of Australians in London, it is not one without some merit.

The visa situation: the boring bit

Most Australians will need a visa if they want to work in London (well you can do it on the sly but you will have a shit job with terrible pay and will generally be taken advantage of as with illegal workers everywhere) and there are four main ways to go about it (with BritAus being your main source of information). The first and most popular is the Working Holiday Visa which at present allows you to stay in the UK for two years and work for one of them pending several requirements: the idea being that you travel around in the other year.

You can work for just one company for the whole 12 months if you want or split it up if you prefer. Working more than the 12 months illegally is common and you may get away with it but it eventually catches up with in the sense that once you leave the UK they know you have overstayed from your tax records and often will not let you back in, even on a tourist visa. Of course entering the UK via boat or train from France or Ireland where passport checks are minimal if non-existent can get around this.

If you need the Working Holiday Visa urgently your best bet is to go the British High Commission in Canberra in person and it can usually be put through in a day or two. Other than that you should apply online and mail all the relevant information to the British High Commission and it takes 3 or 4 weeks. If you are planning on travelling before you arrive in London a good tip is to state in your covering letter that you want the visa to come into effect at a certain time after you apply so you don’t waste any valuable time on your visa.

You can extend your stay in London in several ways. You can be sponsored by your employer, change your visa to another for instance the Highly Skilled Migrant Visa (see below) or even use an umbrella company such as Freelance Global.

Another visa you may wish to apply for is the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme. You must pass a 65 point criteria test which covers your educational qualifications, work experience and past earnings. The visa last 4 years with a review every year but the good thing is you don’t need a job to obtain the visa and at its end you can apply to become a UK citizen.

If you have British ancestry you have a few options depending on how strong the ancestry is including an unrestricted British passport, a Certificate of Right of Abode or a four year Ancestry visa. An EU passport also allows you to work indefinitely. Getting in with a de-facto or via marriage is also possible – so enrol with some British dating agencies!

Random tip from a London ITMer
“If you have more than one appliance to bring over, just get one UK adaptor and bring an Australian power board – I wish I did this before I came over:”

Getting there and orientation
So you have scoured the internet for the cheapest flight to London and then hussled Flight Centre to match it – what now? You might want to bring your records, extensive shoe collection and that rare lead armchair so you will need to ship it. One company which I have used is Jetta Express and they are relatively cheap and quick. Always read the fine print though as you are likely to be whacked with taxes at the airport when you pick it up, no matter the company.

You should also remember to pick up some travel/medical insurance. There are plenty of companies offering deals but most credit cards will give you free cover provided you buy your airline tickets with their card.

Have a gander at the Transport for London website to get an idea of how to get to whatever temporary accommodation you have until you set yourself up – remember that sleeping on the floor of a friend or relative is a necessary right of passage for a Londoner and is to be expected. It also saves a lot of money in those first few weeks when you are still converting pounds to Australian dollars and crying yourself to sleep. Else stay in a hostel or a hotel.

Everyone has a mobile phone in London and Australian mobile phones work with UK SIM cards so bring yours from home if you want to save some cash. It’s much cheaper to go on a plan straight away if you know you are staying for a while and you often get a free phone, but if you want to go prepaid (it’s called pay-as-you-go) then the cheapest option is with Fresh that you can only get from the CarPhoneWarehouse, which are everywhere and are the best place to go for all your mobile needs.

Public transport in London is excellent. The Underground (tube) is the easiest and most-used transport system with trains coming every few minutes. Buses are a good way to see the city and are cheaper but they take longer – you won’t forget your first ride at the front on the top level of a double decker. Trains are less frequent than the tube, but are faster with a longer distance between and fewer stops. Grab yourself a copy of London A-Z in case you get lost! Journey Planner and Route Planner and StreetMap are also useful online tools. Everything is based on post codes here, not suburbs.

Money: the good, the bad, the sterling!

The Pound is mightier than, well, just about everything. When you start up it’s your worst enemy but after a while it becomes your best friend. Have a think about your set up costs and use a currency converter to check the following pound estimates.

Accommodation is a killer with the average rent in London ranging from £70 to £150 a week for a single room in a share house/flat with £100 a week being the median. This may or may not include utilities bills like gas, water, electricity and the ever dreaded council tax. You may need to put aside an extra £30 to £80 a month for these. On top of this it is the norm for a landlord to request a months rent in advance as well as a months deposit and in some case 6 weeks deposit. That’s a lot of money. For instance if you pay the average rent in London of £100 a week or roughly £440 a month – you will have to pay £880 before you even move in to your room. This is something you need to keep in mind.

An average restaurant meal with an alcoholic beverage of choice would be £15; a weekly travel pass is £22; average mobile plan is £20 a month; a “big night out” to a club with all the trimmings is £50 to £100; a pint is £3; and movie tickets are about £8.

I would recommend having £1500 to start with although many people have done with much less. But I think £1500 is a good buffer to give you some time to find a place, a job and generally get settled in.

The big 4 banks in the UK are HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Barclays and NatWest. One good thing about the UK banks is that they don’t charge you for using other banks ATMs (they are called Cash Points) or when you use your card in a shop. But it’s a bit tricky to set up a bank account in the UK as they require a credit rating from a UK source. Several companies can help you set up a bank account including Global Career Link and 1st Contact UK. Basically, for a fee, they give you a referral letter and the bank then sets you up with an account. You should also check with your bank in Australia to see if they have any alliance with a UK bank. However, the best bet in my opinion is to use Travelex’s deal where they set you up with an account and credit card with HSBC. It costs around $AU120 and you need to put £1500 in the account but it’s sorted before you arrive in the UK and you have the cash there ready to use.

You may also need to transfer money to and from Australia. It’s best not to do this through a bank as they charge you more and have poor exchange rates. One company I have used is Tranzfers which has more competitive exchange rates and fewer charges than the banks.
As well as tax you have to pay National Insurance which goes toward your retirement pension, kind of like superannuation. Almost every professional job requires that you have a National Insurance number, which is how they know what money they are taking from you, sort of but not quite a tax file number. You can get away without one though you may be taxed at a higher rate. It can be a real pain in the arse getting a National Insurance number as it takes several weeks and lots of employers require that you have one before you start work. There is a shortcut though. If you email london.ninocallcentre@jobcentreplus.gsi.gov.uk and provide your full name, address, phone number and nationality – you should receive a form which you can email back or alternatively call 0845 601 0142. Within 1 or two weeks you will receive a letter in the post with an appointment, whereas in the past this has taken up to 6 months!

The tax year in Britain finishes at the end of March and there are many companies who can help you get some of your tax back when you return to Australia. One good tip, especially if you are staying in London for over a year is to opt out of your National Insurance contributions in favour of a personal pension, which is basically superannuation. If you do this you can then transfer this personal pension back to your Australian superannuation fund when you go home, so the money goes toward your superannuation, not the British government.

Shopping

The costs of shopping in London are comparable, if not cheaper, to Australian prices but the range is phenomenally better. You will of course pay a lot more in all the boutique shops, a lot of which are located around Seven Dials and Soho. Carnaby Street in Soho is excellent for shopping, as is Neal Street and all of Covent Garden. The main high street area is located around Oxford Street and Regent Street with Oxford Circus being the epicentre. The two must-visit department stores are Selfridges and Harrods.

Portobello Road Markets in Notting Hill on a Saturday is a must. Camden Markets has some good, quirky little shops if you look around hard enough and can stand the plethora of tourists and punks. You will also find that online shopping is cheaper, easier and more convenient, especially when compared with Australia, and sites like Amazon and Argos and the big supermarket chains become lifesavers.

Jobs

Most Australians who come to London will work in retail or hospitality with the smaller remainder being professionals. Retail and hospitality are paid horribly but you do get to meet a lot more people and some bar jobs offer free accommodation. As a professional you earn a lot more money but the work is more demanding.

The easiest way to get work is to apply through an agency, of which there are hundreds. The big ones include Hays, Michael Page and Hudson, but there are so many you should just do a web search. If you are tempting with an agency your pay decreases substantially as they take their cut. Agencies give you the run around a lot so just stay on their backs, call them up all the time and join up to as many as possible to increase your exposure.
Most employers seeking Aussies will post their jobs on Gumtree, which is a very useful site for all kinds of things including accommodation. Jobsite is another portal for searching for positions. Keep in mind that you may need to tailor your CV to UK specifications but all the major recruiting sites above tell you how to do this.

European Travel

Weekend trips away are what London is all about. Travelling on the pound is a life changing experience. Budget airlines like EasyJet and RyanAir make it possible by flying you out of smaller airport with fewer taxes, although they are often out of town and you will need to get a connecting bus or train. SkyScanner has all the major budget airlines in one handy search tool and it’s good to know what airlines belong to what country. Book in advance if you want to get cheap flights to European festivals and events. There are heaps of package sites like LastMinute.Com and you can often get the trip quicker from their specials. But for accommodation use one of the many hostel or hotel booking sites.

Accommodation
The majority of Aussies live in the Shepherd’s Bush, Acton, Fulham and Clapham areas but you will find Australians almost everywhere you go. We are the equivalent of the British in the Eastern suburbs beaches of Sydney and abound in sometimes plague-like numbers. Personally I wouldn’t travel half-way around the world to just live and hang out with only Australians, but each to their own.

Where you stay depends on what you want out of London, how much money you earn and where you work. London’s transport is separated into six zones and as you get further out the accommodation becomes better value as you are no longer in central London, but you are further away from the action and often closer to the Chavs. The bible for finding accommodation (and also casual sex) is Gumtree, but you can also pick up the Loot newspaper or check out Find A Property, as well as a plethora of other options.

You should remember that one of the initiatives of the City of London is to have housing commission estates in every suburb so almost every suburb has a dodgy area, but as long as you keep your head on, you will be fine. The city is constantly chopping and changing so recommending a suburb is difficult. Your best bet is to ask around or do a search on London in the ITM forums and there are plenty of threads about what areas to avoid and what areas are nice places to settle down into. But when it comes down to it, like all things, you just have to go check out the place you want to move into and find out for yourself. My personal recommendation is to live inside Zone 1 and 2, away from your country folk and close enough to the action.

Eating

Meat and vegetables in London are okay but nothing compared to the abundant quality in Oz unless you want to pay crazy prices. Chicken is always a safe bet. There are some excellent restaurants and plenty of review sites to wade through, but if you are on a budget, fried chicken shops and dodgy kebab stores are in abundance. A visit to a curry house along the famous Brick Lane is a must and there are some clubs and bars around there to kick on to afterwards.

Borough markets has an amazing array of fresh produce but most localities have a decent market so have a nosey around when you move in. Generally the markets have much better produce than the supermarkets. The main two supermarkets are Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s, with boutique (read: expensive) ones like Waitrose and Marks & Spencers also around. The big supermarkets always have specials like two for one etc which really do save you a pretty penny. You get your grog from Off Licences, but most supermarkets also have an alcohol section.

Entertainment

London can definitely lay claim to being the entertainment capital of the world and you will definitely find something to keep you occupied. For clubbing and electronic music your best bet is to pick up the free local street press called One Week To Live, which is the London paper equivalent to ITM. For a broader overview of entertainment including pubs, bars, gigs, film, clubs, theatre, dance, concerts, comedy and everything in between, buy yourself a copy of the weekly TimeOut magazine.

You have probably all heard of the super-clubs in London such as Fabric, Turnmills and Ministry of Sound, and a few world class clubs/venues such as The End, Egg, The Cross, Cargo, The Brixton Academy, Herbal and The Key. But the beauty of London is that you will find your own little piece of heaven in the form of a bar or warehouse party in some little back alley which plays exactly what you like or something you’ve never heard before and has a crowd who are as fun to be with as they are to watch – that’s the fun of it. The bars in areas like Shoreditch, Old Street, Angel and Hoxton are my personal recommendations.

There are also some places that you should only ever go to once and then only to know from personal experience not to go again. The WalkAbout and RedBack are chain Australian pubs where you have bogans, derros or whatever you like to call them from ‘strail-ya, en-zed and saf’rica. Visit a pub in outback Queensland if you want a similar experience. Then there is The Church, which up until a few years back required an Australian passport to gain entry. As the name suggests it takes place in an old Church yard, on a Sunday and the only liquid refreshment you can buy is a can of beer and only in six packs. You also get a free “spew bag”.

There are so many festivals and big events on that it becomes quite difficult to keep up with it all. Some useful websites to help you along your way include View London, Don’t Stay In, All In London, Resident Advisor and of course the International Clubbing section of ITM’s very own forums. Big events and concerts sell out at phenomenal speeds in London so you need to keep your ear to the ground if you want those precious tickets.

Besides clubbing, London has a fantastic live gig scene with every half decent pub having a band on of a weekend and plenty have a band playing every night of the week. Only recently have laws been passed to allow the serving of alcohol 24/7 and gradually establishments are switching over. But usually a pub will close at midnight mid-week and 1 or 2am on the weekends. Clubs of course are open to the wee hours of the morn, and bars usually to 3am. Getting home becomes difficult as the tube shuts down a little after midnight and you are left to navigate the intricate night bus system.

Catching a musical or a play on the West End is a must, preferably the latter. Many big name movie stars play limited seasons and it’s truly a great experience seeing them live and up close. You can get cheap tickets if you go early on the day to a half-tix store, the majority of which are found around Leicester Square, else visit sites like What’s On Stage and This Is Theatre. The comedy scene in London is also excellent with The Comedy Store being a highlight.
TV is generally shit until about 9 at night when it becomes watch-able, just. On the plus side DVDs are cheap and there is so much to do you aren’t going to stay in that much!

To be an Australian in London

I will leave you with this perspective of Australians in London held by many Londoners:

“For most Aussies travelling has done nothing for them in a sense of enlightenment or open-mindedness or even an interest in a different culture. I’m not sure why they would move all the way to England just to hang out listening to the worst of Aussie music, drinking the worst of Aussie beer and hanging out and travelling with only Aussies – I tend to think the reason they do it is just so they can basically get pissed, shag anyone they want and pretty much do what they want without their parents disapproving – in fact their parents are probably approving of it all (oohh, little Shazza’s over in London meeting lots of nice people and seeing lots of great stuff), whereas little Shazza is probably just shagging the random Saffa she met at the Walkabout because she had 8 Snakebites and she met him whilst dancing to “Land Down Under” before vomiting on his shirt so she had to take him home and shag in the back garden cause there were 4 other people sleeping in her room. Basically they want the same lifestyle as back home, just without the responsibilities and parental disapproval. “Seeing Europe” for these people tends to be a 2 week Contiki tour.”

Whilst I wouldn’t necessarily recommend succumbing to the above stereotype, you can make of London whatever you like – that’s its beauty. Rest assured you will enjoy it no matter which perversion you subscribe to.