London people are funny. They thing if you are outside of Zone 2 that you are "out in the sticks" (an idiom for "living in the countryside"), make fun of you and desperately want you to want to live in London.
It's not funny, it makes sense. Imagine what would happen if you are living in zone 3+, and your friend/partner lives in zone 3+ on the _opposite_ side of London. You could easily have a 90 minute travel time between those two points. In most places a travel time that long would count as being in another city.
That's not a reason to live in central London just in case it happens, unless you're that myopic you can't imagine meeting some from Reading, or further afield.
Well you could’ve move in with your partner, and meet your friend somewhere. I get what you are saying but London is damn expensive so living out a bit makes sense for many people.
But it reduces the conversion of initial dating to something more permanent. Living nearby and being able to meet up at the last minute with little effort makes it so much easier, I think it’s why socialising at university is so much easier.
Living further away requires a greater activation energy to lead to stable bonding.
In the same time it takes to get across London one can easily be in Lincolnshire via the East Coast Main Line, though the £8k annual season ticket to King's Cross is a bit of a whack.
