From London to the Lake District, and from venture capitalist to small business owner, Chris Bone’s life has taken some dramatic turns over the past few years.
He has also gone from renter to homeowner, exchanging a room in a shared house near Clapham Junction to a three bedroom penthouse flat of his own —without increasing his overheads.
Chris, now 40, is well used to moving around the country — brought up in the north of England, plus spells living in Scotland, he moved down to London in 2015 to take a well paid job as a technology expert for a venture capital company.
After around a year he realised that life in the capital wasn’t going to be a long term thing for him and began thinking about what to do next. “I was in my late thirties by then and London seemed to me like more of a place for people in their twenties,” he explained. “I felt a bit out of place. It was not an overnight decision, it happened before the pandemic, so it wasn’t something I was forced into. My work was fine — it wasn’t stressful, there was no burnout or anything like that, but I didn’t want to do it for another 30 years.”
Chris’s mother and sister are both based in Lancaster, and he wanted to be closer to them, and he loves the outdoor life. And so he began, slowly, house hunting around the Lake District where he could combine family ties with miles and miles of open space.
In 2018 he found the perfect property — a £225,000 three-bedroom flat on the top floor of a historic manor house in the village of Yealand, just south of the Lake District National Park.
His rent in London was a good value £650pcm. His mortgage now comes in at around £800pcm — but with a lodger in one of his spare rooms, for company as much as anything else, Chris is paying around the same for his penthouse as he was for a room in London.
Once he had arrived in Yealand Chris began setting up his own business, Adventure Solos, which runs multi activity short breaks and expeditions around the UK (www.adventuresolos.com).
To enmesh himself into the local community Chris also took a job serving one night a week at his local pub, although the start of the pandemic put a stop to that. With family nearby, a business to run, and new friends made amongst neighbours and villagers he said the transition from big city to tiny village has been reasonably smooth. “You do have to make a conscious effort though,” he said.
His advice to others considering an equally radical life change is simple: “Think about whether it is going to make you happy in the medium to long term,” said Chris. “If the answer is yes, then get on with it.”
His other tip, for those considering starting a new business, is to start laying the groundwork before you actually quit your day job: “If I did it again I would probably start planning and running it as a side hustle in advance, because it does take a long time to build up momentum.”
