The pandemic was hard on many Londoners but for Rachael Kinsella it was a particularly tough time.
She suffers from an auto-immune condition which means that she had to shield during the pandemic, and wasn’t even able to take the daily walks which would have provided an hour of freedom during lockdown periods.
“It was pretty grim, particularly as it was the hottest summer we had had in a very long time,” she said.
Rachael had moved to London straight after university and she and her husband Richard had gradually moved further out of the centre of the city, making their way from Stoke Newington, to Twickenham, and then Richmond. In 2017 they bought a two bedroom maisonette in Teddington, overlooking Bushey Park.
“There were loads of people in the park every day, but I couldn’t go out,” said Rachael. “I couldn’t even use our back garden, because it was shared with our neighbours and they had a young child. It made us yearn for our own space.”
To make matters worse Rachael was made redundant from her job as an editorial director at this time, and turned to freelance work.
She and Richard, both 44, were working from home and started to think about the idea of leaving London to buy themselves some more space. Rachael was born and raised in Chester, and it seemed like a natural choice since she has a great network of family and friends still there.
Chester has also changed a lot since Rachael last lived there. “When I came home after university I did find it a bit boring,” she said. “There wasn’t much going on. But now it is a really vibrant city centre. It has got that villagey, Teddington feel to it, and it is small enough that you can walk to lots of places.”
In late 2021 the couple sold their maisonette for circa £500,000 and paid £625,000 for their new home – a five bedroom former farmworkers’ cottage with a big garden and views of open farmland. The city centre is a ten minute drive away.
There has been a price to pay for the move. Rachael now has a new job, and only travels to London when she needs to for meetings and events. But Richard, head of commercial at a media company, has to be in his office twice a week.
The train journey to London takes a little over two hours so he spends a night in London to cut down on his commuting hours.
But beyond being able to afford a much bigger home, and seeing more of her family and friends than she did while in London the move to Chester has had some unforeseen benefits for Rachael.
The hay-fever and asthma which she developed when she moved to London have vanished, and she feels generally healthier.
“The fresh air and not having to use public transport has really improved my life,” she said.
