Lisa Marley has always considered herself a Londoner through and through.
Born and raised in Enfield, Lisa spent her twenties and thirties living and working in the capital, and wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“I think if you’ve always lived in London it feels like there is nowhere else you can be, that you’d just drop off a cliff if you moved away,” she said.
And yet there were times when the costs and crowds of the capital felt too much.
“There was a part of me that always wondered if there was more to life,” she said.
In 2019 Lisa and her husband Nathan decided to check out life beyond the M25.
“No offence to Bedford, but it was a bit of a blip”
They had been renting a two bedroom flat in Muswell Hill for £1,200pcm and were keen to buy a home of their own, but had been priced out of the capital.
“Bedford was basically the first place outside London that was decent and also within our budget, “ said Lisa.
On that basis the couple paid circa £200,000 for a one bedroom flat, packed their bags, and headed to Bedfordshire.
Almost before their bags were unpacked Lisa realised she had made a big mistake.
“No offence to Bedford, but it was a bit of a blip,” she said.
“I was just very unhappy there. I didn’t want to be there, I just knew immediately that it wasn’t the right decision.”
Within nine months the couple had sold the flat and moved on.
They had friends living in Whitstable and loved the seaside vibes so their initial plan was to find a place to rent there, and then start house hunting.
But then fate took a hand.
They struggled to find a rental that would accept their shih tzu dog, Alfie, so Lisa, 49, and Nathan, 47, took a two bedroom flat along the coast in a village on the outskirts of Margate in November 2019.
They loved the area so much they decided to stay, and went on to buy the £250,000 flat from their landlord.
At the same time that the couple’s lives were being uprooted so was Lisa’s career.
“I still go to London often for work and it is such a relief to get back home"
Having trained as a pastry chef at Westminster Kingsway College and set up a business running chocolate making and cupcake decorating workshops Lisa’s attitude to food had changed. She changed to a plant based diet around seven years ago.
During the pandemic, when she couldn’t run workshops, she became a plant-based private chef and nutrition coach. Nathan works in a hospital as a special needs carer.
Lisa often comes back to London for work, and the train takes around an hour and 20 minutes.
Closer to home Lisa and Nathan can explore Margate’s galleries and bars or the great restaurants in Whitstable, and enjoy the local countryside.
Life on the coast is everything Lisa imagined – daily walks along the beach, which is ten minutes’ walk from the flat, and a sense of peace and calm.
“People are really friendly,” she said. “I still go to London often for work and it is such a relief to get back home. It is a slower pace of life, there are less people, and it is a lot more peaceful.”
