When the sun shines, Elizabeth Berman enjoys views of the Camel River estuary from the deck of her infinity pool, or swims in the invigorating Celtic Sea.
When the wind howls down the chimney, she curls up by the open fire and rereads Daphne du Maurier’s classic Cornish novel, Jamaica Inn, with a G&T.
It sounds idyllic, but this is not her retirement; it is what she leaves behind to retreat into the hustle and bustle of London.
After living all year round at her family home, Treverra Farm, near Rock in north Cornwall, why would she leave it all behind and return to London to retire at the age of 63?
Berman is one of the newest recruits to the “boomerang brigade” of people returning to the city later in life, rather than spending their final decades in the countryside or on the coast, the traditional choice for retirees.
“There’s starting to be a realization that you’ve got the life cycles wrong,” she says.
The number of people retiring in the cities is increasing. Recent research by solicitors Bird & Co, using data from the 2021 Census, found that central London was the most popular place to retire in England and Wales after Medway in Kent, with an increase in 15 percent of the number of people over 65 in the region. decade between 2011 and 2021.
The same research found that Cornwall was the third least popular place for retirees, behind the Isle of Wight and Rutland, with a 9% decline among over-65s between 2011 and 2021.
Robin Thomas of Recoco Property Search says: “It’s all well and good moving to Cornwall in your thirties or forties, but then two things happen. Those little kids of five, six, seven, eight or nine become teenagers who don’t want to be around anymore, and 60-year-olds have elderly parents.”
Life changes have had a huge impact, says Berman: “Logistically, there are things that don’t really work. Rock is a lovely place, but I don’t play golf, [my husband] Charlie doesn’t have red pants, I don’t have a dog.
“I’m probably quite a city person – I studied in Manchester – and both my children now live in London. I won’t be here when I’m 90.”
The perception of isolation also changes as people get older.
“Where we are now is very beautiful, but it is at the end of a farm path,” says Berman. “There is very little public transport. Healthcare is dispersed. My son recently developed an infection in his foot and the ‘local’ hospital in Truro was an hour and 15 minutes each way by car.”
For Berman, quality of life is part of the appeal of returning to London. By leaving Cornwall, she leaves behind the responsibility of caring for a large house and returns to old pleasures such as antiquing in Marylebone and Fulham.
And while she will miss “the peace and space” of north Cornwall, she is willing to “welcome the things you can’t do in the country, like Deliveroo or taxi apps and Uber”.
She wants to be close to her mother, who lives in Sandwich, Kent, a six-hour drive from Rock. Charlie, 66, who runs a fintech start-up, would not want to retire permanently to Cornwall. There are also her children: George, 31, who works in film production, and Fred, 28, a video editor, both of whom live in London.
“It just means being around to eat or being around when they’re tired, broke or just had a bad day,” she says.
Almost all of Elizabeth’s friends also live in London, so being close to them is another key driver behind this retirement move: “I’m also looking forward to the variety and quality of food shops and restaurants, as well as art galleries, the ballet, which I love of – I am a friend of the Royal Ballet, theater and museums.”
And, she admits, “the hairdresser, very superficial, I know, but I never stopped traveling to London to get my hair done.”
However, she is a little wary of how much daily life in London has changed since she left: “I find the traffic is terrible now, much worse since all the cycle lanes and new limits. When I’m there I always notice the noise and that you are more frantic. Do more, be less and always consume, but I’m quite a restless person, so I can live with that.”
Still, Berman says, “There’s never a day where I’m not surprised at how beautiful it is. If it hadn’t been so beautiful here, we would have gone earlier.”
The couple bought Treverra Farm and its 13-hectare estate 24 years ago for around £1.25 million. After eight years they converted the original farmhouse into a three/four bedroom holiday home and built their own new five bedroom house in traditional style.
There is also a one-bedroom garden studio, converted from a stone barn. It is now on the market with Knight Frank for £7.5 million.
For ten years, while their sons were at school, the family enjoyed their Cornish retreat as a holiday home, while their main residence remained in London. As the boys grew older, Berman made the decision to live here permanently, with Charlie spending the work week in their “broom closet-sized” apartment in Sloane Square.
The couple has not yet decided how much of the capital they will use to purchase their new home, nor have they set a budget.
“I’m thinking about renting to try out different parts of London,” says Berman. “Whatever we do next should be our last home, so we want to make sure we do it right.”
Essential for this crucial step are good public transport, decent local food shops, green space nearby, “ideally a nice pub” and enough full-time residents in the area to create a strong and safe sense of community.
“Crime is getting worse [in London] too,” she adds. “You can’t leave anything in a car near our apartment without the window being smashed.”
With a background in travel and PR, including running a chalet business in Switzerland, Berman founded a vacation rental company, CK Rock, to manage two vacation rentals in Treverra and an additional home, Shalmar Hollow, on behalf of a neighbor. Retiring in London means breaking up the company.
“I plan to spend more time on vacations than on organizing them,” she says. The proximity to London airports and the ability to hop on the Eurostar to Paris from Kings Cross are major positives of the move, she adds.
However, large gatherings around the dining table, birthdays, two dates with family friends and “lots of fun over the years” will make it difficult to leave Treverra Farm.
“One of the biggest memories for me was when we first bought the house,” she recalls. “We lived in Chelsea at the time. The day after we arrived, George was seven, and he said to me, “Mommy, is it okay if I go out the front door alone?”
“It was such a city kid thing to say. We had this garden, so of course he could do that, but it really struck me that it was so important that the children could come here and have this freedom of space.”
She loves the end of summer, when the tourists leave and you can hear the sound of the waves on the beach again.
“But many people allow themselves to be seduced. You come on a great holiday and imagine yourself living here permanently, floating along the sandy beaches in a designer sweater.”
The reality is that life goes on and bad weather: “This winter was really hard, the rain was like a screensaver outside my window.”