I work in London and make a decent living, but it is a pain trying to establish yourself. It's worth it though 

Thanks for the advice. I realised  expenses would be greater in London but I thought not having to work  for North East minimum wage rates would compensate for this. I'm not really chasing a pot of gold in London, I just want to have a decent standard of living and be quite anonymous. Which brings me to another point, If anyone has made a similar move how did you cope moving to a strange city not knowing anyone, is it a lonely life?
I feel I have reached the end working in Newcastle, I feel it is eather move or stop working.  

I know someone who moved from the Northeast to London and it's been tough. I mean, it's a REALLY long distance to be from friends and family, and train tickets are expensive. London is fun but it's hard to settle in - making friends requires a ton of effort, let alone establishing yourself work-wise and all that! Everything is just quite busy and manic and tiring. It's exciting and interesting, too, but I really enjoy my weekends visiting family in the countryside these days! But then I feel guilty from having time away and for not spending the weekend working furiously on all the stuff I need to get done, and blah blah - London is rather stressful, basically!

I think it's important to seriously think about the fact that, to pay for a flat in London - just a dinky one-bed with noisy neighbours and a kitchen that's so small it only fits a mini-fridge - to take incalls in, plus the basic bills, you will have to shag at least twelve clients, more if your hourly rate is under ?130. That's twelve men *just* to pay for the basics. No food, clothing, drinks, cinema tickets, Oyster (travel) card, none of that; JUST the basics. If you're used to seeing that many in a week, never get burnout and can find a place that's discreet enough to have that much foot traffic then that's lucky and you'll have nothing to worry about here! But it's really something to think about because London's a bit relentless. You can't go taking a week off here or a fortnight's holiday there unless you've literally worked your bum off the previous month. I dunno; maybe that's not much different from anywhere else? I do take a bit of time off here and there (and I'm only part-time in the first place, but I set high rates to compensate for that) but generally I have to sacrifice any contribution to my savings for that month if I do.

It's definitely anonymous - I moved here for uni five years ago and have never bumped into anyone randomly anywhere! That's a lie; I bumped into someone I recognised the other week for the first time ever, ha. The whole rest of the time you're completely surrounded by strangers. I like that about London and find it soothing, but I know it drives some people mad!

Competition is insane in a way but my friend who moved here brought the most ridiculous work ethic with her and she's not had a problem except being inundated with bookings! Maybe not ten a day or anything mad like that, but her rates aren't low and she gets tons of calls and has a whole bunch of regulars after only four or five months. Honestly, I feel completely lazy in comparison so I think if you come to London with a mindset to work hard (like those who tour here successfully do, for example) then you can reap the rewards. As long as 'time off' isn't one of the rewards you're hoping for!

Oh, and definitely think hard about your web presence, advertising, website, marketing, images, escort persona, all that stuff. You're probably completely used to it from working in the Northeast (isn't competition there far worse?! Competing agencies driving rates down and not giving a damn about the standard of service lowering due to overworked, exhausted escorts who resent earning peanuts after paying the agency share?) but of course every town/area has slightly different ways when it comes to making your ads prominent. There are one or two quite expensive listings sites that are worth trying but they unfortunately don't work for everyone, so be prepared to literally gamble with ?90-200 depending - see the main site article called "Where to Advertise", written by ParisB, for a good starting point. And whatever you do, don't get on Adultwork and start trying to compete with the pimps who are running all the profiles for bunches of women in flats who get all the bad reviews on Pnet etc because the woman on the phone says "Yes, darling" to all services but the real sex worker says "Please don't touch me with your stinky willy, not for ?69 an hour, and there's no shower in this crappy flat!" - it may be intimidating to look at all those profiles on AW advertising all services for peanuts, but so many of them are fake or worse (pimps etc). Focus on building up a unique identity that will make you stand out in a far better way. Again, sorry as you probably already know all this back to front, but I don't know anything personally about working in the Northeast so just sharing my experience with working here!

Thank you very much  for the advice, London seems to be more Midnight Cowboy than Pretty Woman. I've had a quick look on AW and that is a lot of competition. I am 100% sure I will stop working in Newcastle, I think the next step will be a soft tour of London. Maybe spend mornings checking out different areas and just how far money goes  and work in the afternoons and evenings. I dreaded being found out in the North East but the thought of not having a basic social life is not appealing either.

Hmm, my only link with London in recent times is through the city business men that occasionally book me to their fancy Hotel when they come 'oop North ..
It always goes the same - very impersonal and not in the least interested in having a friendly chat beforehand.
Havn't a clue who I am and frankly, don't care.
 They tend to be rich and arrogant and tell me that London is overrun with eastern european girls who speak scant English and give a perfunctory yet methodical service ( that's what they tell me anyway )
 The bookings leave me feeling cold and I can't wait to visit a friendly northerner again. who will make me a brew and  some butties to eat afterwards    I wonder if it is a north/ south divide as I never experience this in Manchester, Liverpool, Preston etc  

I don't think there's a north/south divide here - this particular stereotype exists worldwide, and I've met them from virtually every large city I can think of. None of my London regulars are remotely like this, and I haven't regularly met any of these guys there since I stopped working over near Barbican on the edge of the City (which is what you might expect, since it's their stomping ground). Rich and arrogant in a suit is not limited to London, and I don't find it there anywhere near as often as I have in Edinburgh and Jersey, for example.

I'm always a bit mystified when I read posts about how cold and unfriendly London is - it's not my experience at all and I can only think the actual area you're in has a massive part to play. When I first started working there regularly nearly four years ago, I found the easiest way to get my head round the size of the place was to think of it as a lot of different villages all joined together and I still think this is helpful as different bits have different characteristics (like Paris, I don't like working late but I get fewer requests for this in London than I do at home, and normally do about 9am - 8pm which suits me fine - Barbican used to start the phone going at 7am which was too early for me). I do find it very anonymous but not unfriendly in any way and I find it very easy to chat to people in shops and cafes (not on the tube, obviously) and so on - you just have to have every conversation knowing you'll probably never clap eyes on that person again but I don't mind that, and the lack of agendas is a blessed relief when you live somewhere small where everything you say to anyone could drop you in the shit.

The thing I like more than anything else is that people aren't the slightest bit interested in your business which I hate about the people at home and as much as I love where I live, I'm a complete hermit when I'm here. And as far as life outside work goes, it isn't as bleak as it might sound but it depends how you like to spend your time - if you like galleries, museums and just walking around looking at stuff (and I do), there are hundreds in London which don't cost a thing as well as beautiful parks and lots of interesting shops and markets and so on. There are cinemas showing virtually any kind of film you could want to see and they don't really cost any more than cinemas anywhere else if you skip anything within half a mile of Leicester Square. On the other hand if you like going out to eat and drink often, nightclubbing, shopping and so on then, yes, it's going to be tight.

Have a look at the Touring section - there are a lot of London posts on there too. And I would skip it now until February, to be honest (it'll be picking up then but the hotels are still a fair bit cheaper than the peak times). You could also see if there's anything temporary that might suit you in terms of flatshares (have a look at Seeking/Offering) if you want a more realistic idea of the day-to-day stuff for a month or so?

Yeah, I would say I meet plenty of very nice, sweet clients (quite a few of them may originally be from up North! But I like the fact that nobody in London is from here except the cabbies, practically; I love me some diverse populations) and not that many twats-in-suits. To be honest, I don't mind them either because a cut-and-dry booking without much connection can be a relief after a week of soppy wotsits gazing into your eyes and snuggling you half to death. So basically, I like the variety. It does depend what work you do (daytime incalls like I do cater to local businessmen, "high class" agencies cater to super-rich foreigners in ridiculous hotels, etc etc).

I just can't agree more with the others about the fact that rates are not great compared to the cost of living, though. Rents can be 2-3 times as high while rates remain the same or even lower than other parts of the country. And the fact that you just can't take time off unless you've been very lucky to have twice as many bookings and twice as much energy the previous month. And even then, you don't want to take a holiday because you'd rather save the money just in case of future disaster! It's stressful. I'm usually far too tired in the evenings to go out - and who wants to spend ?12 on a cocktail (seriously - I love going out to lunch with the occasional client but my jaw always drops when I see the bill) when you work so hard for your money?! No, I put aside every spare penny to pay for my studies or to stash away for the future so there's very little carefree gallivanting to be done meanwhile. I've probably mentally aged about twenty years in the last five, since I arrived here. There's just no time for messing about.

I plan to leave the country altogether and explore pastures new in a year or two so I don't mind scraping by til then, experiencing London and taking advantage of its various opportunities (a uni with part-time course options, galleries with free exhibits and all sorts of fancy things to walk past and gaze at, not to mention almost any sort of job opportunity if you're prepared to half kill yourself chasing after it!) til I get truly knackered. Then off somewhere a bit more sedate, methinks!