I prefer my posh little provincial Shires to London for 'living' and general style of life... but if you are ambitious, and if you want a career and want to make money, there is nowhere else in the UK like London. It is the beating heart of the country and it is where all of its most vibrant youth/art culture resides - like it or not. All the diversity and myriad numbers of things to see/hear/taste etc. are part of the fun that makes living in the vortex of London so special compared to anywhere else (Bristol has a very varied feel as well, but a markedly different atmosphere: cultural capitol versus slavery capitol...).
Quaint and quintessential England is either a homesick sort of nostalgia or else a refusal to live in the 21st century. I can imagine myself retiring to somewhere like Cheltenham/the Cotswolds or Surrey or something when I'm old and spent, but to complain about London because of its 'busyness' or 'multi-racial mix' is to be hopelessly out of touch with the world we live in now. People that complain about "feeling like a minority in their own country"... this sort of talk is madness to me. Go teach abroad for a year or go do manual work in another country for a year and you'll know how just about every other nationality and culture has had it for years. British arrogance, yet again.