Can I keep my routine - my club, my GP, my circle?

Published - 19 August 2026

Introduction

A move of this kind is often assumed to mean starting again: a new doctor, new routines, new versions of the small particulars that give a week its shape.

In practice, most residents retain considerably more of their existing life than they anticipate. Chelsea and the streets around it remain precisely where they were. Many residents continue under the same GP, retain their membership of the same clubs, societies or places of worship, and keep to the same walking routes as always.

What changes is not the substance of that life, but the effort required to sustain it. Support is available for what has become more demanding - the stairs, the upkeep, the general administration of a larger home - while the remainder continues largely undisturbed. For most, the difference reveals itself not as a different life, but as a less burdensome version of the one already lived.

I was concerned I would have to relinquish my old life to take up a new one. I have not. I still see the GP I have consulted for thirty years, and still walk to the same café. The only difference is that I am no longer exhausted by the time I arrive.

The same holds for people as for places. A frequent concern is that a move of this nature brings with it an expectation of participation: a full calendar of organised activity, whether wanted or not. It does not. There is no obligation to take part, and no presumption that a resident's social life should now be centred on the building.

Existing friendships continue precisely as before, at the same frequency and on the same terms. Many residents also discover, before they have even moved in, that connections already exist: nearly 90% of residents, or their families, come from within two miles of the building, and it is not unusual to find a shared street, a mutual acquaintance or an overlapping career.

You are living in your own apartment and you don't HAVE to join in on anything. I've struck up friendships with a couple of girls and I really enjoy them.

Should it be of interest to understand what a typical week at Auriens involves our resident advisors would be glad to talk it through. Contact Alice Hawke on 07917 352 411.

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