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London - is it all that?
Mark1974
Posts: 4,162 Forum Member
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Personally I love London. I've had relatives who have lived there, I worked there briefly, I know it like the back of my hand, and I would happily up sticks and move there tomorrow.
I've noticed on this forum that it gets a mixed response. Some of you love it, some hate it.
The downsides to me are the property prices, level of crime, and the congestion at times.
The upsides are the sheer amount of opportunity, the fact there's lots to do, huge parks, proximity to the South Coast, and believe it or not, the people (real Londoners, not people who have moved there and think they're it).
What's your views on London?
I've noticed on this forum that it gets a mixed response. Some of you love it, some hate it.
The downsides to me are the property prices, level of crime, and the congestion at times.
The upsides are the sheer amount of opportunity, the fact there's lots to do, huge parks, proximity to the South Coast, and believe it or not, the people (real Londoners, not people who have moved there and think they're it).
What's your views on London?
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Most people who have lived here for 70 years don't know it like the back of their hand
The first poster might have a good memory.
I could never live in London but I do love visiting the city, the more you explore the more you'll like it, I think London has something for everyone.
I also said I've had relatives who have lived there.
It's just a city I've really got to know. For example, when I lived in Banbury, I used to go down every Sunday. Also, I worked for National Express in Nottingham for a few years (not as a coach driver), and I had a free pass, so during that period I went probably twice a week.
The only part of London I haven't been to is Erith.
I loved it as a kid, as a teen, and a adult, but now in my 50s I like a quieter life and live outside London these day.
A lot of people think London IS the south and all southerners are Londoners.
Although it just scrapes into a London Borough you couldn't really class Erith as London.
It has it's 'ups' and 'downs' like every City on the planet
But the ups are spectacular for me
Meh.
I've generally avoided all cities for a long time but now commute to Birmingham and I don't feel like an outsider there at all. So for me it seems to be something peculiar to London.
London Borough of Bexley, but yeah, it's that far out its almost Kent.
But it's a fascinating place - the more you find out about it, the more interesting it gets.
You cannot compare London with Birmingham.
Never heard of anyone running away to the bright lights of Birmingham
Seriously though, Most people you see in London are from all around the UK and the world. To see real Londoners you would need to come away from any tourist type place.
When I first moved out of London, everything was so slow for me, but now I have slowed my pace of life London is to fast for me now
I see so many saying how much their town has changed since they left, its not the town, its them for the main part.
I was there in November. I had to visit clients near St Paul's. It was okay getting there but I still had that weird 'fish out of out water' feeling that I've never got anywhere else. I'm sure it's mostly in my mind but for some reason London always seems to trigger it.
I never felt at home, and people always made me feel like an outsider. For example, staff in bars or restaurants asking if we were there for the weekend or on holiday, I assume because of our accents (which I refused to lose, unlike some).
I found it to be a dirty place, and the air was dirty too. At the end of each day when I did my cleansing routine, the cotton wool was black with grime. Every day. You don't get grimy like that in Leeds. Every time I blew my nose the contents of the tissue were black. I haven't experienced that since leaving London.
It's just too noisy, busy, dirty and smelly. I did my stint there and have no desire to go back. I might for a weekend break just to revisit old haunts but nothing more.
I work in London and commute. But if house prices were more reasonable then I would move there at the drop of the hat.
There are so many great places to socialise as well, as a result I go out a lot in London and spend as little time as possible where I actually live.
As the other poster above mentioned it's not even remotely comparable to Birmingham. Birmingham is like an overgrown ugly town full of grey concrete and depression. Urgh I occasionally go to Birmingham for work and it is grim.
I agree about the fast pace of the city, I live at 100mph when I'm in central.
I love all the opportunities and activities to do here. I came from a small town where there was nothing to do, no cinema, no bowling alley.etc so to have everything London has is a dream. Ok my bank balance doesn't like it, but I'm young and moving up in my career so I will be able to afford it!
I can't see it from here.
I'll be back later with a bit more serious response.
Now though I live in a village on the Cumbrian coast. I can run to Loweswater in an hour, house prices are low, my wages are high and there is virtually no crime.
What bars do you use as, in my experience, many are young people working their way round Britain or Europe. As a Londoner of 50 years and city worker for 25 of them ( moved away now ) I have to agree about it being noisy and dirty. In fact, that was one of the reasons we moved when we had the chance as it can be very stressful. However, I can't agree about people assuming you're on holiday as it's such a cosmopolitan place.. It's true we would talk about peoples background but now we've moved we find locals ask us about living in London in much the same way.