London - on the way out?

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I've lived in all sorts of places around the world, including some quite ugly and prosaic cities (Warsaw, Milan). A bit of roughness around the edges doesn't bother me, in exchange for the kind of cultural richness that simply isn't available anywhere else in the UK. It depends what your reasons for being here are- just for the salary would make anywhere a bit of a grind I guess.

Tourism can only get stronger while the pound is so tempting to foreign visitors, and London also has two of the UK's Big Four universities, with a high proportion of (rich) overseas students. It will be very interesting to see how the property market fares here though.

chewmylegoff

i see we have a repeat of the rubbish "london is carp because no-one talks to each other on the trains on the way to work" cliche above.

of course, up in teeside the en-masse socialising / party atmosphere on public transport during rush hour is just one more factor which adds to the amazing quality of life.

having been on public transport in most regions of the country at one time or another, i can confirm that it's the same everywhere. maybe your life in teeside is so insufferably awful that getting a bit of snot on your arm when the person next to you on the bus sneezes makes your day. good on you, if that's the case.

i've got to say, london has its bad points, but i'm rarely disappointed to return to it after visiting other parts of the nation. people complain about the folk in london being unfriendly - at least they're not all inbred retards who try to fight you if you don't speak in the same backwards drawl that they do.

HelpWhereIcan

chewmylegoff wrote: »

i see we have a repeat of the rubbish "london is carp because no-one talks to each other on the trains on the way to work" cliche above.

of course, up in teeside the en-masse socialising / party atmosphere on public transport during rush hour is just one more factor which adds to the amazing quality of life.

having been on public transport in most regions of the country at one time or another, i can confirm that it's the same everywhere. maybe your life in teeside is so insufferably awful that getting a bit of snot on your arm when the person next to you on the bus sneezes makes your day. good on you, if that's the case.

i've got to say, london has its bad points, but i'm rarely disappointed to return to it after visiting other parts of the nation. people complain about the folk in london being unfriendly - at least they're not all inbred retards who try to fight you if you don't speak in the same backwards drawl that they do.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

that's right ... it's not you, it's them - you speak perfectly

I can see why you'd be surprised when they attack - they obviously don't understand your sophisticated wit let alone your perfect english - but then again being retards they wouldn't would they.

ruggedtoast

I dont have any problem with London being dirty, anonymous and crowded. Its a city thats what theyre like.

My main beef is with the absurd delusions of grandeur surrounding it, while simultaneously it doles out some of the worst quality of life and value for money of any developed capital anywhere.

Good things (all of which can be accessed with an off peak return from somewhere much nicer)

• History.
• Culture
• Museums
• Parks
• Entertainment

Bad things

Everything else.Crime, awful public services, no police outside upper middle class enclaves, decrepit crumbling infrastructure, roads with potholes you could lose a child down. "Trendy" nightclubs and bars where you get to pay through the nose to be packed like cattle in some dive run by stuck up pr1cks who look down their noses at you all night for even being in there.

God I hate this stuck up, miserable, scab of a city.

/wanders off to cry.

Rochdale_Pioneers

As a Lancastrian in exile I have seen Yorkshire's London Needs Biscuits campaignb with interest. Never mind biscuits, we need to teach London to talk proper like what we do.

chewmylegoff

HelpWhereIcan wrote: »

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

that's right ... it's not you, it's them - you speak perfectly

I can see why you'd be surprised when they attack - they obviously don't understand your sophisticated wit let alone your perfect english - but then again being retards they wouldn't would they.

how did you get out of the servants' quarters?

chewmylegoff

ruggedtoast wrote: »

"Trendy" nightclubs and bars where you get to pay through the nose to be packed like cattle in some dive run by stuck up pr1cks who look down their noses at you all night for even being in there.

if you will seek out the worst places in town, you only have yourself to blame. it sounds like you insist on frequenting the west end. you can find awful bars in any town or city you please.

believe it or not, if you wander around your local area a bit you will probably find some pubs. some of them might even be alright. obviously they wouldn't be up to the standard of a lovely northern wetherspoons next to the train station packed with salt of the earth types with no teeth, but we have to make do with what we can get.

chewmylegoff

Rochdale_Pioneers wrote: »

As a Lancastrian in exile I have seen Yorkshire's London Needs Biscuits campaignb with interest. Never mind biscuits, we need to teach London to talk proper like what we do.

god you're not stuart maconie are you? if you are can i be the first in line to tell you that your book was a cliche strewn pit of bitterness.

daveb975

Rochdale_Pioneers wrote: »

My main problem with London is what it does to people. I started commutinng in from Norbiton to Waterloo, and the same people on the same train every morning looking utterly miserable desperately trying to ignore each and every other person who might glance in their direction with the merest hint of human interaction.

Norbiton is not the best place around, but neither is it the worst. London and the suburbs are very varied, and can change totally within a few miles. I only live about 3 miles away from there, and would not move anywhere else. Not sure I would fancy Norbiton itself, though.

As much as I love living in/near London, I can understand why some people wouldn't. It IS more expensive and it IS more crowded than most other places. You just need to find the right area. Where I live is relatively quiet with lots of open green space in walking distance, BUT it does take 20 minutes to get into Waterloo.

GrammarGirl

As a born and bred Yorkshire girl who has visited London many times for work and pleasure, I can say London still holds that 'magical' feel for me. I have lived and worked in central Leeds, Manchester and York so am used to big cities (by northern standards) but London always feels like a completely different life to me. I would never move to London, so hopefully the capital city will always seem glamorous, fast-paced and different. I wouldn't like to lose that viewpoint and become distainful and bigoted like some in this thread.