To think London is in a major decline?

Have you actually spent much time in London? It's unclear from your post. If you've only been as a tourist and spent your time in places like Leicester Square, Oxford Street and Madame Tussaud's then I can see why you'd think it's a horrible crowded dirty place.
I've lived in London my whole life and I've never been mugged nor do I feel unsafe walking around at night. I think a lot of people who talk London down don't actually know it.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/380963/london-crime-rate/

HERE ARE STATISTICS

Where on earth do you live? I’ve never heard of anything like this and have friends and colleagues all over the city.

I think the Meadows Walk in the university quarter in Edinburgh is one of the loveliest in the world.

This! Spot on.

I live in the North West. It’s cheaper for me to get a flight and hotel to Spain or Dublin than it is to go to London!

oh no !
where were you in Edinburgh?
I am not far from the city and while Princes St is definitely nowhere near as lovely as it used to be , I always feel safe .

I went to Whitechapel the other day, I hadn't been for over 20 years and it was vastly improved in terms of infrastructure.

I live in North London and actually like my area, since an elderly man near us died the volume of dog poo on the pavement decreased exponentially. Amazing the impact just one person can make. The general rise in dog poo on pavements is due to increased dog ownership during Covid, it's probably relatively few individuals who don't pick it up but is more noticeable.

Drug use is crazy, it's everywhere and with it comes gangs muggings etc. At my local tube station the staff say the issue is much worse than in the past. I never noticed how many dealers there were before and while I don't feel unsafe, I'm concerned for my DC.

Mugging has increased because stealing a phone with bank details etc saved on it is easy and very lucrative you can access thousands of pounds in minutes often.

Also drugs are a global issue, in both the rich and poor countries. Synthetic drugs are super cheap and lethal. We need to tackle this issue globally as a priority.

Retail is depressed on the high street with online shopping, I think we need to rethink high streets to make them useful again maybe not with shops but destination experience shops.

Technology has changed our world more than anything else in the last couple of hundred years, particularly the smartphone, but we need structures in place to change how we live now, it's still early days so fingers crossed 🤞

Reporting and recording of crime has also improved massively in the last 20 years.

We have parent patrols near our school now to protect children. It wasn't like that before.

I feel the same OP. I'm in SW London ( zone 2). I don't feel safe coming back home at night ( had an incident when a male was following me till my doorstep and I was literally saved by a female neighbour), my secondary school son and his friends are at constant risk. He personally was stopped three times on his way back home from school by masked youth gangs since he was 12 and asked for money / phone. Every single day my neighbours post on Nextdoor about attempted robberies, stolen cars. The crime is massively up and I feel it will get much worse.

I’m in SW London also (SW3) and I’ve never felt unsafe anywhere. I love London. I have friends in various parts of SW (Battersea, Wimbledon, Clapham Common, Balham) and in the main they’re all great places to live with great transport, lots of open space and plenty of busy bars, restaurants and cafes. It’s a great city.

I just hate London and people are rude. It’s just one massive trample to get anywhere and the noise the crowds. I don’t like it at all. Tbf my only experience of London before this was coming down for the olympics when it had its best face on. I imagine if I lived there I would get accustomed the noise and crowds in exchange for public transportation that works and the facilities

Interesting still no-one blaming Farage or racist rioters.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/tower-hamlets-council-lutfur-rahman-john-biggs-department-for-levelling-up-housing-and-communities-birmingham-city-council-b2500793.html

Got to wonder about a London Borough in which 84% are happy to live in an area controlled by a corrupt Mayor. I do not believe this survey.

Peckham has been desirable for at least last 14 years. I tried to buy there when I moved to SE London and still couldn’t afford it then.

Not sure what you expect OP in a country with massive inequality which has got worse.

Local councils can’t afford to do the basic maintenance they did because their main source of funding was cut. Unless you live in Westminster which has loads of money and one of the rare ones.

There is also a hidden parasite which is taking wealth out of the country. I noticed you dropping in a comment about assimilation. It’s not that. But it’s the rise in money and wealth being tied up in mortgages and investment funds. Money has to be used to service that, leaving less money for other things. Take an example:
House prices have massively shot up. Now, you may not know this, but the same has happened for retail and commercial property. Not many companies own outright, they too have to borrow. So it’s cheaper for them to move online.
Similarly for councils. They’ve had to borrow via PFIs.
As more has to be spent on servicing debt = less money for wages and other things. Plus, profit has to be made!
So yes, things are screwed but, as ever, like in Roman Empire, it’s the Uber rich doing the screwing. And just like in Rome, they’ll fall eventually.

Where did you visit? I mean that does sound awful but I live and work in London and don’t recognise that at all.

I worked all over London for several decades. Parts were rough, but nothing like now.
It's decline since Covid, Brexit, recession, is dreadful.

When I visit now, I generally can't wait to leave. Probably because everything is so bloody expensive it just makes me miserable.
I think the general mood for the working and middle classes s that we've been royally shafted. Some of us reluctantly put up with it, keep calm and carry on,, whilst others just don't care about the environment, other people/their community, and behave like arseholes. The rudeness of some people is a disgrace.

Yep.... the UK has not recovered from the 2008 Credit Crunch/banking crisis.
It was that that revealed how surface the progress that the then eleven year Labour progress had been.

Post Covid Tory era just ripped the sticking plaster of delusion off for all but the evangelical.

Brexit is just a convenient scapegoat for those who weren't open eyed before it.

And I voted "remain", completely open eyed to the decline of the UKf for too mant which caused many to vote the opposite way.

What is shocking about London is that there are hardly any areas where the houses and streets are all clean and pretty.
As a population, us Londoners are not civic minded where it comes to aesthetics and the upkeep of our surroundings.
As for Peckham. Rye Lane has gone completely downhill since "aspirational/standard having working class" stopped being the target .
So many name brand and non corporate/cabal stores closed down on the Lane and Choumert Road between the late 80s to 2005.
Walworth Road and East Street has gone the same way, but does not look as frownsy as Rye Lane.

Big up to Harte's butchers, the only Peckham business that stops me doing the whole of my grocery shopping in Brixton.

Innit though?

Wikipedia comes to the rescue:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_London

I think you must be a very close neighbour of mine! I've read your post and the updates. I am also zone 2 east London and agree with everything you've said.
The crime, drugs, gangs, mopeds, swearing, spitting, permanent smell of weed, dodgy men just hanging around in the street, stabbings, kids setting off fireworks, it's like everyone has given up living as a decent human being. I've lived here 15 years and noticed this shift particularly in the last couple of years.
The huge cultural divide and lack of Bangladeshi integration made significantly worse by mayor Rahman.

Yeah I was blown away by the comment.

I used to go to Peckham regularly in the late 00s and have no idea it was meant to be a “no-go” zone!

They never have stats.