Why is everyone hating on London

Jealousy and racism. Quite often the hate comes from salty northerners who have little to no experience of the city and also purveyors of right-wing propaganda. London has its issues but most of the negative opinions are totally bulls..t

It’s always been a thing to diss London. I used to, before I moved here. Lots of places in the UK are shitholes, or just boring high streets with Costa, TG Jones, vape shops etc. London is so big, with lots of different areas and it’s easy to get from one place to another to see loads of different things. It’s definitely a lot cleaner than it used to be, the buildings aren’t black like many years ago. Just don’t go round licking things and it’s ok.

Most posters on mumsnet love London. They think that anywhere outside of the M25 is a cultural desert.

I grew up in London and now live in Yorkshire. I like to visit London, but I'm glad to get home to cleaner air, fewer crowds and more space.

Hmm I’m in two minds. Our best friends live in Catford and we’ve been visiting x10 a year for decades. The last 3/4 years I have seen a difference tbh.

Defo much more obvious crime like shop lifting and fare dodging. They don’t even try to hide it and it’s not teenagers. Friends are for the first time ever worried about their DC going out at night. Their street was great but now unruly behaviour on a weekly basis - one of their neighbours had a full on rave in their Edwardian terrace with portaloos etc. Lots of drug dealing on the street - one neighbour phoned police who basically weren’t interested.

I still love London but I wouldn’t live there for anything. I do think it’s going downhill tbh.

I’ve been going 2 or 3 times a year since 2021 because I loved it so much. I went June this year and it was just awful :(

I felt unsafe for the first time and noticed so much deterioration, witnessed phone theft and the tube was a lot more rowdy and hostile than my past visits.

There were people blasting religious texts from speakers, preachers spread throughout the place, and people handing out religious leaflets. I’m not religious and don’t see why people can’t keep it to their homes and places of worship. It can feel threatening in a public space when you feel you can’t refuse a leaflet.

It's simply a pile-on. I keep seeing the same posts/videos on SM from hateful people.

I’ve lived in London my whole life and I still love it. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.

Lived either in London or close Home Counties (30 mins out) my whole life. It's basically just worse than it was. It's filthy, covered in graffiti, full of terrifying electric bikes scooters coming at you from all angles without looking, stupidly loud with buskers and preachers all shouting into amplifiers, and horrendously crowded so midweek evenings on the tube feel like rush hour did a decade or so ago - and in many places you can't even get on the tube in actual rush hour. When I first started working there in 2001, it wasn't unusual to get a seat at 8.30 am!

Even though it's obviously always been busy, it used to feel vibrant and buzzy, but it now feels generally like it has more of an 'edge'. It's not helped by open lawbreaking, and lack of visible police. It's just depressing when you're always smelling drugs, or seeing people jumping barriers, or shoplifting, or dropping litter. And I'm not even talking about the 'proper' crimes like mugging or assault. Of course, there has always been crime, but I think it feels more of a concern now because there's little expectation that the police will bother to do anything about it. Reports suggest that huge numbers of all sorts of offences go unreported because 'what's the point?'

It used to be worth putting up with the noise, and the crowds, and the illegality, because there was so much to do and you could lead a very comfortable, full life on an average wage, or even less if you were happy sharing a flat. Now, everything's so expensive, nobody can afford anything, and even if they can it's all mostly a bit shit - like bad behaviour in theatres, or all the independent shops being replaced with dodgy money laundering places or overpriced tat. I don't however think this is just a London thing, it's just that London is the only city I really know well. And I find it deeply sad how far it's fallen. It really did use to be the best place in the world.

(Also, I think Khan is a fucking terrible mayor. He immediately broke his election promises, and that was the most he's ever accomplished in the role. Other than attend lots of parties and premieres, of course. But even I don't think what has happened to London is all his fault, I think the entire country's declined similarly, so blame has to go to central government.)

I love London and have worked in London for over 30 years, enjoy the buzz, my kids love it and we have some great days out. However the demographic has changed so much and while all types of people do rub along together the major has made it very clear that London is no longer for 'white families'.

Was so upset when this was in the press last year as I really feel that all demographics should be represented.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sadiq-khan-white-family-official-website-b2396431.html

You dislike London. Hating on London is not the same as disliking London.

Hating on is making public criticism of something, usually on social media and usually in an unpleasant and vindictive way.

Coffee I don't think that those of us who love London feel that at all. People are allowed their own opinions and it's fine not to like London and prefer living elsewhere

It is also fine for those of us who live in London to offer a very different perspective to explain what we like about the city. To me it's home and where I feel comfortable. I have lived in other cities, towns and the countryside but I have always returned to London

For my part what I was describing as right wing hate filled racism is the constant promulgation of tropes such as no go areas, lawlessness etc Londonistan etc that I see on social media and the drip drip of articles in the right wing press, namely the Daily Mail.

London has it's problems like all major cities but not to the extent portrayed in the press, social media and by certain individuals . Isn't right for those of us to live here to provide a counter narrative to refute these accusations? It's not an attack on those who don't like .

Yesterday someone gave me ice cream outside the supermarket as he fancied one but had no choice but to buy a pack of 4. I said I’ll give it to my kids, they were still in the car and he said how many do you have and I said 2 so he gave me another.

I absolutely love London, it’s my adopted home (born and elsewhere in the country)but I never want to leave..

There is shop lifting and people are being stabbed in broad daylight in a suburban area. This never used to happen and more fly tipping.

I think you have to be careful when you are out in central London

They are usually ignorant provincials who know in their hearts that they haven't got what it takes to make a good life for themselves in London. I despise the lot of them.

[South London born & bred here.]

I think it’s finally because money has started to be invested in the north. Coupled with the influencers who lived in. London flats worth upwards of £500k, to sell a northern lifestyle online, where they probably bought a sea view apartment for less than £250k

Exactly tnat! They woild have people think it is a lawless hellhole - whereas in reality I am currently in the Royal Festival Hall watching an utterly joyous free.concert of jazz and carnival music put on by a youth music charity who work with children and young people across London in the summer holidays to develop their music skills and careers.

www.kinetikabloco.co.uk

It's not that people who don't love London are right-wing, it's that there's a very particular brand of 'Londonistan' misinformation being put about by far right wing interests online. The two aren't the same, but the misinformation is happening (Farage thinks he's got his sights set on London). I've got relatives who think we're all cowering in our homes as lawless islamists sweep down the street.

I don’t like the ignorant labelling and dismissing of dissenting opinions from some on this thread. People who don’t love London are right wing, are they? OK. Simplistic, or what?

And as someone said - there’s always been massive irony in those who look down on non-Londoners yet who hardly leave the place themselves. They need to get out more.

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We’re all different I guess. I basically hate everywhere that isn’t London. There’s just no place better in my opinion, and I have travelled extensively around the country and world.

Usually based on a VERY limited or non existent experience of London…

@Devonshiregal well that's North London for you! Here in the People's Republic of Lewisham we get daily street cleaners in all the key centres.

Joking aside, I am currently on the Southbank and it is full of people enjoying themseves in the warm weather - bars and restaurants are full, kids are skateboarding, children are playing in the fountain and there is a small crowd watching a free display of traidtional Middle Eastern dancing.

See I find night time in the countryside terrifying! At least there are always people around in London. I honestly never feel unsafe. Walking in the dark in the countryside with nobody around (and maybe even no pavements) is literally the stuff of my nightmares. I've seen too many horror movies and I feel like there are probably psychos hiding in the bushes and nobody about to hear me scream! (I realise that's actually pretty unlikely to be fair but it's a genuine fear)

It’s also where your ‘community’ is. I was lucky. After graduation, a few of us stayed in this bit of London. Our kids have grown up together and now graduated themselves. A couple are even dating! Our families are close and it’s lovely. No green spaces or bigger houses could make up for that. Yes, London is London, and I think it’s fabulous, but my friends and family make it home. Like for many other people all over the country, wherever they live.

i agree with all of this. Well, except I lived in Leicester not Bristol for a bit. Grew up in the countryside - sod that. Crime wise, I mean yes you have to be careful but do you in Paris, Barcelona.. it’s part and parcel of urban living unfortunately. No worse in London.

It's your home, you love it and are completely in your element there. It's only natural that you feel that way.

I studied in London and then stayed until I was 27 for work. I lived in south London and then bought a flat in north London for the last three years.

I found it expensive, unfriendly, lonely, dirty, noisy, polluted, unbearably crowded. Full of sexually aggressive men. I was relieved when I got a job elsewhere and could finally leave.

Now I live somewhere where nights are quiet and dark, we have birdsong, open space, fresh air, fields and trees. Friendly people. Neighbours who speak to each other. A decent home.

We each have our preferences. That's normal.