Why is everyone hating on London

YABU for saying 'hating on'.
I lived in London in my 20s and loved it, but there have always been plenty of things to dislike about it (as there are about any huge city) and some of them have got worse, no doubt.

I certainly wouldn't live there or in any city now, but that's a me thing, not a London thing. I find it exhausting, over-stimulating and dirty.

Should add - as many commentators have said - London is very different from the rest of England, or the UK. Possibly more different than other capitals are from their countries.

It’s just way too big and stressful for me - information and stimulation overload!

Team Samuel Johnson here:
"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life"

London has money poured on it - buses every 2minutes,trains or tubes every 3minutes -where I live 4buses a day -now they are spending millions on building social housing. They claim money is made in London but not elsewhere -it is but in the financial sector run by overpaid private school kids not the rest of the population -the rest of the country can go hang

London is big city
Some people love cities others don't. It had it's fair share of problems but so do other cities. Personally I love it.

I live in NW of the city in a culturally diverse, not affluent neighborhood, white, Muslim, hindu , Romanian , Chinese and long established Irish families. My Muslim neighbour sends me Christmas cards and offers food at Eid. I send them cards at Eid. When I couldn't start my car another neighbour, also Muslim, also rushed out to help me.

I agree it's a right wing racist trope. They hate Sadiq Khan because he is brown, a Muslim and Labour. Their hate is promulgated through the right wing press (Daily Mail), AI posts on social media and from the mouths of leaders and supporters of the usual suspects. They are also the people who are pounding home the message that the UK is finished, the great replacement theory, two tier justice and more. So you have to ask why.

I for one love it. I don't live there now but go back as often as I can and enjoy taking my children there too.

I often think to myself maybe I'll retire there! It's a pipe dream 😀

It was awful in the early 2000s but got a wash and brush-up for the Olympics and I felt proud of it then. I think it was the proliferation of fast food outlets and the English or British apparent tolerance of ankle-deep litter - we are bad at this. I’d avoided going but enjoyed short visits after the clean-up.

i like the historical aspects of London but am so over the West End theatre. Just realised one day that I never wanted to pay £80 to sit in a cramped seat in the gods watching something pretty meh again. So much pretentiousness about the theatre!

I love art but over the last 20-30 years galleries have had massive blockbuster exhibitions which are ridiculously busy. Went to Van Gogh first thing on a Monday morning and still could hardly move. The horrendous crowdedness of central London puts me off. I like to explore the interesting suburbs instead.

I guess if you’re young, as I was once 😄 it’s exciting but I have to have a very good reason to go into London now from the end of my tube line. Far, far too many people.

If people don't know what is meant by the far right hating on London, it's this sort of thing.

I’m not. I like London. I’m not from round there and I don’t live there but I think it’s a very interesting place. Like its own little country.

Just personal choice I guess.

I grew up in a London overspill town so everyone there wanted to move out of London in the 60's/70's - largely due to house prices. A lot of young 'middle class' people in these areas now think London is wonderful and can't wait to move there 😅

They talk funny, because they're not from Manchester.

I love London so much and feel it’s such a friendly place , people are always willing to help or interact. It’s a really vibrant place to live and you do have to be tolerant and respectful of other cultures and ways of life - that is not for everyone. Leaving London feels like stepping back decades. You can tell a lot about a person in the way they feel about this amazing city

I agree that currently the apparent hate for London is led by the right wing.

Every major city in the UK has problems with crime, homelessness, boarded-up shops, traffic congestion etc. but London is often held up as an example of all that is wrong with the country.

For my part, London is great and I wouldn't live anywhere else - every day is an adventure with so much to do.

And.... we have the best public transport, and fine sunny weather (right now!)

Im originally from London, but I have been living in the Highlands of Scotland for the last ten years. I do not miss it at all. I go back every few months to visit family and friends and everytime I go it just cements further the idea it was completely the right decision to get away from it. Its noisy, dirty, expensive, getting anywhere takes forever and full of nutters and crime. I do get the occasional pangs of missing the city buzz but I turned on the radio the other day and heard "teenager stabbed to death with machete on a bus" which is not to far from my parents house and thats put that idea to bed

When all the work in centred there, they have little choice.

There are loads of Americans in my area - probably getting away from Trump

That's good to hear.
I like to believe that the good people outweighs the bad.
It's not just London. People are becoming more insular everywhere.
In Dublin I saw a little boy about 3 get off the bus without his parent noticing, lots of people ignored his crying.
Thankfully the parent realised shortly after the bus pulled off.

There's a video clip from it here where they explain that the right slating cities is a US import and that Trump randomly spoke very disparagingly about Sadiq Khan when he visited.

https://x.com/thenewsagents/status/1955310812882423922?s=61&t=U9XrcF693-JpMxeIueYG7g

@kirinm
I had family on the edge of Epping forest and in Sutton - that’s not the centre of London but it was still way to much for me - we are just different - I can’t stand it it’s like a pressure on my skull when I have to go there - but that’s fine just different

like I say the words I would use wouldn’t be cesspit and other emotional derogatory words though

You can’t hate “on” something, you just hate it.

Sorry to come across as a mad defender of London but I really don’t agree that people would step over you bleeding.

On three separate occasions I’ve had strangers call ambulances for me (I had an uncontrolled medial condition for a while). Sit with me and not rob me until the ambulances came. Same thing happened with my son.

The costs of rent and housing are outrageous, but that’s because a lot of people live here and want to stay here. If London was so awful, people would leave and rents would fall. No sign of that happening.

I don’t hate London but I don’t understand the hype, in the sense that I would never want to live there. I’m considering going to watch a west end show maybe in a few years time but generally I just don’t see the point - my stepbrother and his partner live there so when family visit and rave about the place I’m just kind of confused.

I do generally have some lighthearted bitterness about the south having more than the north in terms of resources etc though so that won’t help haha! I feel like every single character in Corrie when they find out someone’s leaving the cobbles for the big smog… London??! 😂

This is what we expect will happen with our DD, in fact we are in the process of trying to buy a larger house so my older DS can move in and save.

Rents are high in other areas but London takes the piss.