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Original poster

London and surrounding area has become so unkempt

142 replies

GrubbyTowns · 21/04/2026 16:58

Rubbish strewn everywhere. All the verges full of cans, takeout detritus.
London and the southeast generally just seems so unkempt to where it was a few years ago even.
Just came back from a trip to Liverpool and the contrast was incredible. A busy city but so clean!
Why is this?

OP posts:
BigYellowBus · 21/04/2026 19:05

I think in general people are much better about litter than when I was growing up. Remember the Keep Britain Tidy campaign? There was a reason that was needed

ButterYellowHair · 21/04/2026 19:05

Well speaking for my road it’s because the council used to use open top baskets for recycling. They’ve changed to bins now but those who had the baskets kept them… as soon as it’s windy all the plastic waste goes wooooooosh into the air and I wake up to a garden full of butter tubs and yoghurt cups.

It then all blows into the bird sanctuary next door if I don’t get it in time.

Then there’s the drunks and drug addicts who leave shit everywhere. And the teens who do the same.

Original poster
GrubbyTowns · 21/04/2026 19:04

Batties · 21/04/2026 19:01

That’s a spectacular reach.

Show quote history

Isn’t it?

OP posts:
itsgettingweird · 21/04/2026 19:03

I’ve just got back from a week in Stratford.

not my experience. It was actually really clean and loads of people walking the streets keeping it that way.

EasternStandard · 21/04/2026 19:03

BIWI · 21/04/2026 17:59

I didn't say that you voted Reform @GrubbyTowns - but posts like yours certainly echo their narrative, designed to undermine faith in the mayor, who - strangely enough - is Muslim.

Oh I see this is why you’re getting grief op.

It’s a shame to see we have more litter here.

whiteroseredrose · 21/04/2026 19:02

I agree. My DC have moved there this year and it seems so much tattier than when I lived there in the 1990s.

Batties · 21/04/2026 19:01

BIWI · 21/04/2026 17:59

I didn't say that you voted Reform @GrubbyTowns - but posts like yours certainly echo their narrative, designed to undermine faith in the mayor, who - strangely enough - is Muslim.

That’s a spectacular reach.

Original poster
GrubbyTowns · 21/04/2026 18:59

I’m struggling with this being about Reform. Liverpool (who I mentioned as a good example of a clean area) are under Labour and have been for many years.

OP posts:
EasternStandard · 21/04/2026 18:58

GoodkneeBadKnee · 21/04/2026 18:51

Boring.

What, why?

Original poster
GrubbyTowns · 21/04/2026 18:58

GoodkneeBadKnee · 21/04/2026 18:51

Boring.

There is nothing stopping you scrolling on by and taking your good and bad knee to a more interesting thread.

OP posts:
examworries2026 · 21/04/2026 18:54

I am absolutely not a reform voter but this week I have complained to my local council about the state of the roads after bin collection day.

I live in a posh London suburb. For a few months now the roads are strewn with rubbish for days after bin day. It’s like the bin collectors spray it all around after collecting it. Yesterday while walking to the tube along a residential street I saw used nappies, bits of food, household rubbish everywhere. I can’t understand what’s changed in less than a year.

springandeaster · 21/04/2026 18:53

I find London to be clean. My local outer London borough doesn't seem to have any rubbish around. I see street sweepers regularly in the High Streets. The inner London borough where I used to live had a very small amount of rubbish. I don't see rubbish when I go to central London.
I do see a lot of rubbish when I visit a seaside town in the south east - I won't name it.

Heatedrival · 21/04/2026 18:52

It’s lovely where I live.

GoodkneeBadKnee · 21/04/2026 18:51

Boring.

bumblebee1000 · 21/04/2026 18:47

we are zone 3 london, we have regular fly tipping hot spots, landlords dump mattresses, cleared and more appear , they use it as a free service and cant take to the tip or pay the £30 to the council. Other fly tips are constant black bags which could be put in a bin.

Obviouslynotallthere · 21/04/2026 18:25

the small market town in SE I live in is bloody awful for fly tipping and rubbish everywhere. Volunteer litter picking is fighting a losing battle. It’s become like this in the last decade. The town itself has also grown in housing but unfortunately less and less infrastructure.

BigYellowBus · 21/04/2026 18:25

GrubbyTowns · 21/04/2026 17:10

I don’t know. There are run down bits but compared with London’s run down bits they’re sparkling.

I was there on Saturday, hens and stags all over the place. Early Sunday was pristine. Took a bus all over the city and suburbs and seemed relatively well kept everywhere. Lots of pride in the area from what I could see. Is it just an over population thing?

Show quote history

I walk through Trafalgar Square most days and it's always amazingly clean, no matter what event has been on the night before

FanFckingTastic · 21/04/2026 18:21

BIWI · 21/04/2026 17:59

I didn't say that you voted Reform @GrubbyTowns - but posts like yours certainly echo their narrative, designed to undermine faith in the mayor, who - strangely enough - is Muslim.

So to comment on the dirtiness of a city must mean that you are a Reform voter and / or a Muslim-Mayor hater? In my opinion, people of all political persuasions and all religions find dirty streets, rubbish and general neglect unpleasant.

OP - I don't think that you are wrong. The areas of London that I see are definitely more un-kempt than before.

ToffeeCrabApple · 21/04/2026 18:20

I work in central london and live in south east commuter belt.

I don't notice this. My village & the nearby town are very clean.

The only thing I do notice is the constant increase in dog fouling. There's been a huge uptick in dog ownership and people are just fucking dirty bastards and don't pick up after their dogs.

dottiehens · 21/04/2026 18:19

No what is happening where I live but places like Marylebone has now many homeless in tents. I hardly leave my lovely area but some places like Notting Hill are definitely more dirty and run down and full of what it seems like drug dealers.

Jackiepumpkinhead · 21/04/2026 18:17

I can’t say I’ve noticed more rubbish generally where I live, but the major A road which runs through my town is disgusting! I’m sure this is a newish thing. The council do organise clean up but of course it’s very dangerous. Then within a few months, it’s bad again.

Original poster
GrubbyTowns · 21/04/2026 18:17

WhitegreeNcandle · 21/04/2026 18:02

More like people are just becoming so uncaring about their local area. I live in a farm in the south and regularly litter pick the end of our drive. It’s disgusting and getting so much worse.

Show quote history

I think it is people not giving a shit, a real shift in culture. Plus council budgets, I volunteer with a local litter picking group. It’s depressing, we put a dent in clearing it, the next week it’s covered in coffee cups, sandwich packets and cans. Thrown out of cars, or just left there. Don’t get me started on fly tipping, I’d bring back the stocks for those fuckers.

OP posts:
Clipperchill · 21/04/2026 18:14

Midlands here and in my mid 40s. IMO the UK as a whole has really tanked in terms of people having any pride in it's upkeep. It's depressing.

The amount of rubbish on the verges and country lanes, the fly tipping, people could at least try to keep their own patches tidy, but nope, gardens full of crap, we're a country full of tramps.

GrandHighPoohbah · 21/04/2026 18:14

I think in general, there has been a steady and depressing decline in people caring about their surroundings. Most of the UK is blighted by rubbish, I don't think it's particularly worse in the South East. Birmingham and Manchester seem equally messy to me, plus quite a few towns in Yorkshire I have been to in recent years.

Original poster
GrubbyTowns · 21/04/2026 18:13

BIWI · 21/04/2026 17:59

I didn't say that you voted Reform @GrubbyTowns - but posts like yours certainly echo their narrative, designed to undermine faith in the mayor, who - strangely enough - is Muslim.

This is nuts. What’s the mayor got yo do with it? He also doesn’t have any jurisdiction over the wider SE, which is just as bad. You seem to be putting your agenda onto me.

OP posts:
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