What do non-Londoners think of London?

[savedbyanalien]

We live (just inside) zone 1, so very central. We're very much "big City people" and couldn't imagine living in the suburbs or the countryside, or even a provincial town.

I was at London Victoria station earlier today and saw reams and reams of day-trippers (Hen and stag do's etc) and tourists getting off the Gatwick express with their luggage.

I wonder, what do you think about london when you get here? Big, noisy, busy, pretty, exciting?

I'm Scottish, living back in Scotland now, but I lived in London for a number of years and I love it - still travel down regularly for work / family living there.

It's one of the major cities of the world, like NY / Paris etc, no? You should experience it at one time in your life.

l Can't cope without birdsong, green vistas, quiet lanes, kind people, warm loving communities, gentle green fields, absence of violence

We have all of these things in London and I’ve had millions of conversations whilst walking down the road.

The only negative thing I have to say about London is when Londoners complain about public transport - oh, you sweet summer children, you haven't got a CLUE.

It gave me asthma.

@FuzzyPuffling

It gave me asthma.

Gave you asthma or triggered asthma you already had?

Too crowded, too busy. Too much traffic and air pollution. Couldn't pay me enough to live there, sorry.

I'm a non Londoner. My opinions of London are... streets are smelly and dirty, houses are small, takes ages to get anywhere as I feel like I'm constantly waiting for tubes, everything is very expensive, nobody smiles and the tissue after you blow your nose is black!
If someone paid me a million pound to live there I'd decline.
I appreciate people would decline a million pound to live in my rural location too though. Everyone is different.

Really not flithy- the rubbish collection is amazing
We have daily rubbish and recycling collections- the street bins are emptied daily (although not many as too close to Houses of P and bomb alerts)

When I say filthy @MySecretHistory, I'm not talking about the frequency of the bin collections...

It's just the sheer volume of traffic that makes it feel really grimy and you don't seem to get it with other cities.

Haha @AffIt Agree! I'd kill for their transport system, even on a bad day.

@fairylightsandwaxmelts

Really not flithy- the rubbish collection is amazing We have daily rubbish and recycling collections- the street bins are emptied daily (although not many as too close to Houses of P and bomb alerts)

When I say filthy @MySecretHistory, I'm not talking about the frequency of the bin collections...

It's just the sheer volume of traffic that makes it feel really grimy and you don't seem to get it with other cities.

Not at the moment- the traffic is really low- back to levels 25 years ago More traffic in Leeds or Manchester than Central London at the moment I would say

Congestion charge hours have just been reduced though- so it may bounce back

I love to visit and there's so much free stuff to do with the DC ( see the sights, museums and fab parks). We live fairly rurally and can be there on the train in an hour. Usually make 3/4 trips a year either for the day or a weekend. I wouldn't want to live there though , My skin feels grimy and I miss the fresh air of the country side! When I was younger I would've absolutely loved having everything on my doorstep and living somewhere that felt alive!

First words that come into my head are
Cosmopolitan
Busy
Crowded
Noisy

It is too big for me personally but I know it appeals to a lot of people. I live in a suburb of a largish town but would prefer to live in a small town or a village.

Someone said to me once dont think of the whole of London as one big place but each area as separate villages.

Not at the moment- the traffic is really low- back to levels 25 years ago

To be fair, I've not been since COVID but it's always the impression I got beforehand. It's just so busy and noisy and just has a general feeling of grime - whereas other similarly sized cities never felt the same way.

Noisy, crowded and expensive. The centre is a mixture of tourist traps and hangouts for the rich and prententious, many of the outer zones are dives. I lived in one of said dives for about 2 years.

@RoseMartha

First words that come into my head are Cosmopolitan Busy Crowded Noisy

It is too big for me personally but I know it appeals to a lot of people. I live in a suburb of a largish town but would prefer to live in a small town or a village.

Someone said to me once dont think of the whole of London as one big place but each area as separate villages.

Absolutely this. Most of us Londoners don’t live in Zone 1. Some do, obviously, but mostly we’re 2 and beyond. I work in Z1 but mostly, my weekends are spent in my Z2 ‘village’

I'm rural Scotland and I like to visit London for a few days

But after a few days I feel worn out with using the tube and transportation, I find it exhausting

I also get nervous away from the central London tourist attraction type areas , I feel unsafe.

One last thing that gets me is the dirt on my skin, at night after travelling about, I find that horrible,

They said I like a short 3/4 days there but then I'm done and need to get out.

I am definitely not a busy place type person. The amount of people who live there I find strange, more than the whole of Scotland. I find that hard to imagine,

I live in London (moved here not a local) and I genuinely don’t find the people rude or unpleasant? The rudest people I have come across are the tourists in zone 1?

In my area of zone 3 we have a great sense of community, our local library is a real family hub and on a Saturday we have a farmers market with local businesses, everyone is friendly. The guy in the local bakery even gives me discount because I’m in there all the time and have got to know him. I honestly haven’t found people here to be rude or unpleasant at all, in fact the complete opposite.

I’m also baffled by those saying there’s lots of crime. Well yeah in the capital city with 9 million people there will be more crime than a rural village but I have never felt threatened here.

I do agree about the pollution and dirt though, do get worried about what I’m breathing in

I have lived in London for 25 years (but am originally from a countryside village in the midlands). I feel very Lucky to live where I do (and I understand why people who normally only visit the centre view it as they do) .

I work in zone one near Covent Garden but also close to inner and outer temple and live in a very green area in zone 2. Lots of parks, families, community which really feels like a village / neighbourhood in its own right and very supportive.

I do love the countryside too and do sometimes wonder if I did the right thing staying in London all these years but then I get home and realise where I would much rather be.

I do know that I would feel differently if I lived in a more anonymous area that I didn't love though, it's a combination of everything central has to offer and where I live that (in my opinion) makes me fe happy with my choices.

Both me and DH were born in London, me in North London and DH in South London. We lived there separately and then, when we married, together for just over 40 years.

We moved away 23 years ago and we both miss London. In some ways we regret moving away even though we like where we live now (East Midlands in a village but close to a town).

Before covid we went back at least once every 6 weeks for a couple of nights.

We spent 10 days there in December 2021/January 2022 and are going again at the end of this month for 4 days.

There is so much to do there. The museums are brilliant and free unlike in lots of cities in other countries (Stockholm's museum prices are eye watering).

We miss the museums, we miss the choice of vegetarian restaurants and the good indian restaurants. We miss the markets - Spittlefields, Borough, Greenwich, Portabello, Columbia Road.

The transport is, on the whole good, and we don't find it expensive. It is compared to some other countries but not compared to other places in the UK.

Posters keep saying its expensive but what exactly is? Housing is yes but other things are not. If you know where to go restaurants are no dearer. They can be cheaper. A vegetarian indian restaurant in Covent Garden that does absolutely delicious food is cheaper to eat in than any of our local indians (where the food is pretty mediocre).

We love Islington, Notting Hill, Chelsea, Kensington, Barnes, Kew, Greenwich, Ealing Village, Blackheath and, our absolute favourite place, Hampstead.

Never found the people particularly unfriendly, no more so than in other parts of the country. When we live in South London we knew loads of our neighbours and spoke to them quite often. We don't nearly so many where we are now.

We always seem to talk to people on the buses and tubes when we visit.

It's without doubt are favourite city of all the ones we have visited in the UK and abroad.

When I lived in London I deliberately kept a grumpy expression on my face when commuting. It stops the perverts bothering me (as much).

"It’s a thing, in the Bridge Jones book she mentions when she first moved to London and thought it was a good idea to smile at strangers until someone masturbates at her and she learns not to smile at strangers in London."

Witnessed this very scenario in a dodgy area of Glasgow a few weeks ago. Not unique to London!

I do agree the sense of community is very strong in London. I knew plenty of my neighbours most places I lived. Here in the middle of the country it is not at all neighbourly people stick to their families and friends they have known from childhood.

I live rurally and when I was a kid I used to find visiting London SO exciting. It felt so magical to me, even getting the train and arriving at Paddington Station. I have such fond memories of doing all the touristy stuff, the London dungeons, Madam Tussauds, Oxford Street, Camden. I couldn't tell you the names of the restaurants we ate in but I just remember it all being so big and bustling and it felt like such a thrill. We saw shows on the West End, took cheesy pictures with all the Landmarks and were probably those tourists everybody hated!

As an adult I worked in a more 'normal' part of London for a few weeks and the illusion was slightly shattered

I do find people generally more chatty to strangers in parts of the north of England than in London, but I find London much friendlier than a lot of other parts of the country I’ve visited. The thing you have to remember is that Londoners who live or work in central Lindon or the city are facing hundreds or thousands of people every day, on their commute, in the streets etc and so like a lot of other big city dwellers (e.g. definitely New Yorkers) they wear a ‘shield’ - avoid the pervs and weirdos, avoid eye contact when up close and personal to strangers on the tube, keep yourself to yourself. It’s just part of living among huge numbers of people, a coping mechanism.

However, if you ask a Londoner for directions or start up a chat and you aren’t completely bonkers, you’ll find most friendly and helpful. You also have to remember that London is home to hundreds of thousands of immigrants from all over the world, so there is not really a uniform culture or customs. You could be sitting on the bus between an Albanian and a Nigerian. It’s not ‘little England’ for sure, and if you’re looking for that vibe, you’ll be disappointed!

Never experienced any crime in the 40 odd years we live in London.

We had our car broken into in Cardiff, were burgled when we live in Cambridgeshire and, last month, had our car broken into in Birmingham

@D0lphine

Busy and expensive. Full of cross looking people barging around. Loud, dirty. Extremes of wealth. Not a nice place- feels like a capital city of a foreign country and entirely different from the rest of the UK.

At least I can walk about without hearing racist comments shouted at me like I've experienced many a time when I've visited other places in the UK. So I love the diversity of London.