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 lived and worked there for 4 years in my early 20’s after growing up in a smallish seaside town where everybody knows everybody. The ‘bright lights, big city’ excitement probably wore off after 2 years or so. I lived in Kensington, round the corner from Harrods in Knightsbridge (live in hotel jobs), Camden and Finsbury Park so quite different areas and was always out clubbing, sightseeing and eating out. Bought a house an hour outside London literally before my pregnancy test stick was dry.

We go in every few months to see DH’s family and I hate it now. Everything turns grey when we come off the M11, you can smell the greyness even. It’s filthy, the driving’s horrendous, people look miserable, tube is a horror (don’t know how I coped in summer), it’s just stressful.

I breathe a sign of relief as leave the outskirts and go forth into the greenness. Wouldn’t go back if I was offered £10 million!

Mind you I wasn’t impressed with NYC on a recent trip either.

Ex Londoner and I love it. Objectively my life is better than it was in london (better quality of life, much nicer house, better pace of life) but I get a tingle down my spine when I get off at Euston and I love every moment of my weekends visiting. I think you have to quite small minded not to enjoy a thing about london, even if it’s not really your jam. It’s an amazing city!

Don’t miss black snot and hair feeling dirty despite washing it every day either. Is that still a thing? Has the congestion charge had an effect? Something I always forget to ask DH’s family when we visit .

I think the thing I find offensive about all the “I hate London” posts is how personal they are about the people who live in London. There’s lots of “Londoners are horrible!!” which is a quite specific personal attack on those of us who actually live in London.

If I said “everyone who lives in Penzance stinks of BO” people from there would be quite offended. Not sure then why it’s ok to say that about people living in London.

The other thing that gets my back up is the sheer inaccuracy of the judgement. So many incorrect posts on this thread - ie that the only restaurants in London are greasy overpriced cafes or Pret. Or that the whole of London is congested, or smoggy etc.

It’s mostly not true.

I’m tempted to start a thread slagging off Nuneaton or some other obscure middle England town

@WomblingWilma - DS lives with us and uses the tube. He just said he would try to get a GP appointment if he blew his nose and it was black. It never is.

I get that people prefer not to live in London - but it isn't some kind of dystopian nightmare. It can be quite nice . That said friends & relatives of mine who live in different parts of the country have bigger houses than me , and nice gardens , which I am somewhat envious of , but I like living where I do. But let us be kind and accept people live where they feel it is most congenial .

Green! London has great parks. I always find trips to London stressful though as it's so busy. I grew up in London but much prefer my home in Manchester as it's so much easier to get around. Manchester City centre is crap for parks but I'm ten miles out and it's really green here.

My family in London all tend to stay very local to their areas just because it's such a hassle to get around.

@Pyri - I have no interest in slagging off Nuneaton or elsewhere but I agree with your point. There are lots of nice people who live in London I would no more think of saying I don't agree with your choice to some one who lived in Belfast or Birmingham or Keswick or Skye or home counties or wherever. But sometimes it feels like London is " fair game "

Enough - I am happy here and hope everyone is happy where they are as well

@Pyri

I think the thing I find offensive about all the “I hate London” posts is how personal they are about the people who live in London. There’s lots of “Londoners are horrible!!” which is a quite specific personal attack on those of us who actually live in London.

If I said “everyone who lives in Penzance stinks of BO” people from there would be quite offended. Not sure then why it’s ok to say that about people living in London.

The other thing that gets my back up is the sheer inaccuracy of the judgement. So many incorrect posts on this thread - ie that the only restaurants in London are greasy overpriced cafes or Pret. Or that the whole of London is congested, or smoggy etc.

It’s mostly not true.

I’m tempted to start a thread slagging off Nuneaton or some other obscure middle England town

It's a general vibe. If someone said Londoners stink I don't actually think they're talking about me as a person. City dwellers are known to be more busy and appear less friendly than rural areas, In general. Still meet lots of cool and interesting people.

I find it interesting that on these threads, the ‘Londoners’ who most animatedly defend London are often not Londoners at all but hail from other counties/countries. Whereas most actual Londoners seem to have left, or meet the criticism with equanimity or agreement!

I’m a born and bred Londoner and like most on this thread, am thrilled to have left it, though I do miss some aspects and feel extremely nostalgic for things like 90s Camden market, smoking fags on primrose hill, gigs at the Astoria etc. Driving over tower bridge or the view on Waterloo remind me of my 20s working uptown too,

I lived in London for almost 30 years. Moved out just before the pandemic. I love where I am now but part of my ❤ will always be in London. I don't miss commuting on the tube though!

I find it too busy and stressful. People on the underground are rude if you dither even for a second.
Whenever I have spent time in London, my bogeys are black for a little while afterwards.

It's too flat and takes ages to get out.

@Xenobitch - I did ask Ds about this he commutes daily every day in the working week & never had black when he blows his nose. But one person .

I will defend London - not animatedly because it is not everyone's choice. I was born in greater London and have moved a bit more central - but seriously I think this is one of those things where everyone has their own choices and priorities. Not one is better than the other,

What I will say is that those who think all Londoners think those who do not live in London are thick or whatever - that I take issue with.

@whenwillthemadnessend

I'm Going to be honest as a Hertfordshire girl I get to go into london as much as I like

Day trips great
Museums too busy in holidays
Theatre over priced but you can get amazing ballet which I love for a very fair price.
Shopping good but it's just too big really so you can only do one area at a time. I prefer smaller cities to shop.

Inner london is beautiful and fantastic buildings clean etc
Some areas of Outer london are a cesspit and I would never want to live there
However the rubbish on the verges in Herts is a disgrace and an embarrassment to the uk and so I can't really be too harsh on outer london.

Poor and rich divide has got far far to big
Flats in Hampstead for 8 million is just ridiculous

no part of London is a cesspit. please stay in Hertfordshire. how bloody rude of you. You provincials have the nerve to say that Londoners are rude!

I actually enjoy visiting London and have friends who live there, but the whole ‘civilisation ends at the M25’ attitude is incredibly pervasive.

As a Londoner, I can assure you that's not the case. Civilisation ends at the North and South Circulars, nowhere near as far out as the M25.

Both my parents and most of ny family are from (North) london, we live about an hours train away, less so when I lived at my parents. I like London, it's expensive but I like visiting for the day. There's lots to do and lots of different types of places. I've rarely felt unsafe out by myself in the day or with friends in the evening/night. I used to commute in and enjoyed being able to mooch after a shift.

Now I have ds (3) we go to London every now and then and go to the museums or just look around- he likes going on the buses and tubes and sightseeing along embankment.

I wouldn't want to live in London as though our area isn't cheap, we would get nowhere near the space for our money in London. Equally I don't think we would ever move too far away to be able to go for an evening out there.

the traffic is really low- back to levels 25 years ago

That's not the case where I live in central London. We're back at pre-pandemic levels of traffic.

It also winds me up that the BBC seem to think London is the only place in the UK, but that isn't Londoners/London's fault!

The BBC have 4,000 staff in Salford. In fact these days they have more staff OUTSIDE London than in London.

I'm on the edge of the coast and forest and I love it here.
I do love coming up to London for weekends/theatre/shopping. I find within an hour or so I pick up/join in with the hustle and bustle, I've got the tube system down, I only need to check the maps occasionally. Love that everything is open late and there is always something going on. Downside is hotels are so expensive and occasionally I find it too busy.
I do like coming home and seeing green things again!

When I lived in London in the 90s and 2000s before I returned home, I felt like there was a difference between Londoners and non Londoners like as though Londoners had their finger on some pulse that non-Londoners had no access to. But now with social media, and everything because shown off on IG, re-tweeted, bloggers to follow, I feel like it makes no difference. Londoners don't have access to any more immediate or precise zeitgeist than anybody else.

Me and my DH always half-joke that BBC National weather actively tries NOT to tell you the weather in London. The presenter will bang on about the outer fucking Hebrides and lands end and gloss over a city where 9 million live. They’re so desperate to not be seen as London-centric and have been since the move to Salford for a huge chunk of operations about 12 years ago.

I used to love London! I'd visit several times a year when I was a teen to visit friends, for work, etc. I have some lovely memories visiting with my family in my early to mid twenties. If I didn't visit once a year, I'd have withdrawals and crave another visit.
However, I'm now in my late twenties and the appeal is lost for me. It could be because lockdown increased my anxiety, or because lockdown prevented my enjoyment of visiting, so it just left for me, or perhaps because I'm a parent now and can't imagine taking my baby there (or leaving him all day to go there without him).
Regardless, I do miss the days that I could get a train ticket from my hometown in East Anglia to Liverpool Street for a fiver 😭

@WomblingWilma

I lived and worked there for 4 years in my early 20’s after growing up in a smallish seaside town where everybody knows everybody. The ‘bright lights, big city’ excitement probably wore off after 2 years or so. I lived in Kensington, round the corner from Harrods in Knightsbridge (live in hotel jobs), Camden and Finsbury Park so quite different areas and was always out clubbing, sightseeing and eating out. Bought a house an hour outside London literally before my pregnancy test stick was dry.

We go in every few months to see DH’s family and I hate it now. Everything turns grey when we come off the M11, you can smell the greyness even. It’s filthy, the driving’s horrendous, people look miserable, tube is a horror (don’t know how I coped in summer), it’s just stressful.

I breathe a sign of relief as leave the outskirts and go forth into the greenness. Wouldn’t go back if I was offered £10 million!

Mind you I wasn’t impressed with NYC on a recent trip either.

@"people look miserable". What ALL of them? Such a ridiculous comment. Also what is @"everything turns grey" meant to mean?

If you think it's grey in London and the driving is horrendous don't ever go to Birmingham. If London is grey then Birmingham is black and the traffic is terrible, takes so long to drive even a short distance and the driver standard is horrendous.

I get that not everyone likes London, there are places I don't like but some posters are just saying such silly things.

I have never ever in all my time living in London, working in London and, now, spending holidays in London, had black snot.

I'm a Londoner - always have been, but I can't bare it now. Don't go out in town anymore. I'm selling up, as is my partner (Camden town) and we're moving to the coast. London was great growing up and in my younger years but now, it's too busy. Having said that, my kids 23 and 18 love it so I'm glad they were brought up here.

I enjoy going for the day but am always pleased to be home.