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 love London, DM and I just had 4 days there last week. I think it is the fact it is so different from any other city.
We don't visit often but it's full on tourist trail when we do.

Lovely to visit but I wouldn't want to live there, too busy and you would lose the different from home would be gone.

I live on the NE coast and you would probably hate that OP

When I visit I love to get up early and wander around before things get really busy. Love the history and beautiful buildings. Don't enjoy the tube, prefer to get the bus and sit on the top deck - you see so much more that way (obviously not as quick though!). Also suffer from the dreaded black snot after a while!

Love a mooch round Sloane Sq/the Kings Road

I lived there for years and loved it. Moved away after we had children. Love visiting as it feels like home still and I know my way around which helps so we never feel like tourists. Wouldn’t move back though.

@Libertaire

In my experience, London and Londoners are very, very insular. I used to work in a flight reservations call centre which received lots of calls from Londoners. When I asked for their address I would often get ‘12 Acacia Avenue Ealing W14…’ They just assumed it was obvious that Ealing was a part of London and that whoever they were speaking to would know that. Such a level of insularity wouldn’t happen anywhere else in the U.K.

I actually enjoy visiting London and have friends who live there, but the whole ‘civilisation ends at the M25’ attitude is incredibly pervasive. The cultural, social & political differences between the areas inside & outside the M25 are now so large that there are effectively five countries in the U.K. : Scotland, Northern Ireland, England, Wales and London.

My (London) address doesn’t actually have London in it, nor have any of the 5 places in London I’ve ever lived!

It’s not “assumed” that you would know where they live, it’s that Ealing is the town / district part of that address and with the postcode it’s not necessary to add the word London.

When I asked for their address I would often get ‘12 Acacia Avenue Ealing W14…

But why would they need to say London? The detail above is a sufficient address?

I flipping love London! Were I younger with fewer ties and could sort out affordable housing, I would be down there in a flash.

The noise, the bustle, the parks, the buses, the tube, the trains, the huge variety of nationalities, the restaurants,all the stuff going on, job opportunities.

I also don't get this " unfriendly " thing people say, I find Londoners just a easy to get on with as the rest of the country.

I HATE it!!!

Dirty (my fingernails are caked in filth when I get home), noisy (no chance of holding a conversation whilst walking along the street), polluted (I especially hate seeing little ones in pushchairs at the worst pollution level from the traffic), too fast-moving (apart from the traffic, everyone is in a rush), cold and impersonal, grey .........

I am a country girl. Can't cope without birdsong, green vistas, quiet lanes, kind people, warm loving communities, gentle green fields, absence of violence .....

I appreciate the theatres, galleries etc. but you have to battle your way through London to get to them!

We have the best of both worlds here: all the benefits of being in the country with small towns and cities heaving with all the culture you could possibly want.

I honestly believe I am living in paradise!

Each to his own I guess.

I forgot to add, the only thing I dislike about London is the price of a pint, but the rest of the country appears to be catching up with that.

Big, noisy, congested, expensive.

Fine to visit, wouldn't want to live there under any circumstances. Much happier in my Scottish suburb where I can have the "big city" experience 20 minutes away, and 20 minutes in the other direction be on the banks of Loch Lomond.

Culture-less.

I think that's because there's so many blow-ins from around the country and other countries. Not that that's a bad thing, just think that I understand the culture of say, Bristolians, or Geordies, or Scousers. But London's culture is so diluted that it's gone.

Also as others have said, overwhelming and dirty.

Fine in short periods.

Of all the cities I've ever visited, London is, and likely always will be my absolute favourite!!! I absolutely love it, it's so exciting and you can visit so many times and see completely new things every time.

Fun to visit but I love coming home afterwards.

I lived and worked there in my 20s and 30s but couldn’t do so now. I find it too noisy, dirty, unfriendly.

Ex born n bred Londoner here... generations before me born there too...

So not actually a ' non Londoner'...

Absolute shit hole.

Over crowded , dirty , smelly and an absolute hell hole these days.

It certainly wasn't like that when I grew up..

Personally I dont like it. I come from a big city ( dublin) but I find London too difficult to get around. It took an hour and a half to get from one friends house to another ( one in zone 1 and 1 in zone 2).

I applied for a PhD in lo don and I'm so lad I didnt get it. I wouldnt have been apple to survive on my stipend.

I love London and visit as often as I can. I love the anonymity of it all. I live in a small town which has a lovely slow pace of life in comparison but I hate that everyone knows everyone else's face. I'm autistic and being in London makes me feel utterly invisible and I love it.

There are certain things there that you need to be in London for. Otherwise I’d probably go elsewhere.
There are some very nice buildings and parks. It has the Thames and tourist attractions.
I prefer it to some other cities.
It is busy, I’m surprised when people are kind, a lot of people are rude and often you feel like you are in the way of people trying to live their life there.
Somewhere like Liverpool I find people are much more friendly/ helpful.
I’d live there is I was student/ single/ couple but only with an escape plan and never with kids.

I live in a medium sized city but I love London and other really big cities. I find them exciting and somehow I feel safe in big crowds of people. I've seen exhibitions and shows, been to club nights and eaten in restaurants in London that have been better than anywhere else in the UK that I've been. London parks are beautiful.

Public transport in London is brilliant. Where I live, it's a farce.

Down sides: it is expensive, and is noticeably polluted than where I live (your snot turns black ). Also, it's easy for non-Londoners to forget just how big London is. If I get the train in, it stops at Paddington and then it takes me more than an hour's futher journey to get to my friends who live in SE London.

In my 20s, I was in the very fortunate position of working for a company with a London head office, who used to encourage us to work from London a couple of times a month to get to know the team there. They used to pay for our train tickets. So I often used to go up to London for a weekend and work from there on the Monday or Friday. That was a fantastic balance.

When I got a bit older, married and had DC a lot of the things I loved about London started to seem less important. Overall I'm still a fan, though.

I live in London in the suburbs. The responses so far are much more positive than I expected.

@SoManyTshirts

Used to visit frequently on business. I enjoy the scenery, architecture, museums etc - and the efficient public transport. I wouldn’t be averse to spending a few days in zone 1.

But - crowded, polluted, same old shops as anywhere; lots of tourist tat. Not relaxing at all. Lots of cheap greasy food shops, or else Pret. I’ve only been to a couple of theatres but they were old and tatty compared to our regional (SW) venues.

Central London seems to have no soul - everything and everyone is transient. The outer zones that I have been to, or through, seem very grim. I wouldn’t want to live in either.

I thought pp 1 was right when she said this would quickly turn into a hate fest.

I hasn’t till this one.

This is peak stupid.

Honestly? Too noisy, smelly, loud. Feels deeply claustrophobic and suffocating somehow as we roll in on the train through miles of buildings, compared to the countryside where I live, with fields and trees and forests all around us. People there seem busy and rude and careless.

BUT it's also exciting and vibrant and packed with things to do and history and has an energy all of its own. There's that constant noise of people, lots of different languages, it feels global. So much to do and unlike here everything doesn't shut down at 5pm.

I am a country girl. Can't cope without birdsong, green vistas, quiet lanes, kind people, warm loving communities, gentle green fields, absence of violence .....

Yes there’s never any violence in the countryside is there

I love London despite living very provincially now. I’d move there tomorrow if I didn’t need to be close to family.

I love it! I grew up in a small town wanting to escape to a city, & lived in London for about 5 years in my late 20s/early 30s. I miss the energy, the variety, the opportunites and the integrated public transport :) Although in middle age I'm learning to appreciate the benefits of small town life (and most of the friends I had in London have moved out).

I love it, but I do like cities although I've never lived in one (well, I went to uni in Bristol but not in the centre)
I live somewhere very quiet and boring where you can't even get a Chinese delivered on just eat lol

Busy, noisy, dirty. Too many people. Lots of interesting places to visit, so quite like to have a trip down there, but usually also very relieved to leave.