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?

@BobbyGentry

buy bottled water, “drinking water could have been through numerous pairs of kidney before it reaches a person in London” Paul Johnston. Statement kinda sums up London really. Public transport smells of wee and there’s unwritten rules. There’s always someone encroaching on your space at any point of the day. Need to be in the right mindset. Never further than 3 metres from a rat.

Oh for goodness sake!

Sounds like you found standing on the right on the tube escalators challenging

I was born in, and still live in London - as do all my friends. I'm a 15 minute train into Central London.

I still treat 'going into london' as a trip !! Was there a couple if weekends ago doing tourist things ! But London, out side of picadilly/TCR etc is beautiful.

I enjoy it when I'm there but I'm always pleased to leave and go home. I don't often get the urge to visit and if I never went to London again, I probably wouldn't miss it. I feel a bit out of place there and as though it's quite separate from the rest of the country. I feel more comfortable in Dublin or Paris to be honest.

Just too many people and not even green for me. I live in the outskirts of a small city in the midlands. 5 minute drive and you could be in the middle of nowhere. I don't think I could live in a big city. I can see the appeal though.

I guess the "smell" is just a typical busy city one of pollution from cars and traffic, people, foods, restaurants, the dirt? (Or maybe it's a lack of the "fresh air" feel of countryside?)

It's not necessarily a bad thing and I'm sure you get totally used to it and don't notice it, but it's there. It's just a natural part of living in a bustling, vibrant busy city and the outskirts.

(Please do visit the Lake District and tell us that London is just as fresh and clean and green though, by all means)

*enough not even

I come from the country and have lived in London for 25 years! My DH is a blue-blood Londoner. I've traced his family back to the mid-19th Century, all in about the same area up to now.

Disclaimer: I've never been flashed, nor robbed (except in Harrods haha).

DH hates where I come from, because you need a car to go anywhere, you have to drive for miles, and everything closes at 5pm. He is, of course, correct. If I came from the nearest market town he might be marginally happier but not much. However, he does say the air is nicer.

The Met are a shite police service, the Mayor is an arrogant twonk and you can't get a flat for less than £350k. Too many apartment blocks are being built on every tiny bit of land. Transport-wise it's fine but sometimes the buses and tubes creak with demand. Some parts of London are entirely geared towards robbing poor tourists out of their money. Anything tourist-focused costs way too much money to visit for the average Londoner, so we don't bother going. Most West End theatres are prohibitively pricey.

The only reason I might go into Zone 1 is for the free galleries and museums and the parks. I shop in Bromley because it's only a short train ride away. West End shops are horrible. Too many people and you can never find what you want. I'd rather go to H&M in the suburbs because they have all the same stuff without the horrible customers and horrible staff.

Most of my colleagues don't live in London. They commute from the Home Counties and beyond. They can't afford a house in London, if they want a garden for their kids. I live in a 2 bed mortgaged flat. Once my daughter has finished her (very good, highly rated) state school, DH and I will be buggering off to Kent, probably, to commute back . At least then, we can get a garden and space for a dog.

I think London is vibrant, multicultural, busy, crowded, historic and has amazing architecture.
But I'm just not a city person anymore.
I moved from living in a big city for 15 years to a tiny market town, and my current surroundings speak to my soul.
I also find I'm no longer interested in visiting big cities on holidays overseas. For instance, if I went to New York, I'd be longing the whole time to be in one of those little towns 'up state' which are full of clapperboard-fronted homes and antique shops.

Go to London, I guarantee you’ll either be mugged or not appreciated. Catch the train to London, stopping at Rejection, Disappointment, Backstabbing Central and Shattered Dreams Parkway.

Not my words, the words of Alan Partidge. 🙂

@BobbyGentry

buy bottled water, “drinking water could have been through numerous pairs of kidney before it reaches a person in London” Paul Johnston. Statement kinda sums up London really. Public transport smells of wee and there’s unwritten rules. There’s always someone encroaching on your space at any point of the day. Need to be in the right mindset. Never further than 3 metres from a rat.

Okay, Samuel Pepys.

I struggle with it to be honest. I don't like crowds or busy places. Everywhere seems busy.

Where I live I have access to a city and several towns but also in a few minutes I can be on the edge of the countryside and walking with open fields, woods, valleys, meadows and so on. Nothing is very crowded. The pace seems slower. People aren't in a rush. In London things like restaurants always seem very busy, full to capacity. You can't just pop in. Reservations and precise times - because it's full to its exact amount it can handle. I just find that too much.

On the plus side, there's so much variety. With eating out, every kind of food you can imagine. Lots of things to do - theatres, museums, exhibitions. More diversity. But it's the sheer volume of people that's the problem for me. Maybe if you took half of them away I'd find it OK!

I was born in London and appreciate a lot of the history, cultural opportunities etc etc. I have not lived there for over 20 years because I used to watch people on their commute and tell myself that I would never want to be near retirement age and still slogging through that kind of hassle. When I go back I find it dirty, polluted and over expensive, and with a high percentage of people who act like wankers (no doubt due to the sheer numbers, not because there is a higher proportion there than in the rest of the country). But there is an edge to London people - I used to have to remind myself not to drive like an arse when I visited people outside of London. I always thought I would move back but my last few trip convinced me it will never happen. I might live in a different city though.

Another point: you can get a lovely new build apartment for 100K here. If you look, maybe even for 80-90K. My sister's apartment in London is literally TEN times the price of the equivalent here, that's purely because of the area/location for exactly the same thing.

When I was 17 and picking universities to go to I did not pick any in London purely because I thought I wouldn't be able to afford living there. And I'm so glad I made that choice because like a lot of people I stayed in the place I went to uni after I left uni. And the cost of living is substantially lower here, enabling me to have a better quality of life. I don't think I could afford living in London aside from anything else.

I think it has some amazing things, the theatres, the sheer amount of museums, galleries etc. The different variety of shops and the vast amount of public transport is awesome.
But for me it's too loud and busy so I couldn't live there though (or afford to even if I wanted to) im very much a middle of nowhere countryside person

@LittleBearPad

Sounds like you found standing on the right on the tube escalators challenging

Out of towners commandeering both sides of the escalators IS irritating. How else are people supposed to walk down or up to get to their destinations two minutes earlier?

London is full of non-Londoners though

I went to London yesterday. I live about 30 minutes away by train so not miles away but I don’t go often.

I like how much there is to do; so much variety and so easy to get around on the Tube. However I was extremely grateful to go home by the end of the day.

The city with the endless concrete and tarmac, all the people, all the noise; it makes me feel trapped. I like to visit but I could never live there; I need open space and fields and quiet.

I'm a Londoner so don't know any difference. Love it over Christmas though when it empties out & becomes far less crowded/busy

I lived there for nearly 13 years-moved down from the coast. Hated it at first-busy, noisy, dirty-but moved to outskirts of zone 3, to a place that was leafy & green & a bit tucked away-had great neighbours, a lovely group of friends, fantastic work & all that London offers on my doorstep. I ended up loving it. Was very sad to move away, & only did so due to circumstances outside of my control. But I have to say, it was the people I got to know, and the job that I had that makes me miss it now, not the place itself-but I would never have met such a diverse group of people, or had those particular experiences at work outside of London, so….🤷🏻‍♀️

I find it odd people when speak about London as though it's on another planet. It's just a UK city. There's nice parts and not as nice parts.
Some of the sights are amazing and obviously unique to London but the general feel is no different to any other UK city I've visited.

I find it noisy, stressful, far too busy and incredibly overwhelming. It also seems really dirty.

That said, I love visiting, but only in small doses. I just find it all a bit "much", really. 2-3 days is my maximum, and then I'm craving peace an quiet again.

Whenever I've visited other cities, it's never been like that.

I love it but dislike the air pollution & traffic.

When I arrive in Londin, I love it. I like the anonymity of stepping off the train and dissolving into the crowds. About 3 days later this is the very thing that drives me mad. People. Everywhere. All the time. I love it to holiday, but wouldn't want to live there.

Can equally see people from London coming to my village, loving the tranquility for a few days, then missing the buzz.

@Pyri

Honestly this thread will end up being really horrible, for some reason people think that London and Londoners are fair game for a complete slagging off, despite being enormous and made up of really diverse people from all sorts of backgrounds

Within the first few posts you’ll have people saying Londoners are unfriendly, it’s big, smelly, crime ridden etc etc and not a patch on their perfect slice of Yorkshire / South Wales / Aberdeenshire etc etc

That's all true, from a Londoner. Not to say there aren't nice people and places. I still live here and there's places I miss from the other sides where I used to live.

But we've all had experiences like that- so it's hardly a lie. And yeah, people do have the right to slag off places they don't like: why shouldn't they?