to get really terratorial when my friend puts down London

[whatwhatinthewhatnow]

I know the streets arent paved with gold. I know some area's are the total pits.

But I LOVE :

• Being able to buy anything at any time of night
• Being able to find a cinema that is showing anything I want to see
• Exhibitions
• West End Shows
• Going into the flagship stores and buying things you cant get elsewhere
• The landmarks
• The history
• Being able to get to the O2 just by driving!
• Having loads of restaurants to choose from
• Being able to go to burlesque shows/clubs/etc and then just getting the night bus home
• Festivals in Hyde Park
• The music venues
• Camden Market
• Having coffee at Covent Garden piazza
• Walking around Soho and feeling like you are on holiday

theres so much more, I could go on forever.

She moved when we were teenagers to an area in the north. And what I hate the most is when she says 'Your town doesnt even have a Primark' (we live in a cheaper suburb now and commute in)

No but we have the flagship London store. Opposite Selfridges. Her response, 'Yeah but ours has two floors' How can you rate a place based on whether it has a Primark?!?!!?

If she goes out for dinner, she has a choice of Pizza Hut or a takeaway curry! You cant even BUY a house worth more than £250k! They dont HAVE ANY in her town!

AIBU? I just love my hometown!

Can anyone hear me?

Yeah sorry. Pregnant now and to be honest, I think where I live is a perfect mix for a child. Central London is 20 mins away by car or train, and we are almost in the green belt.

I like the cultural mix and the intellectual benefits of being near museums/exhibitions etc. It might change when baby is older but for now I like it.

Tethers - I don't think the op can hear you, but I can. I'll answer if you like.

I have dc of 9 and very nearly 7. If dd gets in to one of the two secondary schools we hope for, we will not be moving out of London. Ds's secondary schooling is going to be slightly trickier, but we'll see.

Last week I went to the wedding of one of my dearest friends who has lived in London all his life (apart from 3 years away at University). His mum and dad still live in the house he and his sisters grew up in. At the wedding were 5 or 6 friends of the groom's from school; a good secondary school very close to where we live.

They are all lovely normal people with good jobs and great children (we are all in our mid 40s), no huge amount of family money or anything like that.

I know loads of people who were born and brought up in London who are just great. This is what makes me feel it isn't necessary to move out to the commuter belt "for the sake of the children".

See I'm in Manchester and bloody love it, it's got lots of what London has, but is alot greener and you only have to travel 8 miles or so to hit countryside so I get best of both worlds I think.
I love visiting London but wouldn't live there again (lived in Russell square) because I found alot of people lacked general manners and compassion when out and about. Once I saw a lady faint in the middle of the street near kings cross and three suited men stepped over her!! I hate not being able to chat to people everywhere too, in Manx it's soo common to have a whole shop full of people nattering and everyone stands on their doorsteps watchingthe world go by and chatting, it's ace!

yanbu

London rocks, she's jealous

Princesspuds we grew up in the same area!

Lived in Blackheath (when it was a tad more affordable), but my Nan and cousins were just down the road in Lewisham. Not far from Cheesmans!

My sister lives in SW London and I'm sooo jealous lol. But then I don't think I'd want to bring my children up in London these days.

Thanks for response

Was just asking because I was born here and aside from a brief sojourn to the leafy wilds of Stevenage new town & Hitchin have lived here all my life. I love the place. When DD was born, I had to move to Hitchin for six months while waiting for an HA flat. I hated it. But, now DD is a bit older, I am asking myself different questions- probably the same questions people with small children who move out of London ask themselves. If I didn't have this flat with a garden next to a huge park I'm not sure I'd be here. All we could afford to privately rent would be shoebox and if we bought would be even tinier. I'm not going back to fucking Hitchin but your priorities do change.

I would stay here forever if I had the money.

But I don't.

Whoever said that thing about geographical chauvinism was right? Who cares where people live as long as you are happy? Different strokes etc.

I grew up in a small isolated town on the wilds of the Welsh border. As an adult I've lived in 3 big grubby crowded cities (the two in the North West and the capital of England discussed here) and I've loved them all and even though I've moved away I still feel tremendous passion and identification with them. Wild horses wouldn't drag me back to the beautiful area I grew up in but I can now see why people want to live there and holiday there.

I love the sheer variety of the city - and the bigger the better - the 'maximum of opportunity in the minimum of space'. I can sit in my local cafe and watch the world walk by. You wouldn't get me to live anywhere with a population of less than 5 million

She moved away before she had the kids. Good schools and the kids never form part of her arguement. Its alway facilities which is why i dont get why she goes on about the difference.

I can totally see what you mean though, but we are lucky enough to be on the herts border so benefit from both.

I was bought up in north London, moved to south london for 10 years and now have moved to just outside of London. It gives me the best of both worlds, 20 minute train journey into centre of London. But the DCs are having a lovely life within walking distance to a mariners base where they can do outdoor activites, the lea valley park etc.

My mum and sister followed me to south london but they have now moved out to Norfolk in the last year. Both the places I have lived in london have changed so much and there is no way I would bring children up there.
I just love the fact I can go to the west end and watch a show and don't have to worry about getting home. I can go shopping in Westfield or Oxford Street in less than an hour.

"Once I saw a lady faint in the middle of the street near kings cross and three suited men stepped over her!! "

I used to have this impression of London, when I was growing up in a small town & coming in for days out / interviews.

But the areas where you end up living aren't neccessarily like that at all, they can be quite villagey in some respects.

(and the 'too busy and important to help' suited men had probably commuted in from the Home Counties anyway...)

Though for absolute preference, I would probably choose a city that wasn't London - I loved living in Liverpool.

"Once I saw a lady faint in the middle of the street near kings cross and three suited men stepped over her!! "

...

(and the 'too busy and important to help' suited men had probably commuted in from the Home Counties anyway...)

Very likely. Horrid story but does happen anywhere.

YABU, London is crap.

The problem is, it is nothing like a town or comparable to any other cities, as it is just too big.

People say everything is on your doorstep, but really, is it? Traffic is a nightmare, tubes are really expensive, and it takes hours to get anywhere. In any other UK city you can get where you want for less than a tenner in a taxi. If you were stranded at night and needed to get across London, how would you do it?
I hardly ever go to London as it is cheaper for me to fly to Paris or Rome than to take the train to London, and both those cities are much easier to get around, and have just as many exciting things to see and do.

Finally, the arrogance of people who live in London, who seem to think that they will spontaneously combust if they get past the invisible forcefield that is otherwise known as the M25 makes me want to put up a massive great big wall Berlin-style around it and keep everyone in.

So there.

'People say everything is on your doorstep, but really, is it?'

3 all night grocery shops within 2 minute walking distance, 1 24 hour tescos within walking distance, another within driving distance.

'If you were stranded at night and needed to get across London, how would you do it?'

Night bus. Cab. Addison Lea mini cab. (Cheap btw if prebooked)

'it takes hours to get anywhere.'

I woke up this morning at 8am and was in work for 9am Scummy but true. Alarm didnt go off.

'Finally, the arrogance of people who live in London, who seem to think that they will spontaneously combust if they get past the invisible forcefield that is otherwise known as the M25 makes me want to put up a massive great big wall Berlin-style around it and keep everyone in.'

I live a 10 min drive from the M25. I cross it often. {checks self] Nope, havent combusted yet!

You are quite zenophobic in your hatred of London, I have to say. Everything you say is unfounded. As shown [smile[

"3 all night grocery shops within 2 minute walking distance, 1 24 hour tescos within walking distance, another within driving distance." - OK, so you are able to buy groceries. Are those theatres and landmarks just around the corner too?

How cheap is the minicab? Is it licensed and therefore safe?

Where do you work? The other side of London, or nearby?

By the way, xenophobia is fear or hatred of foreigners. Do Londoners consider themselves a different country nowadays?

I don't know if you're being R or UR.

I've lived in London for a number of years now, and it's a love hate relationship. Sometimes I freaking love the place so much I want to burst (bizarrely, particularly while walking around Soho - it's the place I go when i'm feeling down for a pick me up) and other times it drives me mad. Particularly the transport. Don't get me started on how freaking useless TfL is compared to the transport in other cities - tubes stopping just after midnight on weekends? random stopping of tubes for no apparent reason, random closing of stations ... ARGH. And the weather. It sucks big time, but then it is the best in the UK (unless you're into rain and cold big time, which I'm not).

But, I don't like people who don't live here slagging it off. It's like, if you're making fun of your brother, and then someone else does it - it's out of order.

Well said WWINWW, I probably live very close to you or a similar area. We are 10 minutes from the M25 in Herts as well.The fast train into the City takes 20 minutes.

I am a slightly more extreme version of loopylou's Londoners who don't leave the M25 - I hardly ever venture outside the confines of Zone 2, unless I absolutely have to.

Its an Addison Lee mini cab. They are all licensed. They are a London wide mini cab service primarily for business's. So Id say it was safe, yes...

I work near Oxford Street. 3 train lines and 2 tube options for me. No waiting half hour for a bus malarky

Even the strike next week isnt screwing me over!

I love London. I love Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Manchester too. There are so many fantastic cities in the UK, not just London.

I have agreed that in subsequent posts. I just dont see why my friend should put down london in order to big up where she lives.

I wonder if she'd say it about whatever our hometown was actually. In a 'look at me, i moved to better things' way.

I'd say your friend was jealous. Why else go on about it? I know youve retaliated but at least you have looked at real differences in the places. Saying a place is 'a shit hole' isnt really a proper arguement is it!

I don't think much to people criticising other parts of the country without taking the time to get to know them.

This applies to some Londoners who haven't a clue what the rest of the country to offer, and some people outside the capital who've met a few Londoners with attitudes that give the rest a bad name.

YANBU. I bloody heart London too, lived there for 15 years and now live in the 2nd best place in the world for quality of life. It is lovely but a bit dull and I REALLY miss the dynamism/history/fun/crazy crack heads/etc of London.

I remember visiting family in northampton when i was about 11, and my similar age cousin dragged me into her room, flung some clothes at me and said, Is this like they wear in london??? Have you been on the tube???

I remember thinking what an idiot. Hadnt everyone been on the tube? Ha ha!