what is it you believe that london offers that other places don't

[GrassCutter]

having just read a post that stated "and all that london offers". What is it you londoners feel the rest of us are missing out on. I lived in London for 5 years, children born there, but moved away and was wondering what it was that you think the rest of us are missing out on.

gang crime what do you think there are dangerous gangs on every corner of every street in london don't beleive what you read in the dm

i think multiculturalism only adds the the richness of london, i love all the different shops, restaurants and cafes that offer more that the bog standard high street chains. brink lane is great has lots of little shops, galleries, market and great restaurants, bars and cafes

whatever you want is in london.

boris is not a bonus though, far from it

I think it's the amount and quality of stuff on offer to do. Whatever your interest it will be catered for here, probably well, probably several times a week.

I'd be happy to live out of London but DH's line of work is very niche and odd hours so if he's to ever see the kids we have to be near it. We don't live in the thick of it. I don't think I could handle that, personally.

The schools thing is too fraught and brings out the worst sort of behaviour in what you thought to be the nicest of people. We've tried not to let it get to us. DS1 is at the local school (that many other MC parents have gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid) and guess what? He's fine. Happy, learning, integrated... If it doesn't work in the future, we'll deal with it.

if I won the lottery the first thing I'd do is move back to London. It is among the finest cities in the world if you have enough cash.

The money I pay for a 3 bed terrace in a smaller city wouldn't get me a grimy bedsit pressed up against the A40.

I agree London has loads to do and visit. But it is so expensive to live there, when I lived there I still had long journeys to go to museums and theatre, crime is high and its so dirty. Much prefer living somewhere cheap where I can have a great house and still get the train to london to visit and enjoy what is there.

And I love the British Museum. In fact the museuems are the only thing I miss about living in London.

Huge commutes.........I used to live in London and hated it.

I love the free museums, the exhibitions, the architecture, the markets, the great public transport, the walks by the Thames, the shops and the buzz. I live in Berkshire, but can't wait for DS to be out of school and then we can move to London again. You can do some many great things in London, often for free, and once you know your way around it, you can walk to lots of places. I go every weekend and sometimes I just sit in the park and watch people walk by. The diversity is amazing.

roybosh
One park potentially may charge for the adventure playground, Battersea. All others are still free. If you think that other parts of the country won't have councils following suit if Wandsworth gets away with this then you are naive. As in everything, London leads and the rest follows. Not always good. As for gated communities, I do not know one. They are not common here at all.

Am originally from London, my parents moved away when I was 10. I live in Wales and while I appreciate the beauty of where I live and the good schools and lack of crime, when I go back to London I feel alive. I think it is a beautiful city and given a choice I'd like to look out of my window and see the houses of Parliament, rather than the countryside I see at the moment.Fields are overrated imo . Maybe it's to do with roots, because I feel at home and happy when I'm there. If money was no object, I'd go home in a heartbeat.

I have lived in several major world cities. Moscow, St Petersburg, Warsaw, Cairo, Singapore, Shanghai.

I like London (was born here) for all its not inconsiderable downsides. And they are big ones -- overcrowding, expensive and shit housing, appalling traffic, unreliable and expensive transport, nightmarish schooling.

It is one of the most diverse places on the planet -- I find it more diverse than New York even. It offers those cultures' food and shopping experiences. The shopping is good (not for everything but all-round good). The stuff for children to do is just limitless. My husband remembers bored kicking around in Bristol as a teenager and thinks London is far better for children. Museums, restaurants, cafes and eateries, unusual shops, clubs, sporting activities, scenery, diverse architecture, joie de vivre, atmosphere, history, theatres, film theatres etc etc. Without equal, I'd say.

I hate the wintry weather though. Sometimes I'd like to live in Madrid even though some Madrilenos are racist and call me guirre.

Nothing. I live in Teesside and am in easy reach of great cities such as York, Durham, Sunderland and Newcastle, with their shopping, history and museums. Plus am 5 mins drive from the North York Moors, about 30mins from the Dales.
30mins to the coast as well!! Best of all, only a couple of hours drive from Scotland!!
Much less traffic, less traffic jams, good shopping on my doorstep.
Oh and Chicken Parmos

Only thing I miss is London Cheesecake, so I normally get one when I am down visiting my mum in Essex

soho, portobello, the shops, the restaurants (within a 5 minute walk the whole world is represented in food!), theatres, the southbank, the parks, boris bikes, museums, sports and activities, markets, culture, ethnic diversity and most of all the huge choice in everything. I have lived in 5 cities and only found this huge range of choices in New York.
I am a northerner so feel I can say that people aren't less friendly in London.........less nosy perhaps

www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/gilescoren/article3058593.ece

I should have added to my list: the view at night from the Embankment, East, West, North and South from the where the Royal Festival Hall is, the bridges and the parks: St James's, Hyde Park, Green Park, Regent's Park, Kensington Gardens, Richmond, Battersea, etc..

........and Holland Park

More interesting, varied, and lucrative job market tbh!

Also, it offers proximity to my family! I know that's not what you're asking, but I think sometimes people forget, quite reasonably, that not everyone who lives in London moved here! I've never lived anywhere else.

I love many other cities, and towns, and countryside, but nowhere can compete with London for variety of things to do. Of course not - London has been the capital since Roman times. I think it's a shame that we don't have the number of 'capital-like' cities of Italy, Germany, Spain, USA et . The millenia-long dominance of London has slightly stunted other cities IMO.

I think everything's been said already

I like the buzz of living in a big city - if we really had to move out of London, it would have to be to another city.

Oh just remembered. Apparently London has very fast internet
In my line of work there are other people doing what I do, including a few in London and they all have 40MB internet, where as up here we pay for upto 8MB and rarely get much above 2MB!!
However we are getting BT infinity in the next few weeks so hopefully we'' be getting similar speeds

Does it Kara? I don't think it's in our house and definitely not at work - it's woeful at work!

24 hour transport, shops open 24 hours, food from every corner of the earth made by people from every corner too. Friendliness, community spirirt, parks, green spaces, museums, cutting edge fashion, music and trends. mix of wealth and classes, not much segragation or ghettoisation, multiculturalism.....hm any more isms or tions??

dunno, love the place have lived here all my life, have travelled to other cities and liked them too, but my heart swells when i come back here and listen to her noisy, bustling heartbeat