London bashing

[CruCru]

Recently there seems to have been a spate of London bashing from friends and acquaintances who live elsewhere. I'm surprised that people think it is okay to totally slate the place that someone else lives just because it happens to be the capital.

I think London is awesome, possibly the bright centre of the universe but wouldn't dream of telling someone how ghastly, say, Lancashire is (I have never been to Lancashire, I am sure it is very nice, it is just an example).

AIBU?

Thats one person saying that though...for the first time here on MN, does that account for the wide general bashing?!

I think whenever you happen to live is the centre of your universe. I would also be pissed off if someone told me that where they lived was so much better than where I lived as it implies my choice is shit, however I personally have never come across that type of attitude, however I have come across lots of London bashing and it's really dull and boring.

You don't like London - fine, I don't have a problem with that, I don't particularly ever want to live in the midlands again, but I would never dream of saying that to someone who currently lives there, it's rude

PooPoo, that's not where you've moved to, is it?
I have to say, about the only thing I miss from shite North London is the Jewish bakeries

"This sort of shit just doesn't happen in my boring little town and I find it terrifying quite honestly."

But ... but ... worse things have happened in Hungerford, Dunblane and Whitehaven in my living memory. Think of the crimes that really haunt you and stick in your mind: Soham murders? Murders of Lin and Megan Russell? Killing of Sarah Payne? - they all happened in villages.

I don't think London has a disproportionate amount of crime, does it? More than 10 per cent of the entire population of the UK lives here. Probably more like 12 or 13%.

Things that happened in the last 5 years of living in London, -

Man bashed our car back windscreen in and then tried to kick my front door in - took police hours to arrive.

Dustmen drove into the side of our car.

3 murders within a 5 road radius.

A gun was found in our local park.

We were the only people I knew who hadn't been burgled at least once - probably only because we were in a top floor flat.

Dh missed the tube bombing by about 5 minutes.

A random man pushed me into a busy road - no idea why.

2 men having a fight on a bus fell against ds's buggy - really shook the pair of us up.

A man called me a cunt (very viciously)because I wouldn't stroke his dog

A man got pissed and damaged 11 cars along our road.

I was getting very twitchy by the time we left! That was in the last 5 years of us living there though, before that nothing to speak of really.

And I lived in a so called 'naice' area!

I knew exactly where to gety dodgy dvds/cds, buy a gun, score drugs - I sort of miss that now - not that I ever bought any of it!

Ok - so we get it, you're glad you don't live here anymore.

Sorry Amber, but it's definately not the first time I've heard it and I've spent several years living in London and several more living elsewhere. I think it's that kind of attitude that accounts for much of the London bashing I hear. It's just a reaction of "the provinces" to attempt to point out that there is more to the UK than just the capital and not everywhere outside of London is crap and/or rural. "Earth to London. There's a whole world full of cities and theatres and art galleries and everything just outside the M25!".

As for the crime rates, I always think it's like the naff stats about never being more than 5 yards from a rat in London, or some such nonsense. If you have such a built up, over populated area then on average any given person is statistically likely to be physically closer to a serious crime than in wide open spaces with no one else for miles. However, the chances of being a victim of crime is probably about the same as anywhere else.

So that's not why I don't miss it. I was never really bothered about crime there or anywhere else. I just grew tired of the "Oh you're from Wales? How quaint! Are your family sheep farmers?" type of attitude. "Erm... no. They're a stage manager of an international opera company and a librarian."

And before anyone asks, yes, we welsh are very well balanced... a chip on each shoulder, much like the Londoners!

I knew exactly where to gety dodgy dvds/cds, buy a gun, score drugs

Ha ha! 'cos that sort of thing only happens in London!

"I knew exactly where to gety dodgy dvds/cds, buy a gun, score drugs"

Teehee. I actually "lol-ed" at that and it made me spit my tea!

Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of Splott

Amber in 5 years of living here I have NO clue where to get even moody dvds

How did you know where to get those things when you lived in London?

I could get drugs through a neighbour if I wanted, dvd's from a friend's dh, neighbour about 5 doors down could get anything if asked. People seem less dodgy here, took me a week of asking where I could get my phone unlocked

Oh and I miss our local garage that would put your car through its MOT without fail

Sounds great! Quite fancy moving to that particular London street myself, at least temporarily.

bright centre of the universe
snort
London's fine love but it sounds like you need some airmiles under your belt

Labrador. No definitely not where i moved to! Have spent time there though.

Eerm - it's great big dirty city with a huge undercurrent of violence. Having said that I wouldn't trade in my small 2 bed for something bigger elsewhere.

Airmiles? I love being abroad but love coming back (particularly if coming back from europe - the love euro but have no time for the provincialism).

I live in (and I am from) the North. I've lived all over the UK including London and whilst I love the North, I love London too. We visit a lot and eventually we'd like to have a flat there. I'd rather have a flat in London than a holiday home in Spain or wherever. Who wants to lie on a beach when you can wander around the best capital city in the world and visit parks and museums

valium - I'm from Leeds and have pretty much the same experiences you listed above. In my dope smoking days, knowing where to buy an ounce was a big plus.

I now live in the tiniest little village imaginable, having lived in other cities between.

We love been within an hour of London - I'm not saying I want to live there (unless you can find me a 4 bed detached in Kensington with 1/2 an acre for £350K) , but as a place to visit, I love it.

"Its not a stereotype because Im talking about the people I actually know."

PooPoo that just means the people you know fit the stereotype

Amberleaf no obviously I haven't been everywhere in London. Nor has anyone else on this thread but they all have opinions about it too. Like me they're probably referring to a large variety of places within London though. Point was really just to say that I do find London quite dirty outside the underground as well as inside it.

Dh and I are completely besotted with London. We have dreams and aspirations to moving there one day.

We've only been there twice for a couple of days so admit that it's likely we are being extremely naive and have built it up too much in our own minds.

We adore the bustle and excitement, how there's always something to, somewhere to go and something to see - even if it's just people watching we're amazed by the public transport system and the choice of entertainment, food etc..

That said, we're in rural Ireland - completely in the arsehole of nowhere. We would realistically probably get the shock of our lives if we ever did make the move.

We've a large 4 bed house here, a 1.7 acre garden, dd is in a fabulous small school with only 7 in her class. I don't think we could ever have the same quality of life over there

A couple of weeks after I had my ds (2 years ago) I had complications and dh took me to A&E. In the waiting room we got chatting to a lady who told us she had just moved from London. I remember asking her why on earth she would leave somewhere so fabulous for here. She said she simply couldn't continue to raise her children there and when I told her we hoped to move there one day she said she could not advise me more against it if we had dc. She said that she was sick to the teeth of the crime, there had been 2 rapes in her street alone in the couple of months before she left. She said that part of their road was cordoned off by police for investigation on many occasions. She said that her 14 year old son was beginning to hate her, that their relationship was seriously struggling because she couldn't even let him down to the park to play football for fear of what would happen and he was sick and embarrassed by her constantly accompanying him everywhere. She said within weeks of arriving in ireland, their relationship did a complete turnaround as she felt her children were safer here and she could pull back a little and give him some independence.

Dh and I were very, very shocked

Sorry for typos/ bad grammar etc. On phone with cracked screen!!