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?

A group of friends of mine all went to university in Manchester. Whilst there they were mugged at gun and knife point several times including by children! Were burgled repeatedly and had people put fireworks and rags set on fire through their door to try to set their house on fire. They were threatened and verbally abused for no reason a lot and had people trying to start fights with them all the time. They also avoided being blown up in the IRA blast narrowly, lived in dodgy accommodation where they were hospitalized by carbon monoxide poisoning and had landlords nicking their money and then threatening them.

They only stayed a year as it was so bad and transferred elsewhere.

These were street wise and smart people from London who had experienced a lot of what London is about, and they were SHOCKED at how rough and dangerous it was.

Im guessing they must have been in one of the rougher parts as Im sure the whole of Manchester can't be like that, just as there are rough parts of London. You can't judge a city on its worst bits or the worst stories you've heard about it.

Hi barbie. Not all of London is like that, really. Particularly some parts on the outskirts. You just have to pick wisely. Some of my relatives live really close to epping forest so they have the benefits of London but then go in the over direction and go for lovely forest walks feeling as though they could be anywhere. Its lovely.

diabolo I might go to Horrids just for you tomorrow to see if I can get you a miniature gold plated four bedder with a lovely jewelled garden.

I live in Norfolk , but work and commute daily to London , purely for the cold hard cash . Was born and brought up in Surrey , schooled in Sw London, and have also lived in Essex , but have to say , that now , I get the best of both worlds . The kids go to a decent school that I didnt have to fight tooth and nail for them to get into, we have a house that would have cost a fortune if it were anywhere in the south east , the nearest town is fabulous , and includes virtually everything anyone could need , including a two very diverse delis , artisan bakery , and a seriously bad for your figure bakers .

Occasionally the Dh bimbles down to London on the train, we go out to dinner , and come home on the last train , so we do use its night life , but just wouldn't choose to live there . Couldn't afford a house big enough for the tribe , plus the menagerie for a start .

I think partly the reason why London gets bashed , is because people who don't live there would just like some acknowledgement that there are life choices elsewhere with just as much access to culture and diversity as the capital. Not every rural dweller is a carrot cruncher, as I have been informed by some of our second home owners , when they pop into Chelsea on sea to pick up their weekends supplies.

Oh , and the biggest party in our town this year ? The two lads who own our local bed shop got married . They invited damn near the whole town, and it was a riot .

And not very Londoner thinks that rural dwellers are carrot crunchers

Why does everything have to be so black and white all the time.

City vs country
London vs anywhere else
Stay at home parent vs working parent
Breastfeed vs bottle
Etc etc

It's not a bloody competition.

You don't like London , fine whatever I don't give a shit. I personally love it for whatever reasons I have.

If someone tells you they think London in the centre of the universe, call them up on it there and then, don't then moan about how rude and self centred all londoners are. Likewise if they say anything negative about where you, it is that persons opinion, not everyones

My goodness. We're up to 381 posts. This is my longest ever thread!

Do you feel proud CruCru?!

Yes, perhaps a little bit .

I was born in London but spent most of my formative years in the home counties. Many of my friends now live the 'London Life' and I have to say, some of them have just become so pretentious. Always putting on facebook how they are going to some poetry reading in Shoreditch, or seeing a jazz band in Dalston and how dull it is where they are from and how cool London is. And they pay absolute extortionate rents when they could easily commute, just so that they can say they live in London. They just seem to think that they are the edgiest, hippest people out there, and oh so cosmopolitan, when at heart really they are just middle class home counties kids!

Its all in very stark contrast with my dad, who, having spent his entire 40 year careers driving a truck around the traffic of London, absolutely HATES the city!

Barbie, PooPoo - I live right by Epping Forest, and it is beautiful and peaceful and full of singing birds.

I am originally from Ireland but have lived in london since the 90s. I could never go back -it's so fecking boring!

Ooh, badtime I am trying to move further out there, I'm so jealous. We're in an innermore part of East London at the mo and it's about the only place we can compromise on for DH's work. I love where we live right now but am starting to feel the need for a bit more space.

My cousins live in the rural North West; in theory you'd think our same age DCs are having massively different upbringings. In reality, they're pretty similar. Hers play out in the garden after school, mine in the park and so on.

DH and I were in fits the other night. DS insists on watching "Made in Chelsea" - posh little London boy that he is. DH and I watched TOWIE and couldn't see much difference between the two . Posing lads after tottie and both sides of the equation fancy themselves too much. DS was . He thinks the MIC mob are better than the TOWIE mob. We keep telling him he was made in Yorkshire and just born in Chelsea. Doesn't appreciate it though. We will break it gently to him one day that dh's grandma was born in the sound of Bow bells.

I have never felt inclined to live in London. I live in the 2nd city and the couple of times I visited London the pace of life literally speeded up as I stepped off the train. I even had someone insult me because I was going too slow.
I always thought I would love Brighton but I did not as I felt it was London on sea far too busy.
Watching Question Time the other night I was struck by how confident and gobby the audience was
YABU

I spent 20-odd years growing up in London and used to get really hacked off with what I saw as everyone bashing it all the time, saying the people were rude, superior, arrogant etc etc. Whenever I travelled up north I was secretly a bit scared to open my mouth in case my accent unleashed a flood of anti-Londonism from whoever I was talking to (it never happened, if you're wondering ) Now I live in Liverpool and instead I rage at how the media are completely London-centric, my old neighbours down south all judge Liverpool based on stereotypes from decades ago that weren't even true at the time and there's never any good news about my city in the papers, even though it's clearly the most beautiful, friendly, all-round awesome bright centre of the universe in existence (you London-dwellers are missing out... ) Pure swings and roundabouts like, ain't it guvnor.

Personally I'm happy where I am, other people are happy back in London and I don't see why I should judge them for it. Unless they bash Liverpool first, in which case they're fair game

Badtime. Its great isn't it! Walking through it you could be anywhere.