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?

Personally I love my Nottingham and think not even London can come close.

Its vibrant with some brilliant history, art and shops. Yet people here don't cross over the road from tourists asking for help or directions.

In the many times I've vistited family or events in London I've only ever encountered a kind person once.

My brother got knifed in the face when living down there and not one person helped him. It was the final straw that made him move out.

London gets such a bad view not because of jealousy, but because London only cares about London and to hell with the rest of the country.

I think that's very very true

'London only cares about London'

Try googling "black bogies London", it's not nonsense I'm afraid!

YANBU.

A man went out of his way last night to check I was OK. (I wasn't but the fact he asked really helped)

I do believe most people are truly good natured.

Let's be proud of our capital city! I have spent many many years travelling the world, and have been to more capital cities than I can even remember.
London is wonderful!
The History alone is Jaw dropping! spend a few hours in the Tower of London and it feels like you have stepped back in time.
Take an open top bus tour, go in to the city, the wonderful old streets. St pauls. fleet street etc. London is fab for kids, everything from the natural history museum to the parks, and dungeons if you dare. not forgetting the duck tours, and a treat to Hamleys. Oh yes the London eye, aquarium and Madame Tusaurds as well
Don't get me started on the theatre....love it love it!!!!
What about afternoon tea at the Ritz, or exploring fortnums, harvy nicks or Harrods, and libertys. The markets are marvelous for a browse, Brick Lane, or my favourite Camden, which you could always combine with a trip to the Zoo.
Take a look at westminster, or a tour around Buckingham Palace in the summer.....amazing..... Of course London has the Queen...just fabulous, not forgetting Wills, Kate and the rather available Harry...swoon...
How about a gallery? an exhibition? a concert, or a walk along the embankment. Go to covent Garden and watch the crazy entertainers. maybe you could go to the Notting Hill Carnaval when it's on.
Londoners love their city.....we are so proud of it.
Yes London is expensive, butnot as expensive as other Euro Capitals, in London you can always pop in to a Tesco metro and buy a quick snack and a drink for a couple of quid, you don't have to sit in an expensive resturant.
Londoners are great people. If you smile at us we will smile back, we are British too, and a bit reserved. Of course London has it's dark side, but not as dark as many cities, and their are so many people doing good work. Centre point, soup kitchens, charities, night shelters...Good people are trying to help the less fortunate.
Londonors also love other parts of the UK, cornwall is lovely, Wales is beautiful, I appreciate them but they are not home.
Even if London is not your favourite place, support us for the next few months, The Olympics will be good for the nations economy.
I LOVE LONDON

As a side I adore flying over London coming into Heathrow on an early morning flight, such a beautiful rousing sight, it makes me proud to live here. I love looking at the reactions of first time visitors to the City straining their necks to catch a glimpse out of the plane window.

I remember a young Nepali lad telling me that when he first arrived at Heathrow that he thought Heathrow was London as it was so huge.

I'm not a Londonist, never lived there, but I love the place. There's so much to do, much of it free, and the locals are friendly. My brother lives near Newcastle and swears that folk get nicer and more helpful the further south he goes.

Oh yes, beer is nice and cheap if you find one of the Sam Smith pubs.

I'm thinking of becoming a Londonist. It sounds cool

Who's with me?

Well me. I am the OP and definitely a Londonist.

I love London.

I did, indeed, get black bogies when I visited here in 1986.

Since we moved here in 1998 though it has never happened. Wonder what the difference is?

I've lived all over UK and quite a bit of the world, definitely a huge buzz in London. Not everyone likes the buzz i guess.

And now we are two!!

Two Londonists.

ANyone else?

Lovely post chickydoo. Makes me think that I will drag the Dc into London to experience some of these things.

Sorry to hear about your brother lithaR, that sounds a bit rubbish. In fairness that could happen where I live too, but I'm still sorry. Hope he's ok now.

the 4 or 5 times i've been to london i have never met a nice person. might be more of a city thing as i have only lived in small towns and villages.

minimisschief - really? Not one nice ticket seller, cafe owner, person in the queue for the loo at the theatre, person smiling at your kids on the tube or helping you manoeuvre bags on the bus? Not one, not once??

I think today was a pretty ordinary London day for me, and I will ignore people I know already as it doesn't count for these purposes. But I had a lovely chat with two staff at a cafe (Polish maybe?) about which of them had made the different cakes on offer. A great chat with the florist about a local festival coming up. A smiling half-chat with several people in the bus queue as we were all kind of wiggling between two stops trying to work out which bus would be next. A thank you conversation with the teenager who moved from the front seats on the top deck of the bus (without being asked) so the kids could have them.

I don't think I am a freak! I think these people are out there!!

Of course there are nice people in London! Lots of them!

But as a southerner, I do think people are generally friendlier if you go further north. :) And big cities will always feel a bit cold and impersonal if compared to small communities.

I now live in a small town, and people here are much friendlier than in London, and there is a much stronger sense of community - surprising, in a way, as a high proportion of the population have moved here from other parts of the UK or from abroad. I love the strong community feel, but have friends who would hate it, and who love instead the privacy and anonymity that a big city gives them.

Each to their own, I suppose. As long as you are happy with where you live yourself, I can't see that it matters what others think of it.:)

I lived in London for 15 years and have left only two years ago.

It's not necessarily my favourite city in the world, but it has lots of positive things, and I enjoy going back.

I find it a bit grey (not dirty), but I love the parks and all the small gardens and greens. There are lovely people. One of my old neighbours was great.

I love the multiculturality and that we can find a shop or restaurant from almost any other country in the world, and yet it is very British too.

And I like the anonymity too. You can do what you like (within reason), dress as you like that nobody bats an eye lid.

And that feeling that the rest of the world is at your fingertips.

It's just really annoying that it takes at least 1 hour driving to get out of it. :-)

Yes I spent too many weekends in traffic queues driving in or out to go to the countryside. Always thought my ideal would be an aprtment in London and a house in the countryside - with a helicopter to travel between the two. But no chance of that!

Unfortunately, I have very little idea if London has any redeeming features. I've never been able to spend much time there.
It's too expensive to take the train, too congested to take the car and too expensive to stay the night.

We did try one half term but the museums were just being treated as warm parks, you couldn't see a thing.

Until the natural history etc start having a couple of hours a day when they charge admission and there's a chance of actually seeing something, it just is worth the cost of coming to London.

It's just not everyone's cup of tea is it? I lived in London and while I didn't hate it, I didn't particularly enjoy it. I like empty wide open spaces and the sea and moors, so London's never really going to do it for me.

Isn't worth the cost.

Seriously an extra £20-40 for a VIP pass to allow out of hours access would be totally worth it.

Trains and one nights accommodation is over £200 and you can more than double that with meals and shopping.
I'm unlikely to escape a evening meal with a bill much under £100

"Actually I couldn't live there purely because of the water and how bad a cup of tea it makes."

Absolutely. The scummy tea at my sister's house makes pine for the freshh water from the moors so much.

London is a fascinating place to visit. I still get an excited thrill when the train pulls into St Pancras when I go home to visit family. But I get the same thrill when it pulls out of St Pancras bound for Sheffield.

I like visiting London, I like the fact that every time we do we find something different, I like the atmosphere and the history. I even like being able to spot places that I've seen on tv or in films (proper tourist I am!)

But I don't think I could live there. Aside of the fact that I couldn't afford to I find the busyness mildly terrifying! I love it for a weekend, then I start to feel crowded and a bit claustrophobic. DH knows my symptoms and we end up finding a park so I can calm myself.

I'm like that with all major cities though. I wouldn't like to live completely in the sticks, need to be within a few miles of a town, but big cities, especially London become too loud, too crowded for me after a while. I need silence. If I did live there I'd have to be across the road from a park or something.

I reckon I'd be a perfect 'Commuter Belt' dweller.

Startail

Re museums. going to any museum or attraction on a school holiday is always going to be like that wherever it is. that is not limited to London.

I generally wouldnt go near places like that in the school hols.

I've lived in the countryside all my life. I don't generally like cities, because they are too noisy and fast for me.

I had been to London a few times between the ages of 20 and 30 and hated it every time.
Then I met DH. He had lived in London for 15 years. Going with him has made me see it differently....so much so that I suggested we have our honeymoon there. So we spent a week in London just wandering about. We went to the theatre, and the cinema and spent our days exploring. He took me to places he knew when he lived there. We did a mix of incredibly touristy and just ambling about.
It's not dirty at all, in fact I noticed how incredibly clean the streets were compared to the bigger towns where I live.
I found that by spending some time there, rather than just a day trip, I got to know it better. Now if we go into London I find that I can adjust to the pace of it much more quickly.
Last time I went I walked from Kings Cross to the British Museum, all by myself. That was a massive achievement for me. Previously I'd have got the tube to the nearest station. London always seemed so BIG and spending a week there with my DH made me realise that it's not actually so overwhelmingly massive at all.

DH works in London and it's people like his boss that drive me up the wall and edge me to a 'London in not the centre of the universe' rant. Operationally there is NO good reason for them to be in London. They would save money by moving the HQ out of London, but his boss refuses to entertain this idea because 'we need to be in London'.....just because as far as he's concerned London is the be all and end all.

I could not live in London, but I could not live in any city. I don't even live in a town because I just love the atmosphere of living in the countryside.
But I have come to love London as a place to go and get my injection of culture and noise and adventure.