To be sick of London?

[schoolrunner2000]

I know the old phrase..."to be tired of London is to be tired of life" and I'm not tired of life in the slightest, I'm just so annoyed at lots of petty things about London that never bothered me when I lived up North (up until last year).

• I'm sick of the really rude and aggressive London drivers...what gives them the right to tailgate and cut you up and refuse to signal and generally drive like they want to cause an accident?! I have to actively avoid an accident at least twice every single fricking day in my way to work and back. That's 10 hours a week of being scared for my life...it's like I'm in the bloody army to avoid some of those cars
  
• I'm sick of not being able to stay out after 12am as that's when the Tube closes and it's nearly impossible to get home otherwise.
  
• The High Street is about 6 miles away and it's rubbish...Oxford St and the other big shopping centres are a nightmare to get through the crush.
  
• I get so excited when I hear another old Uni friend is moving to London, only to find that "London" means anywhere within a 40-mile radius and actually it was quicker and cheaper to visit them on the train up North than it is to see any of them now.
  
• Cashiers are really actively unfriendly at times and noone has time for a greeting, let alone a chat.
  
• £10 for a double vodka and coke!! £4 for a pint!!!
  
• Every single bar and pub I've been in Central London has been so full there's no room to stand inside, let alone get a seat, let alone hear your friend talk.
  

There's others...I'm just not seeing the glamour I thought I would see when I moved here. Thank God for London-born DP or I would have retreated long ago. I feel really disloyal now :\

[AmberLeaf]

....and hell yes, souf London counts! how very dare you!

[VinegarDrinker]

Islington and Westminster aren't on the Overground though...

[VinegarDrinker]

Hah, it's cheap I'll give you that and the lovely commons

[AmberLeaf]

Yeah, lets ignore the London bashers and have a good old north/south London tear up

FTR I have feet in both camps as my Mum grew up in East London.

[VinegarDrinker]

I did live the wrong side of the river for 6 years, it's not that bad I guess ;)

[PseudoBadger]

Yes they are! The boroughs that is....

[VinegarDrinker]

North Londoners are indeed softies

[motherinferior]

Highbury and Islington was on the north London line when I lived round there 25 years ago! It's now on the east London line too. (You can get up there from round here very quickly, should you feel the urge.)

[VinegarDrinker]

Pseudo ok I'll give you Cally Rd etc but I assumed Holla meant 4 tube lines, Overground and Boris Bikes all within walking distance. Admittedly my Westminster knowledge is shaky. I need to know now!

[AmandaPayneNeedsaHoliday]

God, I love and adore London. The scary property prices and the horror of zone 4+ drove us to make a hard decision. But I miss it like mad.

DH complains on every journey up here about shit drivers who fail to go through gaps you could get a bus through, fail to signal and generally faff about. He remembers London drivers fondly.

People are busy, and fast, but I like that. I like that I don't have to make pleasantries every time I buy a diet coke.

I never got black snot on the Jubilee line

[Mintyy]

I have lived in Brixton, Tulse Hill, De Beauvoir, Dalston, Balham and where I currently live. Of those, only Brixton and Balham were on the tube but it was actually more convenient for me to get the bus or overground for work in both of those locations.

As for south London not counting ... what an inane comment!

South of the River we have:

The whole of the South Bank complex
The Imperial War Museum
The London Eye
Greenwich ffs!
Tate Modern
The Globe Theatre
The Aquarium
Borough Market
HMS Belfast

and all the coolest Londoners around.

[VinegarDrinker]

Yes the North London Line became the Silverlink which ate the East London Line and morphed into the Overground. Simples.

[PseudoBadger]

Marylebone/baker street might fit the bill. Or actually, the Waterloo area. Does anyone actually live there though :o
Or yes, Liverpool Street too.

[giveitago]

Will never understand sarf london. I've never understood overground trains or buses.

I need the tube. I'm a north london northern line person. Always have been.


I was born here and grew up here a bit and then moved out to essex and then moved back and bought a place about 5 mins from our old place. Seems to me londoners stick to what they know.

I'm happy my ds is being brought up in a great environment and by that I mean he has access to all his cultures and that of his friends. He could get that in other parts of the UK I suppose, but not abroad really. Never a dull moment. Only happens here.

London isn't for everyone. No big deal in that. I also sometimes think I'd like to get a map of UK stick a pin in it and go and live there. That would be great, too.

[AmandaPayneNeedsaHoliday]

Saaf London all the way!

[motherinferior]

Yes, I am hugely relieved that my daughters' complex ethnic heritage isn't that weird round here.

I found London very odd when I came here 25 years ago. And then it became my home. In a way that nowhere else ever has.

[AmberLeaf]

Applauds Mintyy!

[VinegarDrinker]

Liverpool St/Shoreditch - yes, you could be right. Come back Holla we DEMAND to know!

Saaf London types, I was joking. mostly Although the South Bank is hardly inaccessible from NOTR - until they introduce tolls anyway. I can cycle there in 20 minutes and I am no Lance Armstrong. My favourite bits of Saaf London are the green spaces - Richmond Park, the commons, Kew.

[bigTillyMint]

Badger, loads of people live around Waterloo - there are loads of flats and houses!

[bigTillyMint]

Yes, lots of lovely green spaces around here.

I hate the tube anyway!

[PseudoBadger]

Don't worry bigTilly I'm only joking :o

[VinegarDrinker]

Bit yes, people like what they know. Notice most of the people dissing London on here are Northerners who are missing friends, family etc. Whereas my friends and family are here, my roots are here, my DS plays in the same park I did. I am just the same as any small town girl in that way, except we've got the world's cultures and cuisines on our doorstep and the world doesn't shut down on a Sunday!

[MooMooSkit]

YANBU. I lived in London from birth till I was 23 and I had enough of it all. I moved to the Kent coast and am a lot happier with the slower pace of life!

[giveitago]

Motherinferior - kind of agree. I love abroad - but I get very bored very easily. I don't get that bored here, even if it's aggro - it's not boring.

But I do have a dream of living in rural wales because it's stunning.

Yup and my ds's heritage is varied and he has access to all of it in equal measures here without any fuss, and access to everyone elses too if he's interested. He wouldn't get anything like this in all his other countries of origin.

[VinegarDrinker]

Hah, Moo there disproving my theory!