To hate what's happening to London?

[AWholeLottaNosy]

I moved to London in 1989, it was a great place, full of interesting, arty people, lots of cheap things to do, festivals, clubs, shops, museums. I loved the quirky nature of so many different areas, Camden market, Soho, Notting Hill market at the weekend, the urban grittiness of places like Brixton, Hackney etc. however I can't afford to live in London anymore and feel so sad that all these great places are slowly and surely just becoming one homogenised mass of chain stores, 'luxury flats', unaffordable to most Londoners and the things that made London a great place to live in, shops, markets, clubs, music venues, diversity etc are just vanishing. Boris Johnson obviously not only doesn't give a shit but is actively encouraging this, especially the building of flats just to be bought ( and not even lived in) by foreign investors.

I guess this can't be stopped but I do feel sad about it and wondered how other Londoners felt about it..?

rybybleu- I walked down the KX end of the Cally most days for a decade and a half, the only people I knew who got mugged in those years were my friends in rather lovely townhouses in far more genteel Primrose Hill.

Here's an interesting if depressing article in The Telegraph about London

www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/10744997/Cool-London-is-dead-and-the-rich-kids-are-to-blame.html

of course London has changed, it is forever changing. Look how the Victorians elite moved around within a few years a very fashionable area would become a slum this is nothing new

I remember 30 years ago being told you will never be able to afford to live in London well I have all my life (apart from when living abroad) no I can not afford to live in certain areas

places have changed, I prefer Camden and Greenwich how they were 20 years ago but then again around the cutty sark and the improvement of Greenwich park makes it a lovely place for children but I do miss the markets. Covent Garden has been spoilt this I think is a real shame. Brixton has some interesting cafes and shops full of hipsters, beautiful interesting properties but it is still a very diverse area. East Dulwich is so much nicer than it was 20 years ago

problem is we want it all, we want the right to buy social housing at low prices, we want the run down areas to have more money so we have the nice little cafes, independent shops, we want low interest rates and to be able to have 95% mortgages it all has an impact on house prices. many of us also bought properties on our own this is something that very few of our parents would have done this all has an impact on house prices

plus immigration, foreign investment (which should have much stricter rules) and I do feel it is important rents were is some way controlled more

people can afford to live in London, no they might not have the 3 bed house they really want or to live in an area they really want to live in but that has always been the case London is forever changing and no doubt our grandchildren will be having the same discussions and gripes as we are now

London is a fantastic city with so much to offer and is so diverse they is something for everyone no mater what buget. city living is expensive everywhere and cities are always constantly changing

I'm a born and bred, Londoner! Have lived here all 37 years of my life!
I used to love London! Things to do, places to go etc but it all changed when I had children!
Yes, there are still lots of things to do with children, parks, museums, etc but I don't want them breathing in this horrible stench and smog whilst doing it!
I saw a fascinating program on TV the other day (sorry, can't remember the name) and they measured the amount of

Sorry, posted too soon.

They measured the amount of pollution in the air and just how much we're breathing in! The results were staggering. My DP and I just looked at each other absolutely shocked! I don't want my children here anymore!

To be honest I think in many areas gentrification is brilliant - London is constantly evolving.

The population is now just tipping past what it was in the 1930s - when there was good housing put up and attractive areas improved. They deteriorated post war and are now on the up again - it's good news.

People often move out because they want their kids to have a more outdoor lifestyle but the fact is there is bugger for teenagers and parents all to do, in many of these rural idylls or even commuter belt land apart from get up to mischief. I'm staying put - we won't be rich but we can jump on a bus to town two minutes from our front door and go to a good playground, beautiful park, buy a wide variety of ethnic food and see great art collections less than 20 minutes from home.

I miss the old KX so much - loved the junk shops under the railway arches and the gasometers and the backstreets where The Ladykillers - and countless pop videos - were filmed. The only thing that i like now is that the canal is used more by walkers....but it comes literally at a cost - stupidly highend restaurants that serve minuscule portions for maximal money on the new square - which is anemic and branded and totally private. And now all the nasty expensive blocks going up - nah.... a loss for the regular folk, a gain for the non-doms.

I thought London was very clean when I visited last time. Buses run on clean fuel now. I remember the real pea soup fogs that used to come down.

Ubik1 undoubtedly the centre feels cleaner - congestion charge means less traffic except buses and taxis, litter is better than it was I think, and buses are much more frequent. Those things are all good!

Unfortunately round where we live in zone 3, and services are being gradually eroded away, flytipping gets worse and worse. My local park gets hit by vandalism which puts the toilets out of action for months. No money to fix any of it. It's very sad.

Camden is depressing, all crap stalls selling t shirts with that awful keep calm slogan. Tourist teens taking photos infront of Punky Fish, instagramming their lattes from Starbucks. It has no edge.

It has a fucking whole foods!!!!

Camden has always been beyond awful - it's just that when we were teenagers all the cannabis leaf themed tat seemed cool. I don't think it has changed much - we've just grown out of it.

Unidentified
That was a organic grocers / wholefood shop before Wholefoods took it over (Fresh and Wild I think). It was there in the late 90's / early 00's. I remember seeing Eddie Izzard in there when I was shopping one day. Its not a recent development.

Camden was always fairly depressing, lived in Kentish Town over ten years ago.

Reading this thread I feel like I've lived in so many of the biggest culprits.

Except not east or west.

Yep I worked in Camden in 2000-01 and Fresh & Wild was there then. But it was out on a limb as one of the few gentrified shops on Parkway in those days!

Camden High Rd had some really nice cafes in those days - in the direction of Mornington Crescent, not around the Lock. We used to use The Ruby in the Dust and Bean & Cup for work meetings, both long gone now. I actually really liked working in Camden in that era but wouldn't have wanted to live there ....

Bean and cup was great. And Ruby in the dust, sad to hear they have gone. Wholefoods market bought out the Fresh and Wild chain in the UK, so took it over in Camden.

our old high street is now occupied by betting shopsx4, tat shopsX8, pubsX5,a Tesco express about to be closed, estate agentsX3,. Chicken shopsX3, kebab shopsX3,off licensesX4 and then some random things for which I can find no name.
The largest firm providing employment to the local area was torn down and now has ....flats on it.
The lovely old Woolworths is long gone.
The last bank is now closed. The post office is under near constant threat. The small library where I first borrowed books is now occupied by a 5 storey set of not even luxury flats. just those redbrick hutches. Old pub my dad used to drink in and play darts is now also an 8 storey set of tiny flats. The police station is closed. The building is listed so not sure what will become of it.
However, there are not enough school places, gp.s surgeries, dentists. etc.
It is cramped, dirty, dangerous and scruffy, yet the price of a house is breath taking. The place I remember is gone, wiped out. What is left makes for grim viewing and monotonous living. This is what life is in one of its once very lovely, working class suburb. I hardly recognize it myself.

Heart it was probably half way to depressing then 10 years ago.

We hen I was a teen - in the late 80's we used to wander along portobello road market.

About 10 years ago DP and I tried to do similar and couldn't even get down the street there were so many tourists.

That's one thing I have noticed when I come back -so many tourists.

Can you still buy knock off jeans on Commercial Road market? and go for hot salt beef sandwiches? I used to get late night bagels in Finsbury Park...that hasn't gentrified, surely not.

I agree about the price of property, and as for Boris, well let's not go there.

Nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there (haven't done since the end of the last century)

Call me sentimental, but when they demolished the place I first met my DW and mother of my child (Here), for Crossrail, I lost all patience with the place.

The North will Rise Again...

How old are you Ubik? There hasn't been serious smog in London since the early 60s.