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AIBU?

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Original poster

To hate what's happening to London?

310 replies

AWholeLottaNosy · 30/01/2015 19:19

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..?

OP posts:
scousadelic · 31/01/2015 00:48

People here speak as if Londoners are the first people ever to have to face circumstances where it is hard for families to stay in the same area. My family, who were all close, lived within a couple of miles for generations, went to school together, etc are now scattered all over the country as there were no jobs in Liverpool when we left school. Nobody cared about the North back then. Guess what? DH and I had to move to London as that was where the jobs were. London is booming and the North struggles as usual but it is just part of life, nobody is going to change it as it suits those with power so you just have to get on with it. People complain because London is doing well so they have to move but if it was declining and there were no jobs they'd still have to move and still be complaining

London is not totally unaffordable. My DS has just bought his first place down there in his mid 20s

Caronaim · 31/01/2015 00:53

Just looked on zoopla, here are one, two and three bedroom flats for a lot less than that.Three beds go right down to £100 000, much less through auction. I'm not saying it isn't hard though. They are quite thinly spread.

Caronaim · 31/01/2015 00:54

scousadelic, that is what I was saying earlier, if you want work, you move to where the work is.

angeltulips · 31/01/2015 01:05

What the pps said about people who no longer live in London wanting to retain the grotty bits

Kings cross is FANTASTIC now, it was an absolute shithole before the redevelopment. And yes a couple of fun clubs closed down but the kids are still partying hard occasionally the young people from work take pity on me and take me out with them

Complaining about tesco metro? You know what? You don't have to fucking use it. If it doesn't make money it'll shut down - Starbucks has just closed most of its shops in Australia because Australians thought the coffee was shit. But I'm guessing that all these mythical working class communities who want to keep London edgy actually quite like a local shop that is open and inexpensive.

Housing is expensive, but you know what? London is a world city, that's what happens. Why is it bad that some types of work/life are being pushed to other parts of the uk? Quite frankly the rest of the country is far too dependent on London anyway.

idiuntno57 · 31/01/2015 01:22

few people seem to be disagreeing that London is a great place. Just that it is expensive.

Londoner born and bread and I say it is worth every penny

Caronaim · 31/01/2015 01:24

absolutely, idiuntno57!

(We could do with a rent cap though)

mouses · 31/01/2015 01:28

Londoner born and left Wink just kidding.... London is a great place if you can keep up with it. I have some great memories back in London but was a child with no worries and freedom, I cant compare really.

Onsera3 · 31/01/2015 06:01

Angeltulips I agree. The same has happened in NZ with Starbucks closing many stores because people preferred otherwise.

Where my sister lived in SW London local businesses and residents campaigned against a Sainsburys Local opening. They had cute jute bags with a catchy slogan showing their disapproval. But the Sainsburys was so popular they soon opened a second a few mins walk away.

These stores and cafes can keep opening because people support them.

Southeastdweller · 31/01/2015 08:50

scous Your son who's bought his place here in his 20's - presumably he's had some financial help from his family or/and has a high-earning job?

SunnyBaudelaire · 31/01/2015 08:53

I feel the same OP. I just feel sad when I go to Brixton these days, after spending ten years there back in the 90s.

londonrach · 31/01/2015 08:55

Moved out of london in november 2014 as after ten years we had still no savings and were still renting. I miss london but went back last weekend and forgotten how busy the supermarkets are. Dont miss that bit. London very soon wont have anyone but the very rich or those lucky enough to get council houses living there. Mind you i saw a patient yesterday who moved out of london in the 1970s who said the same thing back in the 1970s....

Dimplesandall · 31/01/2015 09:40

Whilst i agree it was quirkier and more "interesting" then, i also remember how rough much of it was- Southbank, waterloo greater Greenwich area, greater paddington area. Southbank especially has improved immeasurably- it was a seedy, rundown and somewhere to rush to and from with nowhere really to hang out. Felt v unsafe st night. Trafalgar square was hideous! Roaring traffic, fumes and thousands of bastard pigeons! SO much more convivial now.

SunnyBaudelaire · 31/01/2015 09:44

yes it is a lot nicer in trafalgar square now that the traffic does not go around the top of it by the national gallery.
Also remember the Bullring? That was rough as hell.
But where do the poor and dispossessed go when even the drunks' hotels are now backpackers' hostels?

QuintlessShadows · 31/01/2015 09:54

But is it sadness related to aging and a youth (mis) spent?

I feel sadness when back in Angel, and around Euston (went to UCL), but that is more related to the fact that I am getting old, and wont get those days back....

QuintlessShadows · 31/01/2015 09:55

And maybe, having aged, maybe we dont know the quirky places people like us in our youth go to today?

Like, I had an epiphany in Hoxton last year, that was pretty vibrant and arty. Brick lane seemed "as usual" ???

SunnyBaudelaire · 31/01/2015 09:56

you could well have a point there quintless.

Floppityflop · 31/01/2015 10:09

I'm not sure I'd describe New Cross as a shithole. Parts of it are okay and when I lived in Deptford in the early noughties I found that area quite a friendly area. There is even a proper market on a Saturday. It has always been a working person's area but my mum says it used to be much nicer in the fifties!!! Greenwich is encroaching on Deptford and in my opinion being overdeveloped. They should have been stricter with conservation there.

SunnyBaudelaire · 31/01/2015 10:11

New Cross is a shithole floppity, no two ways round it.
I used to wonder what on earth visitors to London whose first view of it was that must think of our city.

iamusuallybeingunreasonable · 31/01/2015 10:12

If you fancy feeling the edginess again you could always walk through the Woolwich tunnel from south to north of a night, see how that grabs you... There's edginess all over, you have to any just gotten old and boring yourself so don't come across it anymore

bigTillyMint · 31/01/2015 10:14

London is still vibrant and quirky (Peckham for example) and there is still a huge mix of cultures and incomes. Even on my road! Admittedly my area has become very gentrified (our house is worth 5 or 6 times what we paid for it 15 years ago) but lots of the lovely Victorian terraced houses are actually still council owned, as well as the nearby estates/tower-blocks.

MarshaBrady · 31/01/2015 10:29

I prefer London as it is today. I've lived in SE London for ages and it's not so separate with bad public transport.

And even the night bus doesn't feel as dodgy as it did.

I do feel a pang when I go back to Melbourne but that really might be due to feeling like it was my city in my early twenties - for students and young.

PossumPoo · 31/01/2015 10:42

Melbourne? That's going to be "old possums" city when London becomes too much for me and l start a thread on MN....Grin

MarshaBrady · 31/01/2015 10:45

It's lovely, and very expensive these days too, but it makes me think back to my grunge student says hanging nonchantly around Fitzroy, now I think it's not the same - too shiny and new Grin

bigTillyMint · 31/01/2015 10:45

I agree Marsha - I've lived in S London for over 27 years and I don't really want to spend all my time in edgy areas! Or could it just be that I am so used to edgy areas that they don't feel all that edgy any more?

unlucky83 · 31/01/2015 10:47

Lived in London from 1988 to 2000.
First lived in Clapham North -cheap shit hole bedsit - loved it, love the community loved the 'rough' bits, loved the fact she saw 'real' people on the streets. I then moved to Fulham Road, Parson's green - moved back to Clapham after a couple of years because I got sick and tired of the fake people - rarely saw anyone different, there was a community but it was really not the same....
Even when I moved back it had lost some of its reality - the little market type place you could cheap household bits from on Clapham High street (I got my laundry basket there I still use!) had been changed into an estate agents.
Lived in that area, then more towards Brixton for the rest of my time there - and I could see the changes...the real people being pushed out. I left to do a Phd as a mature student - I couldn't have afforded to stay
The cheap slightly scruffy house I shared was being sold - big house bought in the early 90s for £110k was sold for £330k within a year it was back on the market as 3 one bedroom flats for £150-175k each - god knows what they would be now. A friend looked at another house share - they had 9 people living in the same size house (we had 5) no common areas except a tiny kitchen and bathroom for almost double the rent we were paying ...
I came up to Scotland -we got a solid 3 bedroom house with front and back garden for £54k (and it is an expensive area -could have got similar in a different area for £35k!) at the same time my ex housemate bought a one bedroom with box room ex council flat on a rough estate in Brixton for £110k...he didn't stay there long...he was nervous walking home at night - guess now the whole estate is more or less filled with people who could afford £110k for a flat - except I guess they cost a lot more than that now!
I think what sums it up most is Brick Lane - used to go to the market - it was a real junk market, cheap could buy really different weird stuff - (used to buy second hand chef's whites there - slightly musty etc from a damp dark building) but the area had a real vibe. Went back in the mid 90s -it was unrecognisable...so refined and clean - sanitised with a sanitised vibe. Guess if that is all you are used to it is vibrant ..but not if your remember when it was so much better...