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..?

Quintless yes, Brick Lane, Shoreditch, Hoxton - whereas in the 90s there were one or two places worth going to (Remember the Blue Note anyone? Argh I am ancient!) nobody really ventured that far otherwise. There were no cafes, no shops selling anything worth buying - it was desolate and vibeless and absolutely deserted at the weekend. Now, it is thriving, the beautiful old architecture, the lovely Hugenot houses, the Hawksmoor churches - they have all been restored. So, for the shiny glitz along the road on Old Street, the knock-on effect is that the heritage is being preserved. Shoreditch and Spitalfields are remarkable for that. And that is a direct effect of gentrification. You cannot preserve the quirk and the history unless you have private money trickling in - left to its own devices, local government has a history of knocking down gems or selling them to developers and then either not building more social housing, or when they do, selling it to their occupants. Local government has caused this lack of affordable housing in London, as much as foreign investment. They eye up the prime sites they own, think about doing something good for a moment and then capitulate and flog it to Barratt Homes. I've just seen exactly this happen with a large former NHS site round the corner from where I live. Now THAT makes me very, very cross, because you can bet your bottom dollar the council will not be ploughing the money from that into more social housing around the corner. And this requirement for a portion of private new builds to be affordable is a bloody joke. I can see why that makes people mad, because it drives me potty too.

Yes. I love London. Absolutely adore London. Love the people. I agree it's a great place to bring up children, I had a fantastic time growing up there and remember the parks in particular being one amazing part of growing up. I don't think there is a better place in the world to be a teenager or a young person if you are living at home.

But I'm sad I can't afford to live there. I grew up in the 80s ans I remember it was quite normal for couples who had a job such a secretary and a junior accounts manager (non-graduate) to be able to afford a decent size family home in some areas.

I read a very interesting article last night about how London is the money laundering capital of the world and the property market is a large part of it. Outside of that a lot of people are making a lot of money from the property market who are extremely wealthy at the expense of people who are significantly poorer. And all this was started under a Labour government. So it's a bit disingenious to blame Boris for it.

I would pinpoint 1997 as a time of great change. ooh lets think who got voted in that year. How foolish we were.

Well yes of course. And Labour have never, ever, courted a middle class London elite who've profited massively from it have they? Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

I do not agree heart, that has always happened. There are about double the amount of people in London now than there were in the 80s for example.
I appreciate you not wanting to get into the immigrant thing but I think you are misguided.
I am also from London but only 2nd generation. 'born and bred' lol

The influx of money to money is a good thing.

The poor taste of many inhabitants means that unpleasant chains of restaurants and shops thrive and horrible buildings go up.

missing the point spectacularly there bonsoir no surprises

I'm a Londoner and I think London is becoming polarised. In many areas the choices are social housing or vastly overpriced private properties, leaving anyone in the middle out...These 'middlers' then move out to Kent/Essex! Foreign investors buy up property as an investment but don't even bother renting them out so they sit there empty. New build flats go up where some of the flats go out to social housing tenants and the other half cost upwards of half a mil...basically meaning you can have one if you are a. Poor or b. Rich

Clapham is now full of obnoxious young professionals wankers. East London may be trendy but is still a tip IMHO. I wouldn't hang out in either area.

Um, maybe Bonsoir has a little point. Does anybody really, really want to live where the only eateries are Chicken Cottage, Kebab Palace and another Chicken Cottage? Because for years that's what a lot of South London was (i'm looking at you Clapham and Brixton) and I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to have something nicer where you live. Although it's a load of shit to say that poverty = bad taste, Bonsoir. Poverty = lower quality and cheap builds that don't age well at all. A really unfair assumption to make which undermines a good point.

Exactly SE London is far better for it, and still has hardly changed in some places.

Although Clapham, I don't miss living there.

What do I do then angel when some independent shops are being squeezed out? I agree idiunt. I love London, just not the way that a lot of high streets look the same when they didn't before and the expense and the way it's being shaped.

Totally agree Bertie

Bertie are you talking about the old QEH on Hackney road? Lay empty for years with the old Georgian houses joined to it being vandalised, I passed it the other day and it was all scrubbed up.

Brick lane sanitised!! I was there the other day and there are still plenty of "characters" believe me. I too remember it in the mid 90's as I was a student nurse at Barts and we regularly went there, it was far from sanitised then as well!

There are actually some nice cafes, as in independent and nice, now.

Plus 16 minutes to Farringdon on the overground, amazing. I can actually get to places, eg central East very quickly.

I'm a born and bred Londoner and live centrally.

Although I agree property has become prohibitively expensive for most and that's a terrible shame, I do not agree AT ALL that London is less wonderful, exciting, interesting, culturally important and beautiful than it was in the 80s (or any other period).

OP I'm sorry but it's simply a sign of age to say 'London/other cities/anything else you want to insert here ain't what they used to be'!!!

Its true, there are no working class or even lower middle class in London now, all the bins, building and shop work is done by robots and all the clerks and administrators are computers. The only people who can buy coffee are bankers, it professionals and people who used to be in Oasis or Blur, and the pubs are full every night with the eurotrash super rich and lottery winners on a blow it all holiday. Even street sweepers are the children of landed families on internships these days.

Bertie I don't think that's true ...there were lots of small independent restaurants/cafes/places to eat go out in Brixton/Clapham before the influx of the chains - pre the Ritzy overhaul, Atlantic becoming the Dog Star etc. Cheap and different places like cool tan, taco joes and 'posher' places like the Brixton Brassiere, 20 Trinity Gardens etc etc etc. Can't remember what they were called but were some great restaurants on eg Cold Harbour Lane/Electric Avenue - a Japanese (?) place where you sat on the floor, an African ? place . The indoor market was great, there was that great cheap shop next to the tube where you could get 'anything' - guess like a poundstretcher/pound shop but independent ...as well as the department store for better quality stuff.
I remember a guy who owed one of the 'newer' places (not naming deliberately) being really critical about some of the existing places (like the Irish? pub)...and acknowledging he was making a real effort to get them closed down -making trouble for them - to 'improve' the area
If you did want to avoid all that you could go and live in Clapham south...or Fulham...

Katy brick line was sanitised in the mid 90s from what it was in the mid 80s believe me....

vinegar even the pigeons are dripping in diamonds. And don't even mention the city foxes burning their wads of cash in the streets.

while I agree with you in general, it's because so many people from the rest of the UK (NOT talking about immigrants from other countries) have moved to London that it's become so gentrified.

"Everybody" English at my sons school have parents in the Cotswolds, Norfolk, Hertfordshire, Devon, Hampshire, Lincolnshire, etc....
Maybe those are the people bringing with them 4x4s, barbours, crew clothing, Hunter wellies in all colours, etc, and are responsible for the "gentrifying" of London?

Yes esp when you go down Walworth rd

I'm constantly amazed at where the money comes from in London. Not EVERYONE can be a rich, city banker or a Chinese billionaire or Russian Oligarch

We live in a Victorian terraced house in an area that is now very popular but was considered undesirable about 12 years ago. I remember when they were nudging the £500k mark thinking that there will be a natural cut off and, surely, there's only so much people will pay for 3 bed terraced houses in fairly ordinary parts of London.

Now they're worth comfortably over £1million, I just don't get where the buyer's money is coming from. It's weirdly fascinating.

Does anybody really, really want to live where the only eateries are Chicken Cottage, Kebab Palace and another Chicken Cottage?

true

but what people really want to do is move in to areas where the only eateries are Chicken Cottage and Kebab Palace, buy cheap, then whinge and groan about how run down the area is, moan about The Locals (especially on local online forums), wait till they get a few delis and an estate agents or two instead and then sell on for ££££s

I know that's the way of things, but it makes me really uncomfortable. And I say that as someone who's done it. Not moaning, but the other bit

Nancy - I think there is some kind of tax incentive or loophole that encourages wealthy foreign investors to purchase a huge amount of property (and let it out at eye watering prices). I work near Vauxhall Nine Elms where the building work going on is phenomenal, and the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station has finally taken off. All these tower blocks are small luxury flats, and they are advertised on enormous hoardings as "Buy To Let".

If this Loophole (is it some kind of tax relief?? I'm afraid I'm shockingly ignorant about it) could be closed off then property prices would come down. Property prices urgently need to come down in London, it is a hopeless situation for the capital that so many different types of people simply cannot afford to live here.