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AIBU?

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Original poster

To wonder why people live in London

243 replies

AtSea1979 · 01/12/2015 22:06

On the news just now, discussing the North/south divide. I live in the north. London seems a big scarey place where bad things happen often and I wonder why people want to live there.
But do people down south wonder why we live up north too with our poor health and education?

OP posts:
toots111 · 01/12/2015 23:07

Oh don't we have one of these threads every other week? It starts off with everyone who lives in Lindon talking about what they love and then a load of people who have been to London once will go on about how rude everyone is and then people who have never been to London will weigh in about how their one musuem in their town is infinitely better than the hundreds of museums London has. Sigh.

London's brilliant and if you don't think so it's simple, don't live here!

Alisvolatpropiis · 01/12/2015 23:08

Grin @ sparechange

I really want to be there if that ever does happen

whois · 01/12/2015 23:09

Oh, I met someone last week who told me they did try living in london. But it was full off, well you know, pakis and stuff, and they didn't like it. [eeeek!!!!]

I kid you not... A young-ish reasonably educated man said that to me. We were virtual strangers so he obviously thought it was a totally acceptable thing to say. I didn't really know what to say! I said something about 'not really having an issue living in a mixed city' and ended our conversation!

I liked London but my lungs didn't

This is true :-( I do seem to have a constant 'sub cold' in terms of a bit of a cough or runny nose or itchy eyes.

Alisvolatpropiis · 01/12/2015 23:10

I don't understand the London fear.

Or the "the people are rude". They're probably rude because they're trying to go out their day and you, a tourist, a dawdling getting in their bloody way.

I don't think Cardiff fairs much better for polite natives in that respect and it's a vastly smaller city!

sparechange · 01/12/2015 23:12

Queen
You need to go to Waitrose in Balham for true horror. It's got a bigger car park so everyone in their 4x4s goes there, plus they can take advantage of the free parking to go to the organic butcher over the road..

BewitchedBotheredandBewildered · 01/12/2015 23:12

Fucking wind up twattery.

whois · 01/12/2015 23:12

people are rude

I have generally found people to be much more friendly, or at least as friendly than when I love oop north.

Have had offers of help, people checking I'm ok, general chat etc.

WorraLiberty · 01/12/2015 23:12

London has everything you might ever need (apart from countryside). If you need countryside, don't live in London. Otherwise, it has more and better everything.

London goes into Essex though, which has lovely countryside so you're never far away from it really.

Chippednailvarnish · 01/12/2015 23:13

"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."

You sound very tired OP. Best stay up north with your whippet, flat cap, pigeon loft and pint of bitter.

ouryve · 01/12/2015 23:13

And the tube is fine. It's grey, it's hot and when it goes wrong, it goes badly wrong, and it's absolutely not wheel friendly and on no account should tyou ever make eye contact with anyone, but it connects up a hell of a lot of places for a hell of a lot of people pretty damned efficiently for relatively good money compared with what those of us in the provinces have to pay (£7 return for a 5 mile each way journey into my nearest city, for me - half hourly service so long as you only want to travel when all the shops are open). Makes the Tyne and Wear Metro look like a model railway.

EmpressOfTheVulvaCupcakes · 01/12/2015 23:13

I live in South London and can't imagine wanting to live anywhere else.

I've got parks, woods and rivers within a short distance of home, a wide range of museums, huge amount of history, I work in Central London in an area full of big parks and small art galleries that I can enjoy in my lunch hour, my morning commute is a walk along the South Bank where there's always something exciting going on, and the public transport is fantastic.

It's like living in a giant playground IMO Grin

Queenbean · 01/12/2015 23:14

sparechange I lived in Balham for years and am very familiar with it - "horatio! Put down the brioche!!!" Is a favourite sound bite of mine.

Brioche - that's scary right?

ExitPursuedByABear · 01/12/2015 23:14

Sits down. Looks out of window. Fails to give a shit.

sparechange · 01/12/2015 23:14

chipped,
The irony being the whippets are now one of the trendy dogs to have in London!

WorraLiberty · 01/12/2015 23:14

Anyone else think the OP is actually Boris Johnson in disguise? Grin

He probably needs to do a positive write up and is looking for inspiration Wink

Thatrabbittrickedme · 01/12/2015 23:15

I don't go round questioning why people want to live in hull or whatever, why do others feel the need to do this?!**
**
There was a thread a while back where the OP questioned why on earth anyone would want to live in Hull and they were absolutely flamed. Us Londoners though, we stoically sigh and then patiently mainly try and explain the wonder that is living in this amazing city Grin

sparechange · 01/12/2015 23:16

Queen,
Do you remember back when Waitrose was a branch of Somerfield? and all this were fields
Now THAT is scary. The thought of not having a neighbourhood Waitrose...

EnaSharplesHairnet · 01/12/2015 23:17

Whippets?

The flat caps took up residence a while back. Are they over now?

ouryve · 01/12/2015 23:17

I escaped Hull when I was 18.

Indole · 01/12/2015 23:17

Not that long ago, I went to Newcastle for work. I was in a taxi on my way to my digs and asked the taxi driver if there was anywhere near to get a pint of milk for the morning and basic supplies like bread and butter. He said 'oh yes, up there, blah blah blah left right whatever, he's a paki, though'.

I said 'so am I' which shut him up (I'm of mixed heritage, why the fuck did he think it was OK?!). But really, mostly, outside London, there is TONS more of this kind of shit. And that's at least partly why I want to stay here. I want to be in a place where people don't even think about saying that kind of nonsense. Literally nobody in London has said the word paki to me since the mid 70s (when I was about five). That's good with me. I don't want to hear people saying that kind of thing, actually.

Shop bloke in question had a Newcastle accent and seemed roughly as British as I am. By which I mean perfectly ordinarily British but with a darker skin than some people.

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 01/12/2015 23:20

Oxford Street in the run up to Christmas is scary but no shopper can beat the ninja pointy elbow skills of little old ladies at the Chelsea Flower Show - bloody lethal.

ouryve · 01/12/2015 23:23

Not to somewhere with its own Waitrose, though. 90 minute bus journey to one of them.

True story: when we first moved here, we were approached by a teenage lad in a flat cap who wanted to buy the shed in our garden, which had previously been used as a kennel for a lurcher, because he had a greyhound bitch who was pregnant and needed a home.

The village has change din the past decade or so, though. Still lots of ponies, with the odd incident of pony joyriding, and no sign of flat caps on anyone under 70, but King Charles Spaniels and Shih Tzus (sp?) now appear to outnumber the greyhounds and lurchers.

DixieNormas · 01/12/2015 23:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Chippednailvarnish · 01/12/2015 23:25

I said hello to Mickey Rourke whilst in Oxford Street a number of years ago. It couldn't have been too long after his plastic surgery. He was smothered in fake tan, wearing an orange string vest and jacket. Now that was scary

ouryve · 01/12/2015 23:26

My SIL is very much like that, Indole. MIL was despairing of her today.