To not feel safe in London...and near London..?

[moumoute]

Ok, see, I am scared now. I lived 9 years in London, moved abroad for 3 years. I would like to move back to the UK but I am scared! Being abroad I have started to look at the newspapers including the shitpapers so I see a LOT of crime, in London, near London and actually everywhere in Britain. Am I paranoid now? It seems wrong to move back and raise children in a village near London as I find crimes history everywhere....

Why do you not like Norway, OP? Lots of folks I know want to move there.

I lived in South London for a few years (Peckham) which is supposed to be a crimespot - but apart from seeing altercations on buses (youths and not so youths outraged that the conductor (when they we on buses) expected THEM to pay to ride the bus!

I used to walk home late night/early morning and never a problem, though when my parents and I lived in East Dulwich we were burgled twice. This was in the good old days of video players. Yes really that was all they took! Quick money for drugs I guess!

I now live in Hammersmith. Sure there is crime (drugs again) but I have (touch wood) never had a problem walking home early morning.

I find if you know your own area well you are more confident. I went to the mean fiddler in Harlsden once. I knew I could get a bus home but could not find that particular bus stop. I found the area quite unpleasant.Loads of blokes drunkenly wandering about, eyeing me up etc.

For once I got a taxi (I hate taxis!). Interestingly, the taxi firm was asking everyone going to South London to pay up front. Well, except me. I was the only white face. I was a bit embarrased that all the others had to pay upfront except me!

Funnily enough the same thing happens every time I see my Swedish home town feature in the national press: it is always about some ghastly gang crime or civic disturbance, never about ordinary people going about their daily business. Yet my mother never seems to take part in any gang shootings

She otoh is convinced that the UK is a den of iniquity- because she once read an article in the DM about children behaving badly in a school.

If you move to London you might be stabbed by a random knife wielding stranger but the probability is vanishingly small. It would be much more likely to happen if you had somehow got tangled up with gangs at a young age or you were unfortunate enough to have a violent person in your family. Get real. Do voluntary work with disadvantaged kids to get some perspective.

I would have refuted your OP up until a few months ago. I live in a very nice area of West London. In the past six months, two of my sons friends were asked for money with a knife, they didn't have any money and the boys left the scene. Two weeks ago a 14 year old was stabbed in our local park - we walk the dog there every day. Yesterday I was assaulted, racially abused, threatened with being stabbed by a random person in my local Tesco. He cornered me at the back of the shop and repeatedly pushed me and told he he would do me in and stab me, completely unprovoked, never seen him before in my life. I was with my child who fortunately was waiting near the entrance so didn't get caught up in it. Then today I walked the dog to my local park to find a huge cordoned off area, police presence, another stabbing this morning.

It happens and I think it's very easy to be dismissive and faintly piss taking of concerns when it hasn't happened to you.

Dolphin- I absolutely agree with you.

Another stealth London-bashing thread - Yawn.

I have lived in London for 44 years, in various areas (some leafy some not at all) and have never been the victim of any kind of crime so far. So I feel pretty safe, yes.

Newspapers aren't known for printing 'Lovely village is crime free' stories are they?

My Hometown .

OP if I were you I would stay where you are . . You are obviously now London phobic.

Been street robbed once, verbally assaulted more than once . That is all that has ever happened in big bad London . I am in my 50s

Maz2444466 I am thinking of renting a very small flat in Hackney as I know well the area. So I can test London again and not have to re-learn everything. And then I can visit new areas during the weekends.
KeyserSophie Yes I might just need to re-adjust to the lifestyle
mercilousming Yorkshire does come up a lot in the crime news, that's true...'If you want to be free of all crime, move to the ant/arctic.'->I'm kind of there now! :)
EagleIsland Depends where in the US... ...
LemonThyme82 thanks I will use that link!

Lucy7400 I'm not British indeed. I'm a North European from below Scandinavia ;) My plan is to rent a tiny flat in Hackney to get a feel again.
AutoFillContact65 Norway is great. But I have lived in London and in Berlin, I have people easily there and they were chatty and interested. In Norway it's different, people have their life, their friends, they hide during the loong winter. I miss a little hint of adventure, of unconventional chat, etc!
Deathraystare Damn, they stole your Nintendo! Your are a Londoner since you were born so I guess it makes a difference. I guess they are destinations to avoid if possible.
corythatwas Have you deserted Sweden for good? You probably mean Malmö, nothing happens in Sweden otherwise!
Cakingbad bbbrrr
DolphinDays Oh dear, sorry to hear that. Where do you live? Any advice to give us? Do you think you were a target for some reason?
thatdoesntsurpriseme not at all!
Greenifer good to hear that!
BillSykesDog Yes and it works
RachelRagged I just need to go back! :) Verbally assaulted probably happened to everyone, not only in London.
I love London and Londoners, I wouldn't considered it otherwise...

Renting and "testing out" sounds like a good plan - don't commit to an area until you've got a feel for it :)

Yes that is true . People will be mouthy wherever :)

My post looked a bit terse, , was not intended that way.

Renting , as Trills said, seems a good idea to begin with.

Like Worra, I cant work out what you want from this thread.
Do you suffer from anxiety? You sound paranoid. Are you?

I've lived in all sorts of fab places: Moscow, Kiev, Cairo. The crime in all was horrendous. I never noticed, I felt safe and had the best time EVER.

Stay where you are and do yourself and all of us a favour.

So, you are most likely German or French? Neither are crime free zones . You will be fine. Just use your common sense.I am not sure when you last went to Hackney, but its quite la dee da in places these days. As are the prices. Good luck. London is a mix of good and bad like any other city.

I live in Zone 2 London, work in Zone 1, and also work at a charity dealing with children in and at risk of joining gangs in SE London.

I was burgled once in 2007, I had my handbag nicked off the back of my chair in a pub in 2011, saw a hit and run between a van and motorbike, and seen someone knocked off their bike by a car (they were fine).
That is the sum total of my experience of crime in London in nearly 20 years.

Through my work with the gang charity, I'm very aware of the criminal activities they are involved in - guns, knives, drugs and vehicle theft. However, it is almost exclusively kept within the gang communities.

Unless you are buying drugs, the chances of coming into contact with gang criminal activity is vanishingly small.
Cars tend to be stolen from suburbs apparently, because there is a lot less CCTV to catch them

you are massively overreacting. You do know some of us are bringing up children in London, even in Zone 2?! I have never felt unsafe in London.

So much stabbing in Hackney. Are you sure you want to live there?

Almond for someone who doesn't live in the U.K., you sure are goady about it. I thought you were trying to move here? Once you've crossed our all the bits of the map you can't afford, anywhere urban, anywhere too far from London and anywhere you charmingly call "poor w t", what exactly do you imagine you will be left with?

3 square metres of Kentish salt marsh is what.