To ask what you love most about London?

[Lopsidedlou]

Decided to take the bus instead of tubes home today just because I had some time and like looking down from the top of a double decker and was just reminded of how much I love the city.
I’d say I love (apart from the typical attractions and museums and parks) the sense of just ‘coolness’ around the place- real sense of style with lots of the people you see. And Morley’s (south )

Ahhhh..... I need to visit again. Maybe this year (been living overseas for donkey's years).
I'm extremely glad I don't live there but visiting is a special experience.

What a lovely thread . I was born in London and still think that the views from Waterloo bridge are spectacular . I love countryside view but cityscapes make me feel excited and joyous in a way that no sea or country view does. I think where you are born and brought up shapes you and I am a city girl at heart.

I love the fact you can really feel like you belong here and it's not linked with then also feeling like you're British or English. My parents are not from England and i had (have?) the whole third culture thing existential crisis for many years. Hated saying I'm from England / Britain. In London you're surrounded by so many people who are "other", that we're like our own little race of people and we mostly just coexist and get by.

I love walking in the square mile on a Saturday or Sunday. Such a bustling horror mon to fri but go there on the weekend and in some roads you could hear a pin drop.

Having kids now i love the fact you can go on proper day long expeditions into central London on the tube and there's always something to do, something crazy to see, something to learn.

Can't see myself ever leaving.

Its so busy,heres always something happening somewhere no matter what the time.
Theres so much choice and everything is close.
Travelling around is easy.
You're never lonely in London.
I cant imagine living anywhere else.

Nyssia no one is going to deny London is ridiculously expensive. But that polarisation of rich and poor has happened across the UK. There’s an equivalent thing which happens in every financial capital. That’s not London that’s just capitalism does.

What I like about this thread is that it’s celebrating the stuff about London you don’t need money for.

I am English but grew up in Spain. I dreamt of moving to London my whole life and finally achieved it after University. And it was and still is everything I dreamt of and more. I have lived here now for over 20 years and still feel lucky and happy everyday to be here. It is hard to explain why but it nourishes my soul. I feel completely at home. I love the ever open shops, the diversity and the bustle of life around me. I feel part of the City and the City feels part of me.

Lived in London my whole life and still see and do new things all the time. Couldn't imagine living somewhere with only one town centre, one cinema, one Chinese take away, one park etc. The horror!

The view from Waterloo Bridge.

The complete randomness of things like the conservatory in the middle of the Barbican, or Postman’s Park, or ‘ghost’ tube stations or Wren churches.

Being able to stroll out of the front door at midnight and walk fifty feet to a shop where I can buy a mango, baklava, gram flour, five types of flatbread, toilet paper and washing-up liquid.

Free art. Being able to nip into Kenwood and see a Rembrandt self-portrait.

Food.

I live very central and have compromised space for being in the heart of things.
Adore the bustle and escaping in quiet hidden spaces (loads of parks and little green spaces stumbled upon).
The food !!
Every day is full of echos of history and the loud blade of current ‘stuff’.
The museums theatres groups markets talks opera and ballet etc.
The number of international visitors, residents, students and everything they bring.
The river.
My neighbourhood where we do have a great community feel and neighbourhood vibe. I’ve lived before in a very small remote rural village and love London for its mix of neighbourhood/anonymous vibe. Friends from remote village loathe London - I understand that and see why. I thank his I was brought up here.
Buses and watching everything from top deck.
Trees. Recently visited many of the ‘great trees of London’.
The foxes who round my way make the streets their own at dead of night just strolling around before laying up for the day in a square somewhere.
The layers of history at every turn. I recently bought a small (and surprisingly cheap or I’d never have afforded it) Elizabeth1 coin (with a beautiful image of her in older age) and have it with me on walks just mooching around. Brings me joy.
Other cities in the U.K. have some of all of this but nowhere as much.
I adore London. My heart thumps when eg I see it laid out from alley pally or approaching down the M11.

The sheer quantity of stuff to do with toddlers and children, most of it free.

The variety of food, and the quality of it. There’s a place near me that specialises in Xinjiang noodles for heaven’s sake.

How, as PP said, you don’t feel like a Londoner per se but will practically get in a brawl over “your” postcode/village.

The sense of opportunity, that there is always something interesting going on that you could choose to engage with or not bother as there will be something else equally interesting around the corner.
The range of restaurants and shops.
The transport network and being able to get around on the buses for £1.50.
The relaxed nature of going out for one or two drinks and some food without having to dress up and stay out late and everyone’s happy to make their own way back home rather than getting taxis and sharing lifts.
It’s really easy to find quiet places if you know where you’re going.
Little bits of history on every street corner.
The running routes and the fact that everywhere has pavements and places to cross the road.

I miss it so much, so very much.

Everything! The heritage, the culture, the fashion, the dining out – I'll never tire of that! – plus the endless sense of new possibilities and the way it constantly evolves. Plus, for us, the sense of community – as a PP said, London like a massive collection of small villages and if you find your perfect area, as we have, you'll find support and friendship that you never expected to find in a massive city. We will never leave!

Exactly this - Mango, 5 types of this...3 types of that... There’s so much choice. So much globalised, internationally traded, carbon heavy stuff everywhere in London. You don’t need 5 types of anything. It is this consumerism, this indulgent celebration in choice that is destroying our planet. Don’t celebrate convenient variety, apologise for it, feel ashamed by it. It is completely unnecessary.

Plus, yes, the view from Waterloo Bridge. I still experience a frisson of excitement every time I cross it and I've been living in London for nearly 25 years now. I will never get bored of that view.

@thepeopleversuswork

I've lived in London for 18 years. I was trying to think how to say what I love about it, but you said it all perfectly.

I was an army child and never lived more than two years in a place. As an adult I was restless if I had to stay anywhere too long. I lived in another UK city for seven years and by the end couldn't wait to leave. I have family there and literally feel trapped and slightly depressed if I ever go back to see them. My the end of the weekend I am champing to get going home. London is the only place I have never felt restless and stifled. Maybe when I am elderly it will be too much but for now I can't imagine being anywhere else. My children look horrified if I suggest ever moving out. They get it too.

That view from Waterloo bridge which was going I be obliterated by monstrous private garden bridge. Love that ‘we’ (i was very involved in challenging it) had and found a voice and managed to see it off. An echo of Londoners as a ‘rabble’ as a bit taciturn and contrary. At one of the planning committees (the Westminster one) someone (from social housing on southbank) actually shouted (when permission was granted) “Sir Christopher Wren would turn in his grave” and there was a bit of a scuffle. That moment sums up a lot !!!

The view of the river from the different bridges.
The public transport network allowing you to get around easily (most of the tine!) fairly affordably.
The choice of things e.g. restaurants, pubs.
The 'identity' of being from a certain part.

Although we have now moved to the outskirts of London (still commute in) and I enjoy aspects of it being a bit quieter, like being able to drive and park places.

And love what I think has some truth to it - ‘on Waterloo bridge tourists look west, Londoners look east’

Changed my mind about the best thing in London...Having just read another thread about parking - London is ace because most people don't need a car.

The public transport.

I moan about our buses in traffic or crowded tubes, but my God, go almost anywhere outside of London and the public transport just isn’t up to scratch.

I live in an outer suburb, but love that tubes come every 2-3 mins and I can jump on and be in Covent Garden in 25 mins. Or that my local high street serves 8 different bus routes. Such a sense of freedom!

Nyssia The rich/poor divide happens in every city and every town across the UK. It's not just a London thing.

Born and bred in London and married to another Londoner with my friends and family all over the city- I can't imagine living anywhere else. Well I can, but only another big city!

I love the amount of independent cinemas, tiny museums, pop up galleries, food from all over the world-the fact as pp have said, that the city is just tens of different villages shoved up against each other, each with their own vibe and ethnic make up.

City pubs like The jugged hare, the BlackFriar, the Lamb tavern. Ye Old Mitre ( which is technically part of Cambridgeshire but we'll gloss over that.)

Richmond, Greenwich, Brockwell, Holland, Hyde, Green, Victoria, Regents parks. Pelicans in St James' park

Open air theatres, cinema or skating at Somerset House. Carols at the Royal Albert hall.

City churches. Evensong at Southwark cathedral.

A walk down Regents canal. A riverboat hop. A bus got on for no other reason than to see where it goes. Cable cars , trams, Ubers, black cabs, people skateboarding down Brixton Hill.

Abney Park, Highgate, west Norwood, Kensal Green, Brompton and Nunhead cemeteries.

New Covent Garden at nine elms at 4am. Columbia road on a Sunday. Broadway, Borough and Brick Lane markets.

Shopping in Liberty, Shoreditch, Marylebone, Chiswick, Primrose Hill, The Kings Road

Eating and drinking just about anywhere from Michelin starred places to a Czech speakeasy in a basement by appointment only. Or pizza on a double decker bus in Deptford.

I've lived in all points of the city but my heart belongs to South London now.
Tooting curries
Streatham ice Hockey
The Rookery
The Horniman
Brixton Windmill
Crystal Palace park
Brockwell and Tooting lidos
Dulwich art gallery
Portuguese tarts in Stockwell
Peckham levels
Brixton market
All the Morleys!
Cricket at The Oval
The 159 bus.

I'll stop now!!

Bit worried by all of the south Londoners on here !! shudder love the north/south ‘thing’. Very central here but definitely north of the river.

London is big, messy, noisy and expensive - and I wouldn't want it any other way. I like the surprises in the City - that the Temple of Mithras is tucked under a modern building with its history not forgotten and that there are two free rooftop gardens that offer a bit of an escape when needed.

The people who live there are like a microcosm of the world - some will be kind and some less so, but if things go pear-shaped people will lend a hand.

I like being a tiny part of a huge machine that's been on the move for more than 2000 years. I like that the Museum of London thought it quite acceptable to put a piece of the Whitechapel fatberg on display, and I couldn't resist having a look, and equally the museum gave us the Cheapside hoard.