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 )

I love this fucking city. I love that you can come here and if you can hack it, in six months you're as much a Londoner as someone who was born here. I love that every tube is a fashion education (the quality of fashion drops precipitately the second you get outside the M25). I love the energy, the variety, the culture, the art, the pace, the architecture, the layering of ancient history over the raw cutting edge of the future.

I love the public transport. I love my little zone 4 "village" where I know everyone and I can walk by a river with fields stretching away on one side and in five minutes be back on the main road and catch a bus to Central London. I love the people. I love that a phone can ring on a bus and the odds that it gets answered in English are at most 50%. I love the parks and green space. I love the food.

I love that from age 11 kids can get themselves everywhere, for free. I love the 2 minute walk to school and the fact all my son's friends live a 5 minute walk away. I love that I never have to stick with a bad job, because I can get a better one in two months. I love the millions of people with lives I don't really understand but get so many glimpses of.

I love that this city will open her big beating heart to anyone and all it takes is to love it back. DH and I are united in a commitment that they won't get us out of London alive.

@WendyMoiraAngelaDarling my 81 year old mum would move back to London tomorrow if she could afford it! Bring elderly in London, she feels, would be so much more fun and less isolating .

@ChainsawBear I love your post! Yes to all of it!

the West Norwood Feast - a community lead event (food, craft and music) on the first Sunday each month from April. The RVT and new Blackfriars station.

Mind The Gap

Just love it!!!!!

‘This morning due to inclement weather the District Line is running slowly.’

Inclement

I came here at 19 years old and have lived in London for nearly 23 years. The only reason I'd consider leaving is because I'd love a decent sized house but can't afford one.

I came from a rural community so I'll tell you what I miss when I visit my parents:

The public transport. I have never got my driving licence.
The supermarket is only a bus ride away and I can come back in a cab if I've bought more than I can carry.
Free stuff like the museums.
There is always so much to do.
The tolerance of different people, be it LGBT+, religious, cultural, or alternative lifestyles.
The architecture.
When faced with a crisis, people who normally ignore each other on the Tube will come together and help each other.

What I don't miss is the pollution, the traffic, the everyday cost of living, and the Mayor (personal preference, and there's an election coming up anyway).

Chico - yes, the public transport! I also never got my driving license - no need for it here.

Someone mentioned there being ‘ghettos’ in London - no more than anywhere else and in many cases less - you find a council estate next to a row of multi-million pound houses. London also does have an excellent infrastructure to support those who need help, though I have discovered much of it is invisible. If anyone in London is interested, google your local borough-run food bank (you can donate online or drop food off in most cases) or wellbeing hub - there are often opportunities to volunteer or again, donate. Also Centrepoint does good work.

I did some volunteering with a food charity and was amazed at how many seemingly private houses in a south London were in fact shelters, hostels or women’s refuges - you would never know.

The amount of free stuff there is to do with kids- you’re genuinely spoiled for choice of excellent free museums and galleries and attractions to take them to.

I love our local, slightly shabby but interesting area, with the market full of cheap, fresh fruit and veg.

I love not needing a car.

I love the range of places to eat out - you can find food from all over the world here!

We’re planning to leave London in the next couple of years, and while I’m excited by the idea of finally being able to buy our own home, I’m going to miss it terribly.

My retirement plan is a flat in the Barbican, constant attendance at matinees and volunteering. I'm leaving in a box.

I grew up rurally and actually found villages a lot more concerned with wealth and status than London.

I lived in London for almost five years during my bachelor and subsequent "wtf do I do with my life" period before moving to Scandiland and I HATED it. Everything was so far apart, it felt like I was worlds away from even my nearest friend.

But I DO miss things about the city, and there are things I loved. I loved the gig culture (I'm a classically trained musician), you can find a great gig on any given day of the week and just rock up to it so long as you know the right people or can hear the right rumours, it's so vibrant with the arts and it's everywhere. I REALLY miss that. And the people, there's nothing quite like Londoners. They get quite a bad rep on occasion, but I found Londoners to be caring and loving and willing to give the hat from their own heads to a stranger who needed it.

Haha agree about Morley’s. I love how you could spend your whole lifetime exploring London but you could never really know it all. I make new discoveries all the time. I love the history and I love how international it is. And the South Bank, in the evening, summer or winter is my favourite place in the world.

I also love the little whiteboard signs at the entrance of the Tube giving me tips for the day or a little shoulder slap of encouragement.

Morley's fans, check out "Morleys or Less" on Instagram. Dedicated to documenting all the "fake Morleys" of south London (Mowleys, Moorley's, New Morlies...)

Never been to Morleys ! Never heard of it even. Can feel a visit coming up. this is what I love about London !

I lived in London for a few decades before moving to another much smaller city. I love where I am but I miss London. I miss that indefinable "buzz". London will always have my heart, it did so much for me.

Ah, Morley's I lived in Brixton for six years, during the period it was the coolest hotspot in London. Love the Market.

I've lived in London all my life so don't really think I appreciate it like other people living here who come from other parts of the country/world.

I do find it unnerving when I visit smaller places in the UK where shops close early or busses only run once an hour.

The best thing about London, for me is that most of my family and friends live here.

Nothing

Crossing the river Thames, diversity of the people, the architecture, the variety from creative cool to corporate and village. The green spaces. The little cut through alleyways and courtyards. Cafes and places to eat, markets. The energy and chatter. The variety of public transport.

I’m a born and bred Londoner, married to a Londoner, most of my family and friends that are in the UK are in London.

We’ve thought about leaving over the years. I sometimes imagine a life by the sea, or a life in a part of the country where the price of our shabby semi would buy a huge, lovely place with land.

But I’m SO indoctrinated in to the ways of London! I can’t imagine not having a tube or bus a short walk away that will take me somewhere completely different very quickly, or a shop open until late nearby, or easy access to almost any service I need. It makes me feel panicky just thinking about it.

I also look at my (long separated) ageing mum and dad in their old age. My dad lives rurally and his life is so limited now he is older and a bit more frail. His village life seems so small. When he has to eventually stop driving he will be even further isolated, as it’s a 40 min drive to the nearest city for lots of services including the hospital and the local bus service is woeful.

My mum on the other hand is a Londoner. Her motto is ‘got my Freedom Pass, will travel!’. She’s out and about every day volunteering, going to cheap or free arts events, museums etc, taking part in all sorts of social groups. Her GP and the hospital are up the road. She has everything she needs on hand. And she is very outward looking, engaged in a vibrant city and seems much younger than my Dad. It’s a much better old age.

I love visiting London. It has everything. You've never "seen it".

I LOVE this thread! It’s so nice to have one that is (mainly!) filled with such lovely things about London rather then the usual London/Londoners suck!

I adore living here, it’s so much fun although I’ve realised there’s so much more I need to do here! Born and grew up in N London I’ve just taken it for granted and not discovered so much of it.

Sadly, financially, I need to leave at the end of the year and I’m GUTTED

@peachescariad What a helpful contribution to a positive and joyful thread. You must be a laugh at parties.

I live in London and I LOVE it. Everything. If money were no object I would have one of those houses with a garden that backs on to the Heath. Money is an object and I live miles away - not even in North London which is my spiritual home. But I love London all the same. I especially love the energy. I get inexplicably tired when I visit friends elsewhere, it's like I need the adrenaline of London to keep me going!

Incidentally, why are some people coming on this thread to tell us why they don't like London? It's so weird. If someone posted about how great their city is, or town, or whatevs, I can't imagine piling in to tell them why it's shit.