To think London is in a major decline?

[Phannyphart]

I’ve lived in London (zone 2) for 10+ years. It’s always been pretty ‘real’ here but since the end of covid really everywhere just seems so, so awful.
Dog shit everywhere, spit everywhere, council owned parks closed and locked, people littering more than ever before. Get on a bus and it’s just people screaming in to a FaceTime on top volume, people blasting TikTok. Kids being stabbed in broad daylight, people shooting up heroin near the nearby primary school. The area has a lot going for it but it really seems wherever I go there is an awful decline.
Has anybody feeling the same actually moved out? Do you regret it?

Ban dogs shitting on streets and parks or ban dogs altogether. Make it a crime. Picking it up still leaves remnants. We are walking it in to everywhere we go, shops, hospitals, homes.

I agree about the dogs but so many people have dogs now and that goes with a certain blindness to their unhygienic and anti social effects, say it and you get shot down in flames. Just saw an X L bully today, its balls very much still there, no muzzle.

Of course it is. Several local authorities, including Birmingham, have gone bankrupt in the last few years.

Smallish town in Cornwall, not a deprived area historically. Massive increase in break-ins, antisocial behaviour, theft, car crime etc over the last few years. Not on the same scale as other areas but definite decline in the past few years.

It’s true. London is declining. I’m in West London which once upon a time was lovely. The number of chicken shops, barber shops, cake shops and other bazaar type shops is crazy! Literally how many do you need in one town?! Bigger story of late these types of shops are under cover money laundering schemes. Look into it!
Fly tipping, anti social behaviour, packed buses with people watching their crappy stuff on high volumes, not paying for their fares… makes my blood boil. Sick of it!
Thanks that felt like therapy #rantover 😂

London seems richer these days and many areas are so much nicer than in the 80s. Much of south London was terrifying driving through it. There was still quite a lot of areas that had been bombed in the war and not fixed. Deptford and Catford were really run down as was Streatham, Brixton etc. Now much nicer. London is much more boring now though although that may be because I'm old and boring myself.

I think this is pretty much the same everywhere in towns and cities. If fortunate to live in a lovely idyllic village ot may be different.

The town we live in used to be bustling, fantastic shopping and pubs on an evening. Now it's like a ghost town, minimal shops, mostly big chains, all the niche ones have gone, same as the pubs.

The town centre just has some basic shops like poundland, the main area with a garden is used by drunk people and immigrants. When I say immigrants I mean coach loads transported to the area so it has become visually prolific. My job is to help them and not their fault they have been taken to a specific area and can't work due to status so yes they do get together in big groups and this is intimidating to the original population.

The whole before technology days of meeting up has changed so much, meeting friends to shop then going out at night.

So yes, a whole mix of things, mostly technology I think. Xx

The UK has been in managed decline since the end of WW2. The pandemic and Brexit have just made it steeper.
I agree with beguilingeyes that much of London is far better than it was in the 1980's. Also there are less homeless people than there were when the housing law was change in the early 1990's- I used to work on the South Bank in 1993 one morning I counted 27 homeless people asking for money , between Embankment station and the stage door at the National Theatre.

This not my experience of London at all. I've lived here for nearly 40 years and it's great. I can't remember the last time I saw any dog shit, people doing drugs etc. it's incredibly clean considering the size and population . I never feel unsafe at all.

I love the history, all the things to do, the variety, the tourists, the multi cultural atmosphere.

There seems to be a lot of that in other parts of the country sadly.

The only thing that's changed is it closes much earlier than it used to do post covid. I wish it went back to being a 24 hour city.

The crime rate has indeed gone up in the last 20 years - by nigh on 50%.

Camberwell was pretty ghastly when I used to visit my daughter there 25 years ago, but it improved as the area became gentrified. Maybe now it's gone down again.

Yes - totally agree - since Covid it the cult of self. Nobody gives a shit about anyone but themselves, smoking crack outside the primary school in broad daylight , fly tipping, mugging, stabbing a - also we live on the boundary of an LTN so it’s pushed a lot of the anti social stuff onto our roads - clearly nobody want to be snapped on camera buying drugs. The local council couldn’t give a toss as long as they are racking in the cash.

I lived in London for 35 years, mostly Queensway, Mayfair and Chelsea. Now l've been in Bristol for 20 years. The people are more friendly, you're near the country and you can get a very nice house for what my rather small flat off the King's Road was worth.But unfortunately Londoners are moving in:-)

Odd I never see the Farage rioters blamed for not integrating. Do you think they encourage their children to invite their Bangladeshi neighbours to play?

All children at school learn to speak English.

When I visited London over Christmas I noticed how run down and grubby it was. Vomit all over the pavement, rubbish, homeless tents everywhere. I used to live in London in my twenties and it didn’t feel that dirty then. Guildford is also looking extremely neglected and when you drive out there were multiple fly tipping a next to the road. Absolutely disgusting. I currently live in a different country due to my decision to leave thanks to some of the recent decisions by labour and I see the street being jet washed, no rubbish, I never feel unsafe when walking around and people take care and respect their environment. People in the UK need to get a grip and stop acting like the world owes them something.

You must have left the country very recently then. Quite a rapid time to get the required documentation and move.

This shows the crime rate in London down over the last ten years. Do you have figures for the last twenty to support your assertion?

https://crimerate.co.uk/london

They never have stats.

Yeah I was blown away by the comment.

I used to go to Peckham regularly in the late 00s and have no idea it was meant to be a “no-go” zone!

I think you must be a very close neighbour of mine! I've read your post and the updates. I am also zone 2 east London and agree with everything you've said.
The crime, drugs, gangs, mopeds, swearing, spitting, permanent smell of weed, dodgy men just hanging around in the street, stabbings, kids setting off fireworks, it's like everyone has given up living as a decent human being. I've lived here 15 years and noticed this shift particularly in the last couple of years.
The huge cultural divide and lack of Bangladeshi integration made significantly worse by mayor Rahman.

Innit though?

Wikipedia comes to the rescue:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_London

What is shocking about London is that there are hardly any areas where the houses and streets are all clean and pretty.
As a population, us Londoners are not civic minded where it comes to aesthetics and the upkeep of our surroundings.
As for Peckham. Rye Lane has gone completely downhill since "aspirational/standard having working class" stopped being the target .
So many name brand and non corporate/cabal stores closed down on the Lane and Choumert Road between the late 80s to 2005.
Walworth Road and East Street has gone the same way, but does not look as frownsy as Rye Lane.

Big up to Harte's butchers, the only Peckham business that stops me doing the whole of my grocery shopping in Brixton.

Yep.... the UK has not recovered from the 2008 Credit Crunch/banking crisis.
It was that that revealed how surface the progress that the then eleven year Labour progress had been.

Post Covid Tory era just ripped the sticking plaster of delusion off for all but the evangelical.

Brexit is just a convenient scapegoat for those who weren't open eyed before it.

And I voted "remain", completely open eyed to the decline of the UKf for too mant which caused many to vote the opposite way.

I worked all over London for several decades. Parts were rough, but nothing like now.
It's decline since Covid, Brexit, recession, is dreadful.

When I visit now, I generally can't wait to leave. Probably because everything is so bloody expensive it just makes me miserable.
I think the general mood for the working and middle classes s that we've been royally shafted. Some of us reluctantly put up with it, keep calm and carry on,, whilst others just don't care about the environment, other people/their community, and behave like arseholes. The rudeness of some people is a disgrace.

Where did you visit? I mean that does sound awful but I live and work in London and don’t recognise that at all.