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?

So how come all the state schools in london are full up? They all have pretty small catchment areas which means locals are going to their local school, being part of their local community, and most people in London don't own a car, let alone 2

I am not sure I recognise this.

1.4m is not a huge amount for a London home. We are not talking oligarch wealth, just regular couples or families (admittedly earning more than 100,000 and probably got help from BOMAD). No reason for them not to use local schools, whether state or independent. They are probably 2 working people (since they are living in Central London, not the 'burbs). Not sure about owning two huge cars in Central London when public transport is so good. Does not make sense.

Totally agree with you. Nothing in the previous posters response suggests central London is a “no go area” with all its connotations. Particularly not for the hundreds of thousands of people commuting into central London daily!

I grew up rurally and the equivalent would be me claiming the countryside is a no go area although I still enjoy birdwatching but because farmers slurry spread their fields there is an untenable trade off to go further afield.

To be honest the centre looked v good today. It's the outer bits which look a little scummy and those have always varied over the years.

1.4m is not a huge amount for a London home.

It is, when you look at London as a whole rather than a specific area.

i think about 340k homes in London are worth 1m plus.

It's true though. How do you think places like Basildon came about. Majority of people there have come from London in the past couple of generations.

And lots of people used to work at Ford's in Dagenham. Many houses were built there ( Basildon ) for the workers

Trouble is now Basildon is turning into a shit hole

The whole country is in decline. Crime is on the increase., anti social behaviour is up, kids are getting unruly because parents cant be bothered to parent any more. Shops are shutting down, litter every where. Ive told my kids that if they want some sort of future, then they wre better of living abroad.

I lived in London, twice, in the late 1970s in W4, in a flat share and again from 1985-1990 as a single person in the Kilburn side of NW6, and in between I lived in NYC. I moved for romantic reasons, but continued to go to London two or three days a week for work until 2005. Now I just go to see friends, who live in mostly leafy bits of London, so my experience is not current. I suspect it's more like early 1980s NYC, when the city was just emerging out of its 1987 bankruptcy, and everyday life could be up in your face challenging. I rather like living in the rural SW, but my DC prefers the faster pace of the SE at 25. Life stage has a huge bearing on where a person chooses to live. And property prices, work prospects, rental availability, etc . It was always like this. And it is always hardest on young people.

Not so easy now, what with brexit and all that

The elephant in the room which no one mentions for fear of being shouted down is the word “parents”.
The overwhelming majority of boys and young men who are involved in crime, particularly knife crime, do not have “ parents”. They were usually born to young women who were barely able to organise their own lives and an absent “babyfather” with multiple “babymothers” across London who never contributed any kind of stability either in person or financially.
The luckier ones will have a stable grandmother involved in their lives but the vast majority will look to the gang to provide the security that boys in stable families get from their parents.

I moved from Blackheath 2 years ago because of crime, dealers and general decline. I still work there and it’s only become worse since I’ve left, very pretty to look at but lots of issues.

I've noticed property is really cheap in Croydon compared to the rest of outer London .

Something in the Daily Mail today about cyclists being attacked with hammers while cycling through parks in London , presumably on their way to work and the police saying they can't patrol before 8 am .

This. What did you think would happen when the cost of living is extortionate and totally disconnected now from wages on offer. There is no way of working up and no guarantee or security of return no matter how much you work. Birth position alone matters, how rich your parents are and what sex you are. The country being flooded with immigration does not help. Frankly I don’t think London is our capital city any more.

In other times of history it’s well-known that these factors cause resentment, unrest and criminal behaviour. An increase in weapons and fortifications (knives and gated enclosures) are also clear signs. We are told over and over that it’s not happening, nothing’s wrong and it’s all your own fault anyway, pay more, work more - it’s just like an abusive marriage.

I always said trouble would come up from the south east, but it’s engulfed the midlands quicker than I expected. The midlands are England’s heart and really determine what happens to the country. There’s nothing good in this country’s future without serious change and that would start with land distribution, which this country has never and will never touch.

Strangely some of the areas that seemed rough now seem perfectly ok to me whereas some areas that housed a lot of middle class like Acton as an example to me seem dreadful

Don't personally get the love for Shoreditch - not leafy enough for me - but each to his own - I would however be perfectly happy to live in Kingston:Teddington:Richmond/Wimbledon/putney/Barnes and the nicer bits of north London( and have done so on the past)

Went to an event a couple of nights ago in the west end and seemed perfectly ok - suprisingly clean too although night life isn't what it was these days- that aspect I think let's London down when I heard tourists talking about struggling to get a drink at 11.10pm - yes you have to watch your bag and be aware who is behind you on escalators and don't walk round with phone out or across parks in dark etc - but it has always been the case

But when you criticise irresponsible breeding (even here) you’re the bad guy.

Everybody is panicked about birth rates but honestly we could do with far fewer of the wrong type of people having kids.

Because the eugenicists have always been on the right side of history.🙄

Everybody is panicked about birth rates but honestly we could do with far fewer of the wrong type of people having kids.

Not sure who the wrong people are? But how do you know it's them that have stopped?

I've noticed property is really cheap in Croydon compared to the rest of outer London .

The centre has really declined in the last few decades. Still nice spots in other parts of the borough.

and birth rates impacts school funding hence why it worries me.

I agree. It's no surprise that this has happened.
I also agree that the population has been gaslit that nothing is wrong, etc, etc for years. The difference in the last few years is that people have started to wake up to reality and increasingly not trust the politicians and media. There is a lack of social cohesion, hence the decay and rising crime in many places.

Right on cue….

The wrong people are the “parents” being referred to in the post I responded to.

And clearly if they are parents they have not stopped.

Given that most Brits who migrate, move to Australia, Brexit will have no impact for there or many destination choices outside of the EU (and language barriers would have made it harder anyway.)