To think London has become a parody of itself?

[NattyBrickMember]

Everything is overpriced, gentrification is out of control, and the chaos somehow feels unbearable and iconic at the same time. AIBU to think London has become a caricature of what it used to be - like a city pretending to be itself for tourists and TikTok?

No

I still think it’s one of the best cities in the world 🥰

Every generation thinks this as it ages!

I love London. I'm 70, don't live there but visit five or six times a year. All areas, posh and not posh - I house sit. I unfailingly have a brilliant time. No idea what you mean really.

The population of London is just short of 9 million people. And most of us aren't on TikTok. We are busy living our regular, average person lives.

How would an entire city pretend to be itself on social media anyway?

What chaos are you referring to?

YY, I thought the OP was me writing from 1999 🤣

Well I don’t know.
I just got back from a weekend in London and thought how much it has improved in so many ways.
I grew up in Essex with a Londoner mother so knew it quite well from the 70s to the 90s, but these days I live in the north and hardly ever go there.
I can’t get over how friendly and helpful people are, what a pleasant environment it is compared to the unfriendly, dirty, openly racist, traffic clogged place I grew up knowing.
Obviously it has massive problems, crowding and house/rent prices mainly, but it has a lot going for it too.

We're from the E Mids and absolutely love our several trips a year to London. Incredible food, sights and just an amazing city.

I'll never tire of going.

unbearable and iconic

People were telling us that in the 1970s, as I recall 🙄

My rain soaked walk to the station is a ordinary zone 3 suburb didn't feel very gentrified or generated for Tik Tok this morning - unless soaking wet walks to the station, trying to avoid the 334653th hole Thames Water have dug this month is aspirational content.

London is mainly just a place full of peope trying to go about thier every day lives - just like anywhere else

I've lived in London for 25 years and apart from the cost of everything I don't recognise what you say. I don't find it at all chaotic which is impressive given its size and age. I spent half term in a very posh rural location and I saw more warmth, kindness and consideration on my first morning back in London than I did in a week there. I also find it authentic with a genuinely diverse community.

I've seen this episode
Roz: Frasier, this is my cousin Jen. She's visiting this week, remember?Frasier: Oh, yes, of course. So how are you enjoying Seattle? Jen: Well, I've been living in London, so Seattle seems a little lame. No offense.Frasier: Oh, none taken. So you like London? Jen: Not really. It's like a parody of itself.Frasier: How so? Jen: Oh, you know, double decker buses, bobbies, little pubs. It's like EPCOT but even fakier. So I bailed. Went and spent some time in Florence.Frasier: Ah, Firenze. How is she? Jen: I gotta say, Florence is over. It was probably cool, before all the Americans found out about it.Frasier: You mean three hundred years ago? Jen: Exactly. That's why I'm going to Vietnam. Americans have never even heard of it.Frasier: Ah. Well, you know, I'm afraid I have to bail on this conversation

I would agree with you, @scandalo . It's very friendly. I have always had great neighbours.

Sorry about the formatting 👆🏻

I've always thought that London is brilliant place to live (at least for people who love big cities/lots of action), but not necessarily great value for a short-term visitor. A native Londoner friend who moved away to France in the late '90s and then on to Poland has been saying ever since that (leaving aside need to see family and friends) she has no desire to go back given all of the other places she might use her time and money to visit. I think it's really a very personal choice.

I live in London and this is 100% what is happening. All London residents meet up once a month to make sure we all understand the plan and are sticking to it. Logistically this is a nightmare as we need a room big enough to hold 8 million people. We usually meet when Coronation Street is on because we know northerners are busy then so they won't notice.

We all then make sure that London, and everyone in it, is pretending to be London. A few people have asked if this is a waste of time as London is in fact London whether we pretend or not. We drive those dissenters to the north (someone just past St Alban's) and leave them there to fend for themselves. I could get in serious trouble for revealing this. Please tell nobody.

I’ve lived in London for 30 years and apart from the cost of housing, I disagree. Have you lived in London long OP

I've lived and worked here 21 years (since coming for uni). Some things have changed, some things are the same.
Overall I don't have a clue what the OP is talking about!

OP, I have Dr Samuel Johnson on the phone from the 1700s, he would like to know if you're feeling a bit tired of life?

The general sense of disorder - constant strikes, packed tubes, insane rent prices, gentrification pushing people out while luxury flats stay empty. It feels like London is caught between being an unliveable mess and a glossy Instagram backdrop. Do you not feel it’s changed?

@neverknowinglyunreasonable - oh that reminds me, sorry, I can't come next Wednesday, I'm too busy making sure all the tourist hotspots are dirty and full of litter. Send me the minutes, as usual.

Shhhhh it's a secret.....

Btw do you recall who is on tea and coffee duty this month?

That said, I really really hate the smell of cannabis everywhere. But that is the same in cities throughout the whole UK, except in Scotland where the government have declared war against it.