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?

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I lived very happily in London for ten years and was back for a week recently. It’s still one of the great cities for me.

Public transport? I know we all like to moan about public transport but really the extent of the transport network in London is just fantastic - tubes, trains, buses, trams. Free on TfL for children and heavy discounted rail fare for them. Oyster cards/contactless. Capped daily or weekly fare. Multiple options to get from A to B so you are not beholden to a single bus/train to get you home.

Come to Lincolnshire. The nearest bus stop is 3 miles away from me, and the bus runs once an hour. At least now it is only £3…I was paying £9 return to get to work. Thirty miles took 90 minutes on the rural roads.

I'd argue London is quite well priced comparative to the rest of Western Europe's capitals and the US. I don't see chaos though so I must not go to the same areas as you?

I love London and will always love London, even when I eventually have to leave due to the infernal politics of this country leading to overall ruin. London is the bastion of sanity in this country IMO.

I blame the money launderers, buying up property in London (and Dublin), and driving up the prices for everyone else. Creating bubbles.

It’s always been like this. Like literally always. People flouncing about shopping on one street while a bomb threat’s evacuating another a few blocks over.

Train strikes - it’s England.

Instagramabiliy - look at the 90s, spice girls made the uk 🇬🇧 an entire fashion look. Mini before that did the same with cars. And many other examples. London has always been a backdrop.

and I think any big city has now got this weird social media thing - it can feel quite dystopian (the behaviour) if you’re not in that age group or not into it but basically think of it this way - people are working in public. So if you went to a coffee shop in 1920 and saw people taking meeting and sitting ignoring everyone working you’d be like wtf? But every day we see people sitting in coffee shops on their laptops and think nothing of it. Before pandemic it would be awful to take zooms in public, now people do it all the time (still rude, I think but hey ho). It’s just working in public.

Anyway, people taking films and photos etc, they’re working in public. It mainly isn’t just for showing off (at least if you’re over 27) it is a career or side hustle.

It’s very contrasted at the moment with the reality which is that people don’t have money. This can be jarring. But social media is fake. It is ‘media’. Just how the guy who writes eloquent and sophisticated newspaper articles isn’t always eloquent and sophisticated in their personal lives, social media people are curating their thoughts and looks and putting that out there. And then, you’ve got the piers Morgan’s of the world who put themselves on show warts and all. But it’s all still media.

I would agree on the overpriced. I go down now and again and stay at a friend’s holiday flat. Even without the lodging costs and cooking your own food, crickey, it is expensive.

Agree with the bit about chains. Its seems harder for businesses to start up or for independent shops to thrive. Probably due to the obscene level of rents in the commercial sector and the westfields. The centre isnt what it was and you need money to really thrive in a way you dont in major other european cities. Both rents and house prices are way beyond a normal family, I think time out said its 90k a year minimum, which goes up to £130k plus in the “better” boroughs… better meaning less crowding, more amenities, etc. park access is pretty consistent across boroughs though.

I spend a lot of time in another european capital and average families can live a primrose hill, or posh end of acton standard of life on a dagenham budget because the local govt has laws to make sure housing costs are controlled.

who are the winners in london? People in the streets (making the culture) or the landlords and developers looking to b£n£fit off the next walthamstow or shoreditch and filter money upward. Thats the bit of london I hate with a passion.

Have to say, I love the hustle and bustle and general anonymity you can assume if you wish. I don’t really want to make small talk on my commute.

I suppose it's like most of the UK, alright if you are loaded. If you can afford regular holidays, nice things , a superficial and comfortable life.

It's far from what it used to be, let alone a caricature.

Fings ain't wot they used to be eh @NattyBrickMember ? 😢

YABU. London is not just Camden Town and The West End ya know!

I guess it depends on what you feel it used to be and how far back you want to go.

Only a few decades ago, London was branded ‘inner city’, which meant undesirable. London schools were failing, but then became a success story. Homicide rates were higher.

Victorian London was blighted by poverty. Post WW2 London was a bombsite.

But the cost of homes is a sick joke. And gentrification is rife. Number of examples of working class communities make neighbourhoods buzzing and desirable, then wealthy people move in to get a piece of the action and price them out. Council homes without a right to buy is the solution.

I know what you mean. It's lost some of the genuine glamour and sheen from the 2000s and now everyone seems to be clamouring for fake lifestyles and luxury to post on social media.

A good example would be the NARS pop-up shop that happened on the weekend in Covent Garden. The event was widely publicised on Tiktok beforehand and hyped up by influencers who presumably received free PR goodie bags anyway without having to stand in line.

The actual event was a total shit show with people lining up from 3am and they changed the entrances forcing people who were already there for hours to lose their spot. There was no communication and seemingly just one security guard in charge of hundreds of people. Many ended up standing for 4-6 hours and only received a tiny sample pot, the sort of thing you get from the beauty counter anyway.

The sad part is that judging by the Tiktok videos and first hand accounts, the vast majority of girls standing in line were from more deprived backgrounds who were just desperate for the chance to receive free NARS products which sounded too good to be true. The actual influencers or people who could afford to buy NARS weren't anywhere near the catastrophic pop-up event.

I find it cheaper here smack bang in nw than when I visit outside of London, I can’t believe how much bus fares are outside of London.

We were there last week, I couldn’t believe how quiet the tube was. I saw no disorder.

I love living in London and the expense of 'doing things' is balanced out by all the FREE stuff to do

I can get a bus anywhere for £1.75. And there are always cheaper places to eat out/get a drink

I've lived here 8 years and I'm nowhere close to running out of free stuff to do as it's always changing

(I've never been to Primrose Hill/notting hill )

With the exception of housing costs, which I think are sort of in line with the inflated salaries, I think London is full of free or low cost things to do if you look for them. We visited the London Wetlands for the first time a couple of weeks ago on free tickets for World Wetlands Day- I've lived here 15 years and it was the first time I'd visited and it was really beautiful. I have a couple of National Trust things in London still to do on their free ticket offers, and on the Heritage open days in September (we used this to tour the Nunhead cemetery last year- fascinating and some stunning gravestones). There is still so much I want to see here. It's pretty cheap to take the kids on the train with me with their free travel- we usually take overgrounds rather than tube- and very cheap if I feel like taking the bus!

It's criminal, isn't it? Always makes me laugh when I hear people complaining about public transport in London. They clearly don't use it anywhere else in the country. They just think they have a much better deal because they swapped pt for a car.

Agree, on any week of the year, you can have a wonderful free day out in London for the price of a bus fare (free for kids) and a packed lunch.

Museums, galleries, talks, parks, public spaces with free events, like the Festival Hall.

In many parts of the country the public transport is extremely limited and the only places to go in the winter have a charge or are shopping malls.

Public transport in London is just awesome. It is so connected. There are normally multiple choices of how to get from A to B and it is cheap.

You don't realise how cheap and efficient it is until you try to travel elsewhere!

It’s also very pleasant to walk. You can get from place to place via a string of green spaces.

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