Why is everyone hating on London

[greenwichvillage]

Recently a lot posts I read on social media is about how much people hate London. Its has been called all sorts of names - cesspit, dirty, crime ridden and the foreigners have taken over. They don't recognise London anymore and they are glad they have moved to whiter areas with cheaper housing.

For context, I have lived here all my life, lived in North West London and now live in Southwest London. I admit there are parts of London that have deteriorated, equally there part parts of London that are really nice. Yes it is expensive to live in and properties are expensive but that does not make it a cesspit.

I love living where I am and I love all that London has to offer. I'm not English but I am British and I'm not white and I feel really safe here in London. Yes there are problems with crime, but there is crime everywhere.

I have been to other areas in the UK and really none of it appeals to me, I have been to beautiful country side and small towns and cities and tbh I would get bored after two days there. But I would never go as far as insulting it which people seem to do quite a lot with London.

I think Farage/ Reform and Tommy have a lot to answer for.

Exactly tnat! They woild have people think it is a lawless hellhole - whereas in reality I am currently in the Royal Festival Hall watching an utterly joyous free.concert of jazz and carnival music put on by a youth music charity who work with children and young people across London in the summer holidays to develop their music skills and careers.

www.kinetikabloco.co.uk

I think it’s finally because money has started to be invested in the north. Coupled with the influencers who lived in. London flats worth upwards of £500k, to sell a northern lifestyle online, where they probably bought a sea view apartment for less than £250k

They are usually ignorant provincials who know in their hearts that they haven't got what it takes to make a good life for themselves in London. I despise the lot of them.

[South London born & bred here.]

There is shop lifting and people are being stabbed in broad daylight in a suburban area. This never used to happen and more fly tipping.

I think you have to be careful when you are out in central London

Yesterday someone gave me ice cream outside the supermarket as he fancied one but had no choice but to buy a pack of 4. I said I’ll give it to my kids, they were still in the car and he said how many do you have and I said 2 so he gave me another.

I absolutely love London, it’s my adopted home (born and elsewhere in the country)but I never want to leave..

Coffee I don't think that those of us who love London feel that at all. People are allowed their own opinions and it's fine not to like London and prefer living elsewhere

It is also fine for those of us who live in London to offer a very different perspective to explain what we like about the city. To me it's home and where I feel comfortable. I have lived in other cities, towns and the countryside but I have always returned to London

For my part what I was describing as right wing hate filled racism is the constant promulgation of tropes such as no go areas, lawlessness etc Londonistan etc that I see on social media and the drip drip of articles in the right wing press, namely the Daily Mail.

London has it's problems like all major cities but not to the extent portrayed in the press, social media and by certain individuals . Isn't right for those of us to live here to provide a counter narrative to refute these accusations? It's not an attack on those who don't like .

You dislike London. Hating on London is not the same as disliking London.

Hating on is making public criticism of something, usually on social media and usually in an unpleasant and vindictive way.

I love London and have worked in London for over 30 years, enjoy the buzz, my kids love it and we have some great days out. However the demographic has changed so much and while all types of people do rub along together the major has made it very clear that London is no longer for 'white families'.

Was so upset when this was in the press last year as I really feel that all demographics should be represented.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sadiq-khan-white-family-official-website-b2396431.html

Lived either in London or close Home Counties (30 mins out) my whole life. It's basically just worse than it was. It's filthy, covered in graffiti, full of terrifying electric bikes scooters coming at you from all angles without looking, stupidly loud with buskers and preachers all shouting into amplifiers, and horrendously crowded so midweek evenings on the tube feel like rush hour did a decade or so ago - and in many places you can't even get on the tube in actual rush hour. When I first started working there in 2001, it wasn't unusual to get a seat at 8.30 am!

Even though it's obviously always been busy, it used to feel vibrant and buzzy, but it now feels generally like it has more of an 'edge'. It's not helped by open lawbreaking, and lack of visible police. It's just depressing when you're always smelling drugs, or seeing people jumping barriers, or shoplifting, or dropping litter. And I'm not even talking about the 'proper' crimes like mugging or assault. Of course, there has always been crime, but I think it feels more of a concern now because there's little expectation that the police will bother to do anything about it. Reports suggest that huge numbers of all sorts of offences go unreported because 'what's the point?'

It used to be worth putting up with the noise, and the crowds, and the illegality, because there was so much to do and you could lead a very comfortable, full life on an average wage, or even less if you were happy sharing a flat. Now, everything's so expensive, nobody can afford anything, and even if they can it's all mostly a bit shit - like bad behaviour in theatres, or all the independent shops being replaced with dodgy money laundering places or overpriced tat. I don't however think this is just a London thing, it's just that London is the only city I really know well. And I find it deeply sad how far it's fallen. It really did use to be the best place in the world.

(Also, I think Khan is a fucking terrible mayor. He immediately broke his election promises, and that was the most he's ever accomplished in the role. Other than attend lots of parties and premieres, of course. But even I don't think what has happened to London is all his fault, I think the entire country's declined similarly, so blame has to go to central government.)

I’ve lived in London my whole life and I still love it. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.

It's simply a pile-on. I keep seeing the same posts/videos on SM from hateful people.

I’ve been going 2 or 3 times a year since 2021 because I loved it so much. I went June this year and it was just awful :(

I felt unsafe for the first time and noticed so much deterioration, witnessed phone theft and the tube was a lot more rowdy and hostile than my past visits.

There were people blasting religious texts from speakers, preachers spread throughout the place, and people handing out religious leaflets. I’m not religious and don’t see why people can’t keep it to their homes and places of worship. It can feel threatening in a public space when you feel you can’t refuse a leaflet.

Hmm I’m in two minds. Our best friends live in Catford and we’ve been visiting x10 a year for decades. The last 3/4 years I have seen a difference tbh.

Defo much more obvious crime like shop lifting and fare dodging. They don’t even try to hide it and it’s not teenagers. Friends are for the first time ever worried about their DC going out at night. Their street was great but now unruly behaviour on a weekly basis - one of their neighbours had a full on rave in their Edwardian terrace with portaloos etc. Lots of drug dealing on the street - one neighbour phoned police who basically weren’t interested.

I still love London but I wouldn’t live there for anything. I do think it’s going downhill tbh.

Most posters on mumsnet love London. They think that anywhere outside of the M25 is a cultural desert.

I grew up in London and now live in Yorkshire. I like to visit London, but I'm glad to get home to cleaner air, fewer crowds and more space.

It’s always been a thing to diss London. I used to, before I moved here. Lots of places in the UK are shitholes, or just boring high streets with Costa, TG Jones, vape shops etc. London is so big, with lots of different areas and it’s easy to get from one place to another to see loads of different things. It’s definitely a lot cleaner than it used to be, the buildings aren’t black like many years ago. Just don’t go round licking things and it’s ok.

Jealousy and racism. Quite often the hate comes from salty northerners who have little to no experience of the city and also purveyors of right-wing propaganda. London has its issues but most of the negative opinions are totally bulls..t

Yeah I think you and o have different definitions of hating on…..I am more like this (taken from Google on the definition of hating on)

Hating on" something, particularly in informal contexts, means actively expressing strong dislike or criticism towards it, often in a negative, public, or even bullying way. It implies a more active and aggressive form of dislike than simply not liking something

Have you been going on social media and obsessively posting how London has fallen? Because if you have, that's a bit weird? And also what the far-right are currently doing.

What are you on about? Seriously?

I haven’t been on social media obsessively posting about London - in fact this is the first time ever. What a strange thing to say.

Its a grotty shit hole for the most part. Its too busy. Its very stressful being there because the people generally aren't warm and friendly. There are good things too, but nothing I'd personally deem worth enduring all the negatives.

Because the OP was referring to the current batch of social media posts where people are saying that London has fallen, overrun by foreigners etc and was asking why.

My response (the first on the thread) was that it's because they hate Muslims and Sadiq Khan.

You then decided to respond that you dislike London and don't hate Muslims.

But that's irrelevant to the OP because you aren't posting it on social media, and to my post about the far-right muslim hating campaign to deride Sadiq Khan's London as a cesspool. They the ones currently hating on London by slating it on social media as described in the OP. You are not the subject of this thread.

I mean it's not a "grotty shit hole" at all. You clearly have no idea what you're on about.

No you’re right I’m not but you make me the subject of your reply when you reply directly to me and accuse me of those things. Your response wasn’t general or in answer to thr OP - it was directly to me. Hence my response.

No, you quoted my post about people hating Muslims and Sadiq Khan which was a response to the OP (the first post on the thread so it definitely wasn't aimed you) and tried to make it about you.

My post wasn't about you, it was about the far right campaign referred to in the OP. I don't know why you decided to take it personally and quote it.

The thread is about the particular SM R Wing thing that is going on at the moment. Not about people whose personal preference is to live / visit elsewhere.

The Far Right are anti the Muslim / Labour mayor and desperate to prove that London is a desperate lawless no/go zone full of feral migrants.

As it happens crime has fallen over the last year, and in multi cultural cosmopolitan London , which houses more migrants / refugees per head of population than anywhere else, the community here is NOT staging riots and setting fire to accommodation hostels / hotels.

But Reform want Londoners to believe that we are under threat so are yelling ‘cess pit’ on repeat.

That’s what the OP was referencing, I think.