Area gone to shit, feel forced to move 😪

[Runouttatown]

I've lived in the same London suburb all my life. Until just a few short years ago it was a very nice area, and we thought we'd likely stay for ever, perhaps downsizing when the DC left home. We've spent a lot of time and money improving and extending our home over the years and it's perfect for us, just the way we want it, so would not wish to leave it for a few years yet.

However, the area has been going downhill at an alarming rate over the last 3 or 4 years to the point that we find we now absolutely hate it and want to get out - overcrowded, horrendous traffic, driving & road rage, unpleasant, rude people, lots of crime and antisocial behaviour. HMOs springing up all over, including one at the end of the street, most of which contain single, foreign men, not families. We're overrun with food delivery bike riders (many of whom live in the HMOS) who congregate in the high street, leering at women & young girls and spit disgusting red tobacco on the pavement. The area looks increasingly run down, fly tipping and a general lack of care. It has long been fairly multi cultural (no problem with that at all) but we're now finding that as white british people we are fast becoming a minority, and frequently encounter people who cannot speak any English. I'm sure some will accuse me of being racist but I absolutely am not, I'm just sad at what has happened to our once lovely area and, no, I'm not blaming immigration for all of it, although it's clearly a factor.

I know many areas are the same but there are plenty that are not - I only have to compare our Community Facebook page which is full of posts complaining of the above issues to that of the area we're thinking of going to which is completely different.

We've accepted we now need to move several years before we are ready but I feel so sad and angry about it. Several friends have already moved and others are considering it for the same reasons. The DC are happy for us to move as they hate it too - one at uni, the other working & considering buying their own place, not round here!

But not before the 1720s, this kind of urban living is a very new and unhuman way to live. The only people who fare well in this environment are the very rich.

How about you have a go at the gig economy employers instead, those who don't check rtw documents and have created a system where it's possible to piggy back on someone's legitimate account, in order to work illegally? They're the ones making millions in profit, whilst keeping thousands of people existing below the poverty line and driving the need for hmos. I agree though, that if you still choose to use their services despite knowing this, you're part of the problem.

Yes I agree, the anger over this issue needs to be directed at the elites who are doing this.

You so sure about that??

Here's an account of French and Dutch people (one of them "speaking not a word of English" ) being blamed for starting the Great Fire of London:

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/great-fire-of-london-examine-the-evidence/fear-fire-started-by-french-and-the-dutch/

And here's a brilliant blog article about brothels, brawling and (gasp) illegal bowling alleys, all frequented by those dastardly foreigners the Dutch in a London suburb in the 1400s. I can just imagine the post on Medieval Mumsnet 😆

https://blog.history.ac.uk/2022/03/brothels-bowling-and-bad-reputations-life-on-the-fringes-of-late-medieval-london/

It’s not the elites, it’s unscrupulous corporations. Top arseholes.

I can just imagine the post on Medieval Mumsnet🤣

They are the elites - who are the elites you're thinking of who are neither causing nor complicit?

Which parts of London?

The ones you are talking about are working (good for them) - when I lived in a HMO as a student, we were all about partying & late nights, we must have been awful neighbours.

Yep, when young white students / office workers live together they’re called ‘house shares’

When brown young people live together they’re called HMOs.

It’s immigrants vs ex-pats all over again.

As well as wanting to know which part of the country posters think have improved, I'm curious about this question too.

i've also noticed that people who don't go out in the evening have a very different perspective on an area than those who do. Just pondering.

Yes every generation thinks they have seen the downfall of London 😂

But she survives.

Lots of us don't use the so-called "gig" economy. I've never had a JustEat/Deliveroo delivery, never used an Uber taxi, never used a nail bar, nor Turkish Barber, not a hand car wash. I don't want anything to do with the "gig" or "black" economy that costs the country billions every year in tax evasion and benefit fraud.

It's all fine and we'll saying this but in my parents Scottish fishing village their street of 70 odd houses now only has 4 permanent households. The rest all rich southerners holiday homes or Airbnb. When I was a kid you knew absolutely every single person in each house. All new houses built are filled with the dodgy fuckers from the towns 20 odd miles away.

She does❤️

When I first moved to London people moaned about the Greek people in my area.

Then a lot of them moved to a different borough and Kurdish refugees moved in. Then Turkish people. Albanian people. Every time there was lots of moaning, but as people settled everyone lived fairly peacefully together. There were some warring Turkish drug gangs at one point, but they only fought each other!

London was not really like it is now in the 80s & 90s, many places have gentrified & cost £££ but it doesn’t mean everything from the past has gone.

Obviously Covid pushed people out and lots of families/young people have left due to house prices but I’m surprised that any area has gone from being nice for years to crap in 3 years. Have house prices dropped?

Traffic is shit is most parts of London and food delivery drivers are everywhere because lots of people drive & order takeaway.

It is, in part. But it's also us - the general public - who want our Ubers and Deliveroos and our nails done cheap. Or who dont want to pay the real cost of hotels and restaurants employing legal staff paid the living wage.

Love this.

As you say, the Huguenots experienced a lot of discrimination and xenophobia in the 16th century.

Plus ça change and all. Muslims are the monster du jour.

Ok but this means that at some point 66 families chose to move away and to sell their houses to incomers rather than the next generation of locals.

Exactly this.

The Uber Eats delivery guy delivered by food absolutely drenched in the rain the other day. I tipped him but I know he is getting paid a pittance.

The official figures are that about 11 million people in the UK are now foreign born. Unofficially it's even higher.This

Successive governments have wanted immigration because we have an ageing population & that is also responsible for population growth.

I live close to an area that has seen an influx of HongKongers & who are spreading out a bit. I don’t have an issue with it but then my parents are immigrants.

So knowing all this, then why are you still using such a company who exploits it's workers?

Because I am a flawed, flawed human.

My brother in his 40s feels this way too. He thinks it's sad to see the state of the streets within communities. No one cares and it's lack of social cohesion that really is stark. It's echoed over many parts of the UK.

Agree with all this. I don't use Uber or Deliveroo or nail bars. Or hand car washes. I don't agree with using the services. I want nothing to do with any of it.