Is London a crime infested shithole?

[Netcurtainnelly]

Is London a crime infested shithole? 👀

A woman was gang raped after leaving a nightclub, has come up in the news today. I saw someone describing London as a crime infested shithole and it's not a safe place anymore.😫

100% agree with this. On occasion, I have to work outside London and I have been truly shocked by the fear and incorrect assumptions about my city. Sadly, I have also noticed this develop in former Londoners who have retired out to rural areas - some of whom have developed some very 'odd' beliefs.
I will say, that it has become much more prevalent since we got (three times voted in) Sadiq Khan as Mayor...........why could that be I wonder?

@NonComm

I will say, that it has become much more prevalent since we got (three times voted in) Sadiq Khan as Mayor...........why could that be I wonder?

Of course. And it's weaponised by Reform all the time.

But that alone doesn't account for the astonishing lack of education and awareness of London.

I can't believe anyone would raise a child and not take that child just once to its capital city.

I am currently reading a Dickens where London is essentially a crime infested shithole with coaches being mugged on Shooter's Hill. Any big city through time will track similarly with certain reputations.

These posters (bots) never say where they live despite repeated questioning. I wonder if they've ever been there

Through the rough?? There's a typo in haven't seen before. It's also not true.

Dubai? Sharia law?
Hong Kong? Communist China?

Interesting choices.

I am currently reading a Dickens where London is essentially a crime infested shithole with coaches being mugged on Shooter's Hill.

Which wasn't in London at the time. And the coach wasn't in fact mugged, passengers were just fearful it would be, like people on this thread.

Ok, but you could read Dickens, or look at the work of Lord Shaftesbury, the writings of Henry Mayhew and, going back in time, the needs addressed by George Peabody. Or look at Hogarth cartoons.

Central London id anything has too much wealth, on Saturday I saw a very expensive car and feel like this is not the London I was born and grew up in. The wealth inequality is vast!

I travel into central London (from outer ditto) regularly, and the only place I’ve ever been pickpocketed (if that’s a word) is Madrid. Only it was pick-bagged, purse very ‘professionally’ lifted.

In London, as in any city or on any busy street, you need to make sure any valuables are secure, and FGS don’t walk around glued to your phone, just asking for anyone to grab it. And don’t leave it on e.g. a cafe/pub table for anyone to take while you’re distracted. Use a cross-body bag, and don’t leave that untethered by a cafe chair, either.

I feel safer travelling on the tube in the late evening nowadays than I did in the 1980s. Back then if you boarded a tube at 9pm it was pretty much empty. Nowadays they are packed.

Surely part of the reasons why there is so much phone theft is, unlike 20 - 30 years ago, everyone (including children) is walking around with a highly portable, highly fenceable personal computer worth several hundred pounds.

It's opportunity.

@HoppityBun a woman was gang raped. Shame on you for making jokes about it.

Probably an opportune moment to share what the Spectator (not exactly a lefty/islamist vessel) has posted on X just this morning.

Before MN deletes, I'm not suggesting the OP is from a Sri-Lankan based troll farm, but perhap they are the unthinking, uncritical consequence of one:

Thanks for sharing this. I really feel we need to push back on this. I love my city and I am fucked if I am having it ruined by a combination of bot farms and people who are so timid they can’t walk down their own high street without a chaperone.

OP said she "copied this from social media" so quite likely the source is as described in the article. The fact that Epsom isn't in London might well escape a non-UK based bot (to be clear I am not saying the OP is a bot and I don't think she is one. But she might unwittingly have copied from one, thinking it was a reputable source).

Its depressing to think that there are adults in the UK who apparently can't tell the difference between London and Gotham City.

Now I have the image of Sadiq Khan as Batman in my head.

Have you ever seen the pair of them in the same room?

Here's a link to the actual research, showing that it's a definite strategy of various 'bad actors' to make people believe that London is 'a shit hole'

https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/misinformation-and-disinformation-in-london-risks-and-responses-e6jd9/

With a little excerpt here:

...the following actors were assessed as active in
promoting or amplifying misleading content related to London:

4Annex – misinformation and disinformation in London
• Extreme-Right Wing (ERW) and UK ERW groups
• Russian-aligned or ‘Pro-Kremlin’ groups
• Beijing-aligned groups
• MAGA-aligned groups.

The relative prominence of actors varied across narratives. For example, within the structured sample over the two-year period from March 2024 to March 2026, UK ERW ecosystems appeared to be among the most prominent contributors to several clusters, particularly those relating to crime and violence against women and girls. They accounted for around 39% of phone snatching and knife crime-related content and 25% of violence against women and girls content.

Additional networks were also identified across multiple geographies. This included a Vietnam-based Facebook network of at least 42 pages, with a combined following ofaround 1.25 million. It used repeated, AI-generated imagery and coordinated high-volume posting, including impersonation of local media outlets, to produce emotive content at scale. The network targeted London and the Mayor, framing the city as a site of governance failure and housing injustices.

Further networks included a Sri Lanka-based content farm producing monetised AI-generated posts and a Nigeria-based cluster impersonating UK media outlets. Common tactics across these networks included impersonation of credible sources, use of sensationalist headlines, and AI-generated imagery to maximise engagement.

(Bold by me.)

Perhaps some of you, like @Netcurtainnelly, might actually have a read of this research and therefore realise that you're being played here.

Just like said bots claim that there's a Tube to Peckham.

Ive lived here for 20 years and I've literally never been a victim of crime - neither has my husband. Obviously we are cautious (with handbag and phone in particular). All capital cities have a fair bit of crime - i dont think London is dramatically better or worse than others.

unlike 20 - 30 years ago, everyone (including children) is walking around with a highly portable, highly fenceable personal computer worth several hundred pounds.

And a bloody nuisance they are too. Totally oblivious to what's going on around them. So busy staring at their screens they don't look where they're going. Don't walk in a straight line so you're switching from one side of the pavement the other trying to get past. Then stop dead in the middle of the pavement to fiddle with it rather than move to the side out of the way.

Central London id anything has too much wealth, on Saturday I saw a very expensive car and feel like this is not the London I was born and grew up in.

There have always been extremes of wealth and poverty in London, often very close together. The great noblemen's houses and palaces along the Strand and later Mayfair compared to the rookeries of St Giles etc. Tothill Fields almost opposite Westminster Abbey. See the Booth Poverty Maps.

Having moved from London a number of years ago, all I ever hear is what an even bigger shit hole it’s become. I loved living in London but I did witness a few things I’d never wish to see again. It is crowded, it is dirty and people are much happier in the summertime when the sun is shining.

Absolutely shocked by the comments. This is rape!

not something to be joked about at all.

Not like this there hasn't, I know I grew up in West London!

The Booth Poverty Maps were representative of poverty in Victorian London so yes, actually I think I'm comparison to those times the wealth inequality gap is currently about the same. In the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s this was not the case. Equally, people actually lived in properties pre 2000, their didn't just sit empty, they were actually homes.

I would say growing up in West and South London, there was definitely quite a bit of crime but this changed when loads of areas became gentrified and people were pushed out of the communities they were born and grew up in.