Trafalgar Square on New Year's Eve - OK for a group of fairly sensible teenagers?

[toalakebytheriver]

Ds wants to go up to Central London/Trafalgar Square with a group of mixed friends for New Year's Eve, to witness the fireworks. They are all pretty sensible and streetwise, and don't drink stupidly. They are Londoners so are used to daft behaviour and how to avoid getting mixed up in it.

What do you think? Safe or not?

Er, oh tough call! How old? I certainly wouldn't allow DD (15) to go. We live in London too, but there's London and there's London at midnight on NYE.

Depends on how they're going to get home.

They'll probably be OK in the crowds, but even with public transport running late, the journey back is likely to be a nightmare.

Sorry, should have said. They're all 16 or 17. I've never been up there myself on NYE. Is it really bad?

they will be fine

I certainly intend to give ds the taxi fare (mahoosive though that will be) and encourage him to take a taxi.

Have you been there, SEA?

Sorry to be the voice of doom, but getting a taxi may in itself be difficult, impossible, or take hours.....

Do any of the group live within walking distance? Can you trust them to stay together?

No and no, Onimolap. Don't tell me I'll have to follow them, hiding behind ample lamp-posts...

have done it, was a bit of a crush! like a rugby scrum. and someone poked a police horse, which bit me!! However, the police will remove alcohol at least did when i went. It was cold and dull to be honest, lots of squashed people willing that clock to chime!

They would have to be very ample lamp-posts.

I went at 18 and then at 19 - admittedly this would have been mid 80s. It was overwhelming then - just huge and a bit scary, with lots of random snogging strangers going on. But fun with it - good memories.
Night buses?

Thanks, Lololizzy. I wonder if there's a better London option I could suggest.

They're all very experienced bus users.

I went once, early nineties. The crowd was very frightening. I was with a friend and we tried to stay together, the crowd was just surging and the top half of my body was moving in a different direction to my feet, which were then lifted off the ground. Some pervert then put his hand down the back of my pants and I was so crushed I couldn't move and I lost my friend. It was terrifying. Might be different for a group of boys though.

it was quite stressful as the crowd would keep pushing and swaying. I'm five foot 9 but often hard to keep footing. Was glad police removed all cans and bottles. If people feel the need to get drunk, do it before arrival at the Square oh but don't think you can get out for a pee!
I would never do it again, one of those things that look so much fun on tv but in reality, crapsville

tall boys, yeh. Petite women?? Scary. I'm tall and no skinny minnie and had to spend the whole time trying to stay upright and not get trampled underfoot

Oh no, that sounds terrifying. I might have to show him this thread. Any other experiences to add to the mix?

losing all the drink i'd purchased to the policeman's 'stash' and going home frozen to bone after long tube queues oh and the horsey teeth marks in my arm?!- yeh, good night

A couple of them were 'kettled' in the recent protests, so you'd think they'd be keen to avoid further encounters with police horses, especially the biting kind...

Poor you, Lizzy!!!

you do these things or similiar when in your early 20's i guess?! i would hate them to have a bad time, i think would have more fun in many other places, well ANY other place! You can't move, can't drink,(can't raise your arms anyway!) so you are just..squashed for hours. Like being in the front row of a rock concert but no music and nothing to look at

Any other opinions or experiences from people who keep daytime hours?

Two of my ds are going to Leicester Squareon news year eve to be with some of their friends. I don't think they will get mixed up in drink and that stuff they are fairly sensible. 16, only a tube journey away from home so...
I think as long as you speak to them about being in at a good time and answering their phone. He'll be fine, make sure he's not out all night though.
You want hinm to have a good night and not for in to end in utter disaster.

I went to Trafalgar Square in my early 20s and never again. I felt as though I was going to be crushed and the crowd was quite scary. Nearly lost all my friends and at midnight all these random men started trying to snog me, tongues, hands everywhere. Hated it.

All other teen and early 20s years I went to the centre of our local town, to the place by the clock where everyone congregates. Very much nicer and although the occasional drunk/ bout of mild trouble, it felt safer and a lot less threatening. That, I have good memories of, but not of the year we went to London, which I wish I'd never bothered to do.

Oh, and a couple of my friends were Londoners and the rest of us visited frequently, so it wasn't like we weren't used to being squashed on the tube etc. But we still hated it.