Is London a sh*t hole?

I escaped from London in 1973, having come to dislike it thoroughly - I was still having to spend evenings in town to work though. If I'm honest I suppose I must admit it's because the place had changed so much that I had fallen out of love with the place of my birth! I've only been there once in the last twenty years, and didn't recognise most of it.

As for the comic cuts architecture... starting with the Lloyd's building that looked as though it had been built inside-out, and regressing through a building like a suppository, called, apparently, The Gherkin (why?). I rest my case. Innocent but insane is the verdict...

No offence to any Londoners on this thread but I just don't like the city at all. It's simply far too big and I feel quite claustrophobic with the feeling of people pressing in all around me and stretching out for miles in all directions. I feel as if I can't breathe. Last time I was in London I wondered what would happen if there was some emergency that required the city to be evacuated, you just couldn't get out. I like my village where people wave to me as I drive past and my children had a country upbringing.

So many cliches in your post Mishap I don't where to begin!

"I hate the noise, the fact that you cannot walk down a road and hold a conversation with your companion because of the rumbling traffic."

This statement really is nonsense - I walk nearly every day, with a friend, and believe me we do talk!

"I hate the fumes. I hate the dirt - whenever I have to go to London I always jump in a shower when I get back and scrape the black from under my fingernails."

Rubbish - my fingernails are always clean.

"I hate the inhuman ignoring of homeless people in doorways. I hate the dominance of the car and the grim concrete flyovers. I hate the brash consumerism and garish shop fronts. I hate walking down a street and people brush past you at speed, lost in their own preoccupations. I am entirely immune to the buzz that others feel in a city."

Is this unique to London?

I loved living in London when I was a young woman but both London and I changed with the years and I was glad to leave it as I approached 60.

I am only describing my experience - they are not cliches, just what has happened when I have been there. It is indeed true that when I get off the train after a journey to London, I do have to clean my fingernails - I'm not making it up! - it is just how it is.

And indeed a lot of this is common to lots of cities. See the thread about Manchester!

Can I come and live wth you please mishap it sounds lovely, a bit like I imagine 'Thrush Green' to be.

I live on the edge of London and have worked in the West End for many years. It's like any other major city it has it downsides, too many people would be one, not enough affordable housing, pressure on services, expensive public transport. I am sure it's not unique in that respect.

It has it's upsides of which there are many, wonderful green parks, I was very underwhelmed by New York's offerings, Central Park, and the Battery Park in South Manhatten, the latter being on a par with the average rec over here, yet they seem to think it's something special. I live close to both Bushy and Richmond Parks, and believe me they really are something special in comparison, not to mention the fact that they have deer roaming through them Bushy has Hampton Court Palace adjacent. Then there are the ones in central London also very impressive. London has amazing museums, art galleries, theatres and palaces, not to mention both the 1000 year old Tower of London and Westminster Abbey.

Here here TerriBull

Mishap, I think your fingernail experience is more to do with the trains than London.

TerriBull when I was in my late teens we moved from inner London to Hampton. Our house backed on to Bushy Park. I thought I'd moved to the country!
I still had to travel on the 267 and then another bus into London to go to school! x

Having lived in Sth London on and off all my life until 3 years ago I can say that I have seen some unpleasant places.They do exist! I do think that the UK media & business world is far too London-centric and there are many other fabulous places where exciting and interesting things happen. I would not choose to shop in the main shopping areas of Oxford/Regent street and Covent Garden has lost its edge but thee are other interesting places; Brick Lane for example is good for discovering new things. it coud be cleanerand tidier but is thatabout Londonor the 'austerity' that has caused councils o dramatically reduce the services??

I do agree with Samuel Johnson that if you are 'Tired of London, tired of life!'

I went up a couple of weeks ago with a neighbour for a guided tour of Westminster Abbey. So much history in that one bulding!The city was busy and vibrant, many tourists enjoying the amazing buildings and culture on offer. The Southbank is a brilliant place for people watching. On Saturday I was back again for a party at the Film Museum housed in the workhouse that was once Charlie Chaplin's abode, then onto the Menier Chocolate Factory Theatre to see Assassins and finally a meal at The Baltic by Southwark station. Nothing shitty about that! (and my fingenails were clean when I got home!)

I meant to say DID work in the West End, good heavens couldn't manage that now!

J52, "Bushy Park, I thought I'd moved to the country" I like that

I used to go to Bushy Park and Hampton Court for day trips with the children I taught in inner London. They thought they were in the country! Once I took kids from Battersea to Wimbledon Common (about 6 miles) and one girl cried because she was frightened when she could not see houses when we were walking on the common.

I lived and worked there in the early sixties, met DH and got married there (having done most of our courting on Hampstead Heath!). We lived in a flat in Battersea. I thought London was a wonderful place then. Great, affordable restaurants, nice people. It was what every foreign tourist still thinks London is - bowler hats, Covent Garden full of costermongers carrying towers of baskets on their heads, guardsmen OUTSIDE the palace gates and Downing Street still a thoroughfare. It was also affordable. In the mid seventies DH worked there again. We lived near Epping and we used to go up occasionally. I hardly recognised some of the places we thought we knew and I hated the way it was changing, but you can't stop progress. The last time DH and I went, two years ago, we got lost in Chelsea on the way to the National Army Museum and approached no less than five people before we found a charming lady who kindly gave us directions. Indeed, she offered to take us there. Of the other four, three did not appear to speak English and one poor man looked at us as if we had just dropped from outer space and hurried away without saying anything! We were there for a weekend and I hated the feel of the place then and couldn't wait to get home. It felt soulless and foreign, which is a shame as it is the place that holds so much of our history and culture. I don't know many people who like to go there now, unless it's for a theatre visit.

DH was born and brought up in Islington North London. When we got engaged in 1970 I wanted to move to London from rural Kent. DH persuaded me that it was better for him to move here, I'm glad he did. We visit his relatives 3-4 times a year and enjoy trips to west end theatres but I'm always glad to get back here.
Some parts are dire but there are also beautiful parks and architecture.

London born and lived here all my life apart from boarding school in the country and a year in Paris, the only other place I would wish to live.

I like the crowded streets and the empty ones (there are both), and I like the pace of life. When I worked in the City everyone walking along the pavements seemed to have a sense of purpose; I used to go to meetings at the CBI in Centre Point by Tottenham Court Road station, and be exasperated by how slowly people moved away from the financial hub!

Of course it's changed, and keeps changing. Cities must if they are to stay alive.

I was born in Clapham and have spent most of my life in various parts of London, but have also lived in Sussex, Lancashire, Suffolk and Essex.

I particularly like Sussex but all of these counties have something interesting and beautiful about them.

To me, though, London has almost everything I want. I live in the cheapest and not so sought after area of London - the east. Even in these less fashionable parts, we have an attractive and interesting "village" area, a very impressive Art Deco town hall and the William Morris Gallery. We are also on the edge of historic Epping Forest and very pleasant surrounding countryside.

I love the buzz of Central London too, though I agree some famous areas - like Oxford Street - and visitor attractions - like Madame Tussauds are tatty and very overrated. But there are so many beautiful parks, museums, art galleries and interesting little parts of London to explore and something new to discover.

I wouldn't live anywhere else. I haven't been to that many of the capital cities of the world but of those I've seen, London beats them all (and I, like Terribull, had expected New York to be a lot more impressive).

I`ve only ever visited London twice, once for an overnight stay plus the following day, and once for a day out, in 1972 and 1982 respectively. What we saw we liked, but in the limited time we had we didn`t manage to see an awful lot. Would love a long weekend there, if only I still had the energy to get around.

I lived in London for about 9 years in the sixties and I loved it!Wandsworth Common was at the end of our road and I used to walk across the common to the station to get the train to Victoria (9 minute journey)
DD has lived in North London for the past 18 years since she went there originally to Medical school she also loved the lovely green open spaces such as Highgate woods,Hampstead Heath,the river at Twickenham and walks along the canal to Little Venice. She moved away reluctantly to Essex recently because she had problems getting my 4 year old GS into a decent school.

I love everything about London and could never live anywhere else - I also happen to believe it is the best place to bring up children as they have do much choice of things to do and people to know. My sons have turned out fine having grown up here and been educated in local state schools.

Penstemmon the Menier Chocolate Factory is my favourite theatre - I go to all their productions and they're always first class.

Assassins was brilliant!

For anyone visiting London, it's very close to The Shard and top price is around £35.

Menier

J52; I watched the Ken Russell film last night and really enjoyed it...I hadn't realised that there was an iplayer 'archive' section.

I left London at 10 days old, returned at sec school age for 10 years & have lived in Sydney, rural areas in the Mendips & lovely Bristol in the 60/70s but when I think about where I belong it is always London. London is not just for the young (which is why a lot now retire there). I'm so glad my daughter & family live in scruffy, vibrant Tooting where you see real life. People can be as friendly if you stop & chat or on the buses as anywhere, especially if you have a child. Doing child-care & needing to get the kids out of the house to give DD a child-free day, I began to take them all over London by public transport of all kinds & especially by foot - the City & suburbs, N,S, E & W. This weekly adventure for 6 years has made me love it all - I can be as interested in the scruffy, dodgy bits as the nice bits & take loads of photos of both. I have seen so much wildlife & farm animals (City farms) that I never saw in the country - never seen rutting stags until I went to Bushy Park. We have learnt history together & gone into buildings from the British Library to The Supreme Courts of Justice as well as the Abbeys, Palaces, playgrounds & all the big & small galleries & museums. I also love the contrast between places & how you can be in a noisy place one minute & then in an oasis of calm. The other week our walk took us to a Greek Orthodox service in a Wren church to a Welsh one in another, the Sunday quiet of the City, the Guildhall Art Gallery with Roman remains beneath, the Wobbly Bridge & a quick search for treasure on the Thames beach by Tate Modern. And I love seeing it from high places - better if you are familiar with it on the ground. The best place for a rest is lying on the floor cushions looking up at the Rubens ceiling in the Banqueting House in Whitehall. My love of London doesn't mean I don't love other places, towns, country etc, but it's where I get a physical feeling of belonging & I shall carry on doing my London thing for as long as I can - there's still so much more to see & do.

Tegan: glad you liked it. There are often interesting documentaries from the past. They are v interesting if they're places you know. x

I just loved my few years in London. but was so glad I lived next to Richmond Park and later near to Wimbledon Common- so I could just pretend for a few hours I was away from the big city.

Will always love London and love to visit, but not live there, I have to say.