Is London a sh*t hole?

I love visiting London. Each time I go I find another area I haven't seen before. Found Little Venice and the Inns of Court on my last visits. There are areas I don't like, mostly the overcrowded tourist traps near Oxford Street. But there are so many green squares with fascinating buildings. Where else has a park you can only go into if you have a child with you? (Coram Fields) Then there is the River Thames, walking its banks or taking a boat down to Greenwich, great ways to spend a day. I can't afford to live there of course, but if I ever win the lottery I might

In the past there has been a sort of snobbery about London, going "up" to town, etc so I wonder if we are seeing an inverted version of the same when people (present company excepted) say "Oh I could never live there, Oh it's dirty and dangerous, Oh the people are so unfriendly, " and so on.
Horses for courses-not all of us are "city" people, we may well live in different places at different stages in our lives, and some who are quick to judge, have not necessarily experienced what they are denigrating.
London is a great big mix as I see it, some fine and stunningly beautiful historic buildings, some exciting new architecture, some sights which form an integral part of our history, and yes, sadly like the rest of the UK, even the world some sad litter strewn and graffiti-ed run down areas.
Show me a city that is different.
Is it "cool" to describe London as quoted in the title? I wonder if there wasn't an element of sour grapes over in " the other place".

No, London's not for me. I was brought up in Hertfordshire (now a definite suburb of London) at the end of the Piccadilly line; went to college in London in the 60s and then worked there for a few years, but never liked it. In fact I ended up with a far more local job which I much preferred before I got married and out of the blue we moved to Devon where I instantly felt at home and was never ever homesick. It didn't suit my first husband though and he went back eventually, leaving me with two young children to bring up on my own. But I had no regrets and have now been in South devon for 50 years and I still love it here. Just a shame my DD met and married someone from Reading where she now lives although always has visions of one day moving back.

Soutra years ago our next door neighbour used to always say "oh Jeff and I are going 'up' town tomorrow for the day", I always replied "oh, which town would that be Jean", she never took the hint that I was being sarcastic.
Love London as I've previously said , horses for courses.

Funny how old fashioned 'etiquette' always spoke of going up to London, because it was the capital city, even if the traveler lived in Morpeth!

I think there is still a snobbery and, in some cases a sort of defensive attitude, by some Londoners that London is the place to be. We have good friends who always take the piss that we have move out of London. They view anywhere else as a bit of a cultural and hill billy backwater where everyone is a bit of a red-neck because they have not benefited from the cosmopolitan life of the metropolis. Are they right???

But Londoners talk of going "up North".

I am always surprised that so many people are so vehemently anti London, and say things like "Oh, you live in London, poor you!" No, it is my choice and I like it.

I'd love to live in SE1. Can't afford it now!

Penstemmon I couldn't even afford to move back to the house we sold to come and live in the country 30 years ago. We thought it would be good for the DDs (then aged 10, 7 and 3) to grow up in a village environment. Just about bankrupted ourselves to do it and left some lovely friends behind. After about 6 months the older girls came to us in tears after yet another Sunday lunch visit from London friends,"we don't like the country, it's cold and muddy, we miss London, we liked the museums and concerts, we miss our friends and we're sick of being hard up and getting second hand clothes parcels".

Ho hum. Too late to turn back and it has turned out OK, the older 2 became keen debaters with Young Farmers (!) all 3 made good friends, but the younger 2 moved straight back to London after university and are definitely city girls!

We only moved 3 1/2 years ago and our London house is now worth over £1million! I would not pay that for it even if I had the money! on a main road , no garage and night buses 20m fro the bedroom window! It is a crazy crazy situation!

It's best not to think about the worth of past London houses, long gone.

We just think that in our present city, our DSs have never been mugged, they had a great education, made lovely friends, we always knew where they were on nights out and could easily be got from the city in 20 mins.

Bonuses: we have met great friends, we can all park our cars on our property, have never been burgled, have a thriving cultural quarter, 3 excellent hospitals ,3 universities and have fast trains to London if we want.

Being a Londoner, I know there are many bonuses of living there as well. For work, DH commuted and rented a lovely flat for 5 years. We all enjoyed the experience of going back, but were not tempted to buy and make it permanent once more. x

I would guess that "up to London" probably dates from the days when railways were the main form of transport. The up line was to London, the downline was from London regardless of geography.

London has its good and bad areas just like most places in the UK, my sister moved to Peterborough, but still could not go into town at night/evening due to the yobs hanging around just as they did in London

I do know that there is "social cleansing going on in many parts of London and the governments aim is to make London a place for affluent folk rather than people struggling to make their rent or mortgage

Very sad but very true

In answer to the original question - is it heck! One of our national traits seems to be to run down our own country whilst praising others to the sky. I've even heard people who've never left these shores bemoaning the fact that they can't live "abroad", that mythical utopia. We try to get a London visit in every 18 months or so, settle on a certain area to explore, and wallow in what London has to offer. Last time we stayed in Greenwich, saw a concert at the O2, wandered around the superb market, cruised down the river, walked through the glorious park. We spent a few days in Kensington once, took in the museums - I could have spent days in the V & A! - went to the Royal Albert Hall (superb). For our wonderful Olympics trip we stayed on to do an East End pub crawl, St Paul's, the Tower, a scary Ripper tour. I could bore on for much longer, but will conclude by saying that we have travelled a lot, been to many iconic cities and loved them, but never been anywhere with the buzz, excitement, history and sheer number of things to do.

I agree that there's a lot of rubbish on the rails coming into the city, but we've found the streets are surprisingly clean, certainly better kept than many other British cities.

We used to live very near Bushey Park and for us that was a compromise - having to live near London but in a reasonable 'countrified' area and not too far to 'escape to the country'.
We went up to town occasionally and, although it always gave me a buzz I wouldn't have liked to have lived nearer in. DD1 lived much nearer the centre for a couple of years, as did DD2 and both places would have been too busy for my liking.

Parts of all big cities are not nice and other areas lovely - you can't generalise.

Reading this thread, though, has given me a hankering to go back for a visit.

DM always said 'up to London' and when we lived nearer we said 'up to town' and we weren't at all posh!

Surely that isn't posh or snobby to say that?
I think absent is correct, we went by train when I was a child (didn't have a car so definitely not posh!).

Eloethan, you obviously live in Walthamstow, or at least it sounds like that, which I used to know fairly well, it also had a dog racing stadium!
I used to work in London late 60's early 70's and found it fascinating.However, that was a long time ago, not sure I like it particularly now, but then I wouldn't like to live in any city now, I like small towns or villages.It may be an age thing.

Used to get my suits from Lew Rose in Walthamstow High Street. Mrs P work at Rael Brook shirts.

How strange when coincidence crops up.only yesterday we were telling some family members about H's Uncle and Aunt who lived on Forest road in Walthamstow from before the war until the 70's . We were speculating what the house would be worth today. They had no family and all their estate went on care fees even in those days, although they were well looked after.

I love Northumberland but as a teenager I spent time in the south visiting relatives and visiting London often and I love it. I would never tire of the shopping (mainly window),sightseeing and just soaking up the atmosphere. Love it love it love it. Just wish I could afford to go back

I'm a Londoner born and bred, too. My family are cockneys from way back. I left the London area in 1965 to buy a house in Kent as young couples could not afford London prices even in those days. However, I've hankered after going back all my life and not managed it quite yet. Whenever I do go back, two things strike me. Firstly, the pace of life there which seems to have speeded up since I frequented the West End in the 1960s, and secondly, how much cleaner everywhere is. Even the main line stations seem cleaner than in my hay (hey?) day. I don't think it's shitty at all. I just hope all those rich foreigners buying up the property today appreciate what they've got.

Yes Rosesarered I live in Walthamstow and have done so for the last twenty-seven years.

It is not the most glamorous place in London but it has fantastic transport facilities and there are always lots of interesting things to do. Although I'm very fond of West Sussex, where we used to live, I don't think I could settle there now as I would miss being near central London.

Love London and visit for various reasons several times a year. Usually the theatre or exhibitions. This year so far planned - Harry Potter with GSs on Thursday well I guess that is a bit outside of London but is within the M25 - athletics meeting in July at Olympic stadium with GSs', McQueens exhibition at the V&A, also wondering whether to book "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" - anyone seen it? also thinking of lunch in the Shard anyone been? Usually go to a Christmas Music thing at the RAH. Whats not to like about London?

But saying that I also love our countryside, and walk a lot. Dales planned this year.

I'd love to be able to visit London more often we last went two years ago for 2 days and never even saw most of the wonderful things on offer.I am used to a busy City but never imagined London would be as busy as it was I loved it to bits.
I'm sure the mumsnet comments with regard to the property programmes refer to the upkeep of the outside of some of the homes on the programme which are somewhat tatty at times,no kerb appeal etc/decent upkept paintwork/gardens not maintained but most of those properties have been left to become unkempt by the owners sitting out for stupid offers on them but they do achieve the prices,which is sad for people who have been brought up in the area and cannot afford to buy.

Pompa, I remember the Raelbrook factory, it was just off Blackhorse Road opposite the tube station.Whatever happened to dancing drip dry shirts?!
Eloethan, my MIL lived in Walthamstow, on Billet Road, and my D H bought my engagement ring at a jeweller in the High Street(Fish Bros?)
DH is a lifelong Spurs supporter and he went to see a match at White Heart Lane about a year ago, and came back aghast at the new road system/layout by The Crooked Billet pub, a flyover? it was a main road before of course, but nothing like it is now.I knew the place well, but that was forty five years ago!

When we go to London now, it's really just to museums and galleries, but we do, now and then, meet up with friends and have a meal out somewhere.