4 ms·

Bullshit, London hasn't been a good place to live in at least 20 years. You just hung around because you were used to it. London as good things (lots of money,

by oneloop 10y ago

Bullshit, London hasn't been a good place to live in at least 20 years. You just hung around because you were used to it. London as good things (lots of money, lots of entrepreneurial people), but being "nice to live" isn't one of them.

SpeakMouthWords 10y ago
Would you mind unpacking that further? I love living in London and would be keen to hear your grievances.
- SocratesV 10y ago
  Some of the ones that made me move out of London: - pollution; - poor quality in most housing; - small apartments (shoeboxes really); - high rents and difficult to buy; - crowded (streets, public transportation, roads); - both of which leads to people being pushed to the outskirts and taking a lot of time to travel when you want to meet with friends; Personally I got a bit tired of it, loved it in the first few years. Lots of money to be earned, and quite a lot of facilities, but for me I just grew tired of the place.
  - Symbiote 10y ago
    Travel time to meet with friends was a big one for me. My job was never in the centre, so I chose to live within 15 minutes cycling of work, in a pleasant and green bit of West London (Z3/4). That was fine when the fun things to do were in the centre, but a lot of them moved further away. That led to an hour's journey to see a metal band perform in Holloway, and then a 1½-2 hour journey home at night by bus, or £60+ for an Uber. London has half as many licensed music venues as in 2004. ([1] says 35% less since 2007, I can't find where I read half.) Also, I said I'd leave the UK if UKIP got more than 20% (or 25%, or something) in the 2014 European elections, and stood by my word :) [1] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/20/save-londons-live-music-venues-city-wide-campaign-launched https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/20/save-londons...
- oneloop 10y ago
  I know that some of these can be sorted by having an obscene amount of money... which I don't. - insane rent. i'm living in a single bedroom - poor quality of houses. i can hear the steps of my flatmates outside my rooms - crowded: neighbourhood in london are either shit, or if they're not they're so crowded you can't do anything. you go to a coffee shop and every seat is taken or if it's not you have to seat between two guys. on the street you can barely walk, bump into people all the time, etc - travel time: this just sucks my soul away. there is no casual meeting someone, meeting someone is always a taxing excursion. - Here's one that I've never seen mentioned: is it just me, or is there an abnormally high amount of poserism in London? It's fucking posers everywhere, trying to show you how they know THE BEST place to eat THE BEST food and drink THE BEST wine. Who gives a shit? Is your life so uninteresting that you spend it thinking about food? sigh. After brexit I've started learning german, so maybe I'll try Berlin next.
  - artimaeis 10y ago
    > "- Here's one that I've never seen mentioned: is it just me, or is there an abnormally high amount of poserism in London? It's fucking posers everywhere, trying to show you how they know THE BEST place to eat THE BEST food and drink THE BEST wine. Who gives a shit? Is your life so uninteresting that you spend it thinking about food?" I can see your other points - but this one seems kind of strange. I've not lived many places, but I'm pretty sure everywhere has people talking about the best restaurants, breweries, bars, etc. It's a part of culture - food and drink! It's a thing literally every human partakes in. Beyond that - is your life so full of engagement and interest that you literally don't think about food? That just seems pretty exceptional to me. Not trying to judge - there's a reason that products like Soylent exist! Some people legitimately don't care, and I get that. But let other people enjoy whatever they want to - and try not to get upset if they share that with you (:
    - oneloop 10y ago
      No, it's not full of engagement, I'm definitely not saying I have a nice life, at all. But I don't think about food, no. Very very uninteresting. And I can understand someone whose mentality is "you have to eat, might as well make it tasty". But some people it seems have nothing else in their life. And it's not just their food, it's also making sure that you know about their food. It can't be my imagination that people do this. You just need to look at instagram to see it's full of pictures that people take of their food. Ok, so maybe it's not specific to London, maybe it's just my bitterness.
- DanBC 10y ago
  This kind of fuckwittery is easier to find in London than elsewhere: "Just put it on a plate" - https://twitter.com/WeWantPlates https://twitter.com/WeWantPlates
afarrell 10y ago
I just moved there 2 months ago and enjoy it a lot more than Austin.
duiker101 10y ago
Just move to Cambridge! You get the perks of a great tech environment with the charms of a small English town!
- elliotpage 10y ago
  No, please don't! Property prices are too high already!
- orf 10y ago
  Having grown up in that area I can tell you it has none of the charms of a small English town and all of the expense of London. Also a huge drug problem.
mikekchar 10y ago
Lots of people like London. I'm not one of them, but then I don't like big cities. I would say my biggest gripe about London is the frequent transit failures. I literally can't remember the last time we didn't have someone come in an hour late because of some train/bus problems. My second biggest gripe is the frequent transit strikes ;-). If it's not busted, it's not running because management and workers are fighting with each other. Especially if you are comparing London from 20 years ago, I would have to say that it is much nicer than it used to be. I lived in London 2 years ago and also 20 years ago. I remember 20 years ago coming home and literally being able to draw pictures on my arm with the grime that accumulated during the day. Blowing my nose always resulted in black snot coming out. The Thames was filled with garbage. Those days are mostly gone now. Hell, tours on the Thames is considered a fancy thing to do these days. The things I think are not quite as nice (and I'll brace myself for the backlash)... Culturally the city is kind of confused IMHO. 20 years ago it was vaguely European, but really English when it came down to it. You could still get a decent Sunday roast in any pub in London at the time. Now it is decidedly multi-cultural. I think young people will definitely prefer the London of today, and I won't blame them, but personally I miss the London of times gone by. These days you have to go further afield to get more of an English cultural experience, IMHO. Not necessarily a bad thing, but like I said, there will be people who prefer one over the other.
- shazzy 10y ago
  Apart from the Sunday roast you mentioned, which incidently is available in the majority of pubs I've been to (I had a very nice one yesterday) what other parts of the "english cultural" experience are you missing?
  - alimbada 10y ago
    That's pretty much it. English culture is extremely bland (unless you want to count the embarrassments that are binge-drinking and hooliganism which often go hand in hand...) hence why our national dish is curry. :)
    - raverbashing 10y ago
dijit 10y ago
Unequivocally agree, my quality of life has dramatically increased (both in terms of accessible talent surrounding me at work, and having something more than a shoebox to live in) once I reminded myself that all I was doing in London was paying my admittedly sizable income to other people and saving barely anything. Travel, expensive and required Rent, expensive and required Socialising, expensive and not required, but needed. I used to cycle to remove the travel aspect but it's absurdly dangerous. I can't even begin to describe how much better my life is now- My girlfriend wants to go back but that's just because "London is the best place in the world", she can't even cite examples. It's just because it's well known and has landmarks I think.
- pluteoid 10y ago
  London has fantastic arts, music, literary, theatre scenes, both contemporary and classical. Many of its venues, galleries and museums are world leading institutions. The science & tech research groups at its top universties are doing really exciting stuff. It's filled with extraordinary people and fascinating architecture. The food is amazing, some of the best chefs from Europe and SE Asia come here to work. Also, it has Kew Gardens. Yes Brexit has put many of these things at risk and taken a shine off their appeal for many. And yes you have to be relatively rich to have a spacious, comfortable home here, to cushion yourself from the awful public transport, and to partake of all the delights on offer. But someone who's actually lived here and can't cite one example of London's special attraction is sleepwalking through life.
  - anexprogrammer 10y ago
    Have you been to the Science Museum or Natural History museum recently? We took the youngest 2 yrs ago and were deeply disappointed. They're but a neglected shadow of their former selves. The Manchester Museum of science and Industry, part of the Science Museum group (though only since 2012), is a far more rewarding experience.
  - oneloop 10y ago
    It's fine, I don't care about any of "fantastic arts, music, literary, theatre scenes, both contemporary and classical". I'm quite good at entertaining myself, I guess.
lmm 10y ago
For many niche hobbies it's the best place to do them (personal example: netrunner). It's probably the best place in the world for (english-language) theatre. Maybe you're someone who could easily adapt to German; I'm not, which makes London the best option by some way.

by oneloop 10y ago

SpeakMouthWords 10y ago

Would you mind unpacking that further? I love living in London and would be keen to hear your grievances.

SocratesV 10y ago
Some of the ones that made me move out of London: - pollution; - poor quality in most housing; - small apartments (shoeboxes really); - high rents and difficult to buy; - crowded (streets, public transportation, roads); - both of which leads to people being pushed to the outskirts and taking a lot of time to travel when you want to meet with friends; Personally I got a bit tired of it, loved it in the first few years. Lots of money to be earned, and quite a lot of facilities, but for me I just grew tired of the place.
- Symbiote 10y ago
  Travel time to meet with friends was a big one for me. My job was never in the centre, so I chose to live within 15 minutes cycling of work, in a pleasant and green bit of West London (Z3/4). That was fine when the fun things to do were in the centre, but a lot of them moved further away. That led to an hour's journey to see a metal band perform in Holloway, and then a 1½-2 hour journey home at night by bus, or £60+ for an Uber. London has half as many licensed music venues as in 2004. ([1] says 35% less since 2007, I can't find where I read half.) Also, I said I'd leave the UK if UKIP got more than 20% (or 25%, or something) in the 2014 European elections, and stood by my word :) [1] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/20/save-londons-live-music-venues-city-wide-campaign-launched https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/20/save-londons...
oneloop 10y ago
I know that some of these can be sorted by having an obscene amount of money... which I don't. - insane rent. i'm living in a single bedroom - poor quality of houses. i can hear the steps of my flatmates outside my rooms - crowded: neighbourhood in london are either shit, or if they're not they're so crowded you can't do anything. you go to a coffee shop and every seat is taken or if it's not you have to seat between two guys. on the street you can barely walk, bump into people all the time, etc - travel time: this just sucks my soul away. there is no casual meeting someone, meeting someone is always a taxing excursion. - Here's one that I've never seen mentioned: is it just me, or is there an abnormally high amount of poserism in London? It's fucking posers everywhere, trying to show you how they know THE BEST place to eat THE BEST food and drink THE BEST wine. Who gives a shit? Is your life so uninteresting that you spend it thinking about food? sigh. After brexit I've started learning german, so maybe I'll try Berlin next.
- artimaeis 10y ago
  > "- Here's one that I've never seen mentioned: is it just me, or is there an abnormally high amount of poserism in London? It's fucking posers everywhere, trying to show you how they know THE BEST place to eat THE BEST food and drink THE BEST wine. Who gives a shit? Is your life so uninteresting that you spend it thinking about food?" I can see your other points - but this one seems kind of strange. I've not lived many places, but I'm pretty sure everywhere has people talking about the best restaurants, breweries, bars, etc. It's a part of culture - food and drink! It's a thing literally every human partakes in. Beyond that - is your life so full of engagement and interest that you literally don't think about food? That just seems pretty exceptional to me. Not trying to judge - there's a reason that products like Soylent exist! Some people legitimately don't care, and I get that. But let other people enjoy whatever they want to - and try not to get upset if they share that with you (:
  - oneloop 10y ago
    No, it's not full of engagement, I'm definitely not saying I have a nice life, at all. But I don't think about food, no. Very very uninteresting. And I can understand someone whose mentality is "you have to eat, might as well make it tasty". But some people it seems have nothing else in their life. And it's not just their food, it's also making sure that you know about their food. It can't be my imagination that people do this. You just need to look at instagram to see it's full of pictures that people take of their food. Ok, so maybe it's not specific to London, maybe it's just my bitterness.
DanBC 10y ago
This kind of fuckwittery is easier to find in London than elsewhere: "Just put it on a plate" - https://twitter.com/WeWantPlates https://twitter.com/WeWantPlates

afarrell 10y ago

I just moved there 2 months ago and enjoy it a lot more than Austin.

duiker101 10y ago

Just move to Cambridge! You get the perks of a great tech environment with the charms of a small English town!

elliotpage 10y ago
No, please don't! Property prices are too high already!
orf 10y ago
Having grown up in that area I can tell you it has none of the charms of a small English town and all of the expense of London. Also a huge drug problem.

mikekchar 10y ago

Lots of people like London. I'm not one of them, but then I don't like big cities. I would say my biggest gripe about London is the frequent transit failures. I literally can't remember the last time we didn't have someone come in an hour late because of some train/bus problems. My second biggest gripe is the frequent transit strikes ;-). If it's not busted, it's not running because management and workers are fighting with each other. Especially if you are comparing London from 20 years ago, I would have to say that it is much nicer than it used to be. I lived in London 2 years ago and also 20 years ago. I remember 20 years ago coming home and literally being able to draw pictures on my arm with the grime that accumulated during the day. Blowing my nose always resulted in black snot coming out. The Thames was filled with garbage. Those days are mostly gone now. Hell, tours on the Thames is considered a fancy thing to do these days. The things I think are not quite as nice (and I'll brace myself for the backlash)... Culturally the city is kind of confused IMHO. 20 years ago it was vaguely European, but really English when it came down to it. You could still get a decent Sunday roast in any pub in London at the time. Now it is decidedly multi-cultural. I think young people will definitely prefer the London of today, and I won't blame them, but personally I miss the London of times gone by. These days you have to go further afield to get more of an English cultural experience, IMHO. Not necessarily a bad thing, but like I said, there will be people who prefer one over the other.

shazzy 10y ago
Apart from the Sunday roast you mentioned, which incidently is available in the majority of pubs I've been to (I had a very nice one yesterday) what other parts of the "english cultural" experience are you missing?
- alimbada 10y ago
  That's pretty much it. English culture is extremely bland (unless you want to count the embarrassments that are binge-drinking and hooliganism which often go hand in hand...) hence why our national dish is curry. :)
  - raverbashing 10y ago

dijit 10y ago

Unequivocally agree, my quality of life has dramatically increased (both in terms of accessible talent surrounding me at work, and having something more than a shoebox to live in) once I reminded myself that all I was doing in London was paying my admittedly sizable income to other people and saving barely anything. Travel, expensive and required Rent, expensive and required Socialising, expensive and not required, but needed. I used to cycle to remove the travel aspect but it's absurdly dangerous. I can't even begin to describe how much better my life is now- My girlfriend wants to go back but that's just because "London is the best place in the world", she can't even cite examples. It's just because it's well known and has landmarks I think.

pluteoid 10y ago
London has fantastic arts, music, literary, theatre scenes, both contemporary and classical. Many of its venues, galleries and museums are world leading institutions. The science & tech research groups at its top universties are doing really exciting stuff. It's filled with extraordinary people and fascinating architecture. The food is amazing, some of the best chefs from Europe and SE Asia come here to work. Also, it has Kew Gardens. Yes Brexit has put many of these things at risk and taken a shine off their appeal for many. And yes you have to be relatively rich to have a spacious, comfortable home here, to cushion yourself from the awful public transport, and to partake of all the delights on offer. But someone who's actually lived here and can't cite one example of London's special attraction is sleepwalking through life.
- anexprogrammer 10y ago
  Have you been to the Science Museum or Natural History museum recently? We took the youngest 2 yrs ago and were deeply disappointed. They're but a neglected shadow of their former selves. The Manchester Museum of science and Industry, part of the Science Museum group (though only since 2012), is a far more rewarding experience.
- oneloop 10y ago
  It's fine, I don't care about any of "fantastic arts, music, literary, theatre scenes, both contemporary and classical". I'm quite good at entertaining myself, I guess.

lmm 10y ago

For many niche hobbies it's the best place to do them (personal example: netrunner). It's probably the best place in the world for (english-language) theatre. Maybe you're someone who could easily adapt to German; I'm not, which makes London the best option by some way.