Why Do Normal People Live In London

[profitofdoom]

When you first move to London (or simply visit for the odd day), every time you blow your nose you'll find that your snot is black and sooty.

After about a month of being in London, you find your snot is clear again.

This is because your nasal mucosa have been overcome and can no longer work so efficiently - you've started inhaling the atmospheric toxins and pollutants, and storing them in your lungs. Which is nice.

I work in London because it's the only place in the British Isles where my job exists. I'm still not sure whether it's worth losing years of my life to do it, but there aren't many alternative jobs up north for me either.

I often travel through it and when I have time I like to walk.Last time from Victoria to Liverpool St station on a wonderful summer morning.Along the riverbank,through the Inns of Court and past St Pauls.However I would hate to live there.I think Paris or Berlin are much more livable in.

[popeye1]

London is fantastic for a twenty something arts lover or someone who likes clubbing. I would say that kids mean the chances to enjoy these things is severely reduced :angry:

Now I think anyone who has grown up there has the same attachment to it as the Scouser does to Liverpool, the Weegie to Glasgow etc. So the question really is why does any non-native stay there?

AS a 30something inhabitant I am already asking that question. I think many others are as well.

[Neil B]

There is no place on Earth like London. You can feel the electricty as soon as you step off the train.

Living there is a very different experience to visiting it or even commuting. Its a very hard city to live in. It will toughen you up and make your mind open. If you can survive it I truely believe that it makes you a better person.

As one other poster said though, it's for young people.

[Parkwell]

life isnt easy. life isnt perfect. its not supposed to be. london is reality.

everything you read in the newspapers, whether is politics, economics, social issues, international relations, its all happening in london.

if you live in another city what you read in the paper is just news.

when you live in london, what you read in the paper is what is happening around you there and then, just around the corner from you.

Now we're getting to the bottom of it. London is egocentric, and too many people think it benefits the country.

[the_duke_of_hazzard]

I remain in London as I resist having the lobotomy apparently required to live elsewhere ;-)

[Parkwell]

You can feel the electricty as soon as you step off the train.

Try getting off where the platform is, neatly avoiding the third rail.

[noodle doodle]

you do know that london is a city dont you?

anyway if you want an idylic country life dont live there.

london isnt one thing, its everything all in one place.

Edinburgh has rolling hills and volcanic outcrops in the city, so you CAN have the countryside, real countryside, in a city.

Actually apart from sheer size, edinburgh kicks balls out of london on most points, and I've lived in both places - it's got culture, heritage, green spaces, your poor trainspotting types cheek by jowl with the hordes of new town solicitors, slightly better housing affordability etc etc. Imagine london shrunk to a tenth of its size but keeping all the facilities

[Neil B]

Edinburgh has rolling hills and volcanic outcrops in the city, so you CAN have the countryside, real countryside, in a city.

Actually apart from sheer size, edinburgh kicks balls out of london on most points, and I've lived in both places - it's got culture, heritage, green spaces, your poor trainspotting types cheek by jowl with the hordes of new town solicitors, slightly better housing affordability etc etc. Imagine london shrunk to a tenth of its size but keeping all the facilities

I agreed - Ive lived in both places also. Edinburgh is a gem.

[Lagarde's Drift]

Edinburgh has rolling hills and volcanic outcrops in the city, so you CAN have the countryside, real countryside, in a city.

Actually apart from sheer size, edinburgh kicks balls out of london on most points, and I've lived in both places - it's got culture, heritage, green spaces, your poor trainspotting types cheek by jowl with the hordes of new town solicitors, slightly better housing affordability etc etc. Imagine london shrunk to a tenth of its size but keeping all the facilities

Indeed. Some Londonites I have met do not realise that other smaller cities have much of the same benefits and culture but not the downsides. If you are a millionaire or earn 120k like some on this forum, by all means live in London; you could probably moor your yacht on the Thames (could you?). But for the vast majority who live in Greater London on normal wages it really isn't better than several other cities in the country. Add the commuting, poverty and a bit of overcrowding and it becomes hell.

If you live in a city within easy travelling distance of London you will have access to all the culture that it provides but you can hop on a train at the end of the evening / weekend and leave the ******** behind.

[Lagarde's Drift]

I agreed - Ive lived in both places also. Edinburgh is a gem.

Yah. It is a peach of a city. Shame it is so cold up there! Not sure about the tram business either.

[Guest anorthosite]

Edinburgh has rolling hills and volcanic outcrops in the city, so you CAN have the countryside, real countryside, in a city.

Actually apart from sheer size, edinburgh kicks balls out of london on most points, and I've lived in both places - it's got culture, heritage, green spaces, your poor trainspotting types cheek by jowl with the hordes of new town solicitors, slightly better housing affordability etc etc. Imagine london shrunk to a tenth of its size but keeping all the facilities

Agreed, although as a native of Edinburgh I may be bias

Nothing like growing up with a mountain in the middle of your city!

[mfp123]

Edinburgh has rolling hills and volcanic outcrops in the city, so you CAN have the countryside, real countryside, in a city.

Actually apart from sheer size, edinburgh kicks balls out of london on most points, and I've lived in both places - it's got culture, heritage, green spaces, your poor trainspotting types cheek by jowl with the hordes of new town solicitors, slightly better housing affordability etc etc. Imagine london shrunk to a tenth of its size but keeping all the facilities

i think you miss the point. the fact that london does have the crap mixed in, is a reflection of combining all the ends of diversity.

if you live in a nice, clean, cheap city, and they do exist, then you may prefer to live there instead. the point is, london mixes everything into one, at every end of the scale.

for every billionaire in london there is a homeless person, for every millionaires row, there is a shithole. for every bohemian hippy there is a right wing racist. for every posh area there is a cheap red light district. for every 300 year old building there is a state of the art apartment.

everything exists side by side.

its the full experience of the reality of life. its not meant to be "nice" or anything like that.

its just a complete metropolis, and arguably not just all aspects of the uk rolled into 1 but as close as you can get to the entire world rolled into a city.

Edited August 18, 2009 by mfp123

[Coolfonz]

London isn't just the biggest city in the UK it's the biggest in europe. it's got lots of things, lots of times over. arts, clubbing for every musical taste, 14 football teams, monuments galore, it's too expensive but if you've been raised in it you feel like the rest of the uk has no through traffic, lots of good things of course, but just less through traffic, london is modernity by virtue of its size. nyc, barca, berlin, tokyo also all great cities...i like some other cities in the uk, but none of them are even close to london...

Edited August 18, 2009 by Coolfonz

[Rachman]

I agreed - Ive lived in both places also. Edinburgh is a gem.

whereas thr 20 something female professional from Edinburgh who now lives and works in London said, Edinburgh's like a little London - in 2005. It's just so far behind the times, it's untrue - and it's so small you have to go to the same places every week - you don't have to do that in London and you don't see the same faces, in the same bars, at the same times, every week. She was desperate to leave, because it has a small town mentality.

[R K]

14 football teams

[shindigger]

I commute weekly from Dorset to London. I do 2-3 days a week freelance, stay at my mates, pay him £25 a night plus the odd curry, and i'm out again.

The job i do doesnt exist in Dorset so i have to do this, sometimes i see it as a royal pain in the ****, sometimes i see it as having the best of both worlds. Im lucky that i can more or less pick my days and that certainly for the moment, work is plentiful. No, im not a rat catcher.

4 trips a month gives me a comfortable enough living.

Not an ideal situation, but better than brain melting amounts of debt, to live cheek by jowl with the 2 legged vermin that seem to proliferate these days.

Im nice and flexible and that could be key to everything in the coming years.

[Johnny Cash]

anorthosite,

Do you think you might tone down the photos of DH a little?

Im sure Im not the only one to look at this forum at work and Im equally sure that anyone casually glancing at the screen thinks Im looking at gay porn.

Restrict such pictures to your bedroom wall, would you?

[Johnny Cash]

edit - double post

Edited August 19, 2009 by Johnny Cash

[mfp123]

London isn't just the biggest city in the UK it's the biggest in europe. it's got lots of things, lots of times over. arts, clubbing for every musical taste, 14 football teams, monuments galore, it's too expensive but if you've been raised in it you feel like the rest of the uk has no through traffic, lots of good things of course, but just less through traffic, london is modernity by virtue of its size. nyc, barca, berlin, tokyo also all great cities...i like some other cities in the uk, but none of them are even close to london...

also due to its location and historical links it has ties with every corner of the earth. e.g tokyo and nyc are also great cities but london is still more diverse internationally.

how many russian oligarchs or saudi royal princes live in edinburgh? how many iraninan immigrants or aussie travellers or french bohemian artists do you see in edinburgh.

if you want to see the what darwin did 200 years ago or take a look at figurines of the chinese terracotta army where would you go.

where does madonna do her concerts, or does tom cruise come to town? would michael jackson have done his concerts in edinburgh?

whether you want a gold plated boat , or want to buy some Israeli goats milk, or some south american lima beans, youll find it in london...

[Coolfonz]

also gay people can walk down most streets and not get twatted in the head. they can also find excellent bathing oportunities as below

[sirius]

i find it strange that people can be emotionally attached to London. it is, like most cities, totally impersonal and unsentimental. you are a nobody in London, a nothing. You are about as important as a hydrogen atom being expelled out of someone's lungs. A tiny insignificant spec surrounded by countless others.

as you can tell, i'm not a city person at all. i loathe cities, even Edinburgh, the capital of my country. One of the main reasons i hate cities is that they attract the worst of humanity to them. I'm not talking about criminals, druggies etc. or people like that, I'm talking about pretentious twats with massive egos that seem to think they have some importance above that of anyone else.

cities are a magent for a bunch of twats. i've solid evidence to back this up.

I've been to London once and gathered evidence supporting my above stance. London is full of twats.

[DementedTuna]

I remember a comedian on TV who did a sketch about visiting London. He said that you knew you were in London because when you blew your nose it came out black.

That's not a joke, it's a fact. London gives you black snot... even a simple day trip is enough.

anorthosite,

Do you think you might tone down the photos of DH a little?

Im sure Im not the only one to look at this forum at work and Im equally sure that anyone casually glancing at the screen thinks Im looking at gay porn.

Restrict such pictures to your bedroom wall, would you?

Arrgh, stop talking about that, you'll attract more chubby gay bear ads to the site if google keeps noticing those words on here!

Edited August 18, 2009 by DementedTuna

[Bubble&Squeak]

That's not a joke, it's a fact. London gives you black snot... even a simple day trip is enough.

It is the tube... track, wheel and brake dust make up most of the cr@p you breathe down there.... mmmm nice

http://www.mdx.ac.uk/risk/staff/docs/nick21.pdf

Edited August 18, 2009 by Bubble&Squeak

[Greg Bowman]

i find it strange that people can be emotionally attached to London. it is, like most cities, totally impersonal and unsentimental. you are a nobody in London, a nothing. You are about as important as a hydrogen atom being expelled out of someone's lungs. A tiny insignificant spec surrounded by countless others.

as you can tell, i'm not a city person at all. i loathe cities, even Edinburgh, the capital of my country. One of the main reasons i hate cities is that they attract the worst of humanity to them. I'm not talking about criminals, druggies etc. or people like that, I'm talking about pretentious twats with massive egos that seem to think they have some importance above that of anyone else.

cities are a magent for a bunch of twats. i've solid evidence to back this up.

I've been to London once and gathered evidence supporting my above stance. London is full of twats.

And your Not emotionally attached ? 'my country' We are a world city you live in a province get used it.

So stay away. Fine by us, the trouble is you can't can you?

[scuuzeme]

i find it strange that people can be emotionally attached to London. it is, like most cities, totally impersonal and unsentimental. you are a nobody in London, a nothing. You are about as important as a hydrogen atom being expelled out of someone's lungs. A tiny insignificant spec surrounded by countless others.

as you can tell, i'm not a city person at all. i loathe cities, even Edinburgh, the capital of my country. One of the main reasons i hate cities is that they attract the worst of humanity to them. I'm not talking about criminals, druggies etc. or people like that, I'm talking about pretentious twats with massive egos that seem to think they have some importance above that of anyone else.

cities are a magent for a bunch of twats. i've solid evidence to back this up.

I've been to London once and gathered evidence supporting my above stance. London is full of twats.

I think you're a little strange, to be honest