I saw this great rant by Anonymous on a post of Betty's and it got me thinking - there are times when I love it, and times when I don't love it very much at all...
It is often Londoners (you know, the detritus from everywhere else in Britain who moved to that shithole so that they could phone their friends back home on a nightly basis and say "It's great, I can get a Venezualan meal at 2 in the morning if I want"?) who refer to anyone from outside that anal sphincter of a city as "inbreds" ... Dr Johnson said that anyone tired of London was tired of life. Wonder if he'd have been so fucking chipper if you'd told him that one day he would have to pay to park outside his own house, to pay to travel into the city, to earn about £1 million-a-year to afford a two-up, two-down former squat, to pay £3 for a shit pint, to live in a place where one, drab, dreary, grey suburb stretches into another drab, dreary, grey suburb without you even noticing and to risk being blown up by terrorists or stabbed to death by young gang members on a daily basis?
Do you love it? If so, why? Or maybe you hate it? Are you from somewhere else? Why did you move here, if you come from somewhere else? Or did you leave it because you'd had enough? What do you miss about it, if anything? Londoners, defend yourselves... or tear it to pieces, the choice is yours. Leave your message after the beep...
About teaching and crying
1 day ago
25 comments:
I love it. I love VISITING it, that is. I once had a chance to live in London, but I turned it down, solely because I knew that travelling on the Tube every day would drive me bonkers.
It drove me barmy in the end. The last straw was seeing a homeless man attempt to cut his wrists with a broken bottle - in a pedestrian area in the middle of Westminster where lots of people were having their lunch break. I tried to stop him, was nearly cut and had to go into Macdonalds to ask someone to phone an ambulance for him.
People carried on eating their sandwiches. I moved to the west coast of Ireland.
I went to university in the middle. Almost stayed after, but a certain combination of job prospect and girlfriend took me elsewhere.
I miss it, but I doubt I'd ever move back.
It's a huge cliche, verging on a Kinks lyric, but I was standing on the Millennium Bridge one Friday evening last summer, and I thought: "This is home." There are numerous cities I'd like to live in for a period of time: Barcelona; Hong Kong; Montreal; Tokyo. But London's where I'll get back to, unfriendly, overpriced toilet that it is.
You know I was going to write a whole reply to that, but I would just say that since most details are sort of in the right direction in the rant above (although it's top end examples so actually a poor argument) and we still all live here, think how fucking awesome London must really be.
I fail to see why anyone would want to live anywhere else. Cities are like biological entities in their own rights. Sure London might have a few pimples and greasy hair on some days, but it's cool. It's got this pulse, this vibe, this life that is something special.
As I said before, My town. Accept no imitations.
What Tim said. Oh and I can get 2 pints for a fiver in my local. Which is a shithole, but never mind.
I was born in London, and I love it.
It is grey, surly, unfriendly, harsh and dirty, and so am I.
I can look the way I want, do as I please and not speak to anyone for a fortnight without anyone even turning a hair.
Perfect.
No, I love it. I'm from Lincolnshire and am thus an expert whinger. London gives me plenty to whinge about, so I adore the place.
I often get asked where I come from and I say London...originally from Vancouver/Kelowna but I explain that I have been here almost 10 years now. People then say almost always - "why do you stay here?". I have asked myself that question so many times when I am skint because rent is too high and I see these properties I can't afford and I can't go for nice dinners more than once a month even though I work hard and make good money etc. But - like Tim F said when you stand somewhere like the M Bridge or when we went to The Gerkin and you look out you feel it's all worth it somehow. That you're a part of it. I am proud to live here. Lucky some would say.
London thrills and depresses me. I think it's wonderfully beautiful and unbelievably ugly. Tim's Millennium Bridge is my Waterloo Bridge. The world seems a very good place when I stand there and take in the view (as long as the weather's not too shit). It can be an odd hometown because so many bits of it remain a mystery. Do many real Londoners know The City, for example? Bang in the centre but I am still quite a tourist when there. Architectural shit nestling up against architectural treasures. And just so much fucking life. I think it's a very, very special place. It has more layers than Berlin. (I used to think the past couldn't be deleted. But Berlin's bonkers history does, indeed, seem to have deleted lots of Berlin's bonkers history, if that makes sense.) And I love how life seems to fill any gap in London, like plants in the tropics.
The anonymous rant on Betty's blog came from Reg Pither, I think. His blog is hilarious.
I wanted to live in London ever since I was a very small girl. I thought I would move there to be a "famous graphic designer", whatever that is.
After three years I'd had enough. I never really found a community outside of college and I don't miss it at all.
As for all that millenium architecture, I hate it. We're so going to look back at the noughties with all the "futuristic" looking buildings and think, Christ, this is more embarrassing than the 80s.
Cities like London give birth to characters like the ones I've mentioned in my own most recent blog.' And yes I totally do so agree with the anonymous poster, it can't get worse. No government will be strong enough to sort out the Labour rot. There will be a blue bolt from the blue like in Yeats' poem 'Leda & The Swan' - RESURGAM.
I'm from the North East originally but have been in London all my adult life. I sometimes get pissed off with London but I'd miss it if I wasn't here. Going home (funny, "home" is still where my folks lives) always reminds me that there is a hell of a lot more to this country than just London - so easy to forget with an often inward-looking and London-centric media - see something interesting on TV or in the paper and you can nip out and be gauping at it in 30 minutes, that's fantastic but the downside is lots of other people will have had the same idea.
I'd guess most people in the UK have been to London whereas most people who live in London are, not surprisingly, unfamiliar with a lot of the rest of the UK so when they visit somewhere else they tend to compare it to London which will never work. London's got lots to offer if you can put up with a few negatives, but so has the rest of the country - it's just that that sometimes Londoners fail to notice that what the rest of the country offers is something different. Non Londoners can be equally judgemental about London solely on the strength of a disappointing weekend they had here 20 years ago. Stop trying to compare like with unlike, see things for what they are, not what you're used to.
Magnificent comments, everyone. Anonymous/Reg is well and truly riposted.
I'll have to add the only dissenting voice then: I absolutely fecking loathe London. I'm glad I left. These days I'm even glad I don't work there (although that's always a future possibility). I ranted about it once but that might have been on a previous blog incarnation.
Oh, and yes, I was born in London. It's a cross I have to bear.
I was born on the outskirts of London, my nose pressed up against the glass looking at the treats within the whole of my adolescence. I love the place, despite or perhaps because of it's flaws.
But I'm leaving for a greater love (cringe) to move in with my girlf. In Swindon. But I'll still be commuting to London. It's the oddest feeling. I am over the moon about moving in with the girl I love, but I'm going to miss this dirty place at night.
I'm sure I'll return in the not too distant future after my suburban hiatus.
I lived in london for 10 years, before moving to harrogate. loved it to start with, but towards the end, found it hugely depressing.
now whenever I visit, I love it all over again. I see my old haunts and feel nostalgic and somehow wish I could be part of it again.
Dear London,
For some time now I've realised things aren't right. When I moved to Liverpool to do Post Grad Degrees, after being born in Palmers Green and attending UCL - I thought it was just a break and that we'd get back together. I heart Liverpool, now. Something I'd never have thought I'd say. Just bought a large Victorian 4 bed house by the river (150k), nearby are three parks, a 5 min drive/ 30 min walk from city centre, with loads of museums, great restaurants, nightlife is fantastic, friendly people, great centre, much change with Capital of Culture 2008. You can't give me this. My heart belongs to Merseyside.
London, you are great, and it's not you it's me. Over time I've changed. You have all of this on a much larger scale, but I could never afford to spend time with you or have time to do all of this. Liverpool still has the great amenities of the Capital, but combines it with a better quality of life, financially and socially.
When I come back to visit family, friends and you, for the first few days it's great. I think I could live here again, but then I have the opposite of TF's epiphany of belonging (usually on the Night Bus at 3 in the morning) and long to go back home to Scouseland.
Sorry London, I've moved on...
Mx
I enjoy spending weekends in London. There's a buzz. But I couldn't live there full time. I grew up in a rural area and I need to be surrounded by countryside (but within reach of a town, though internet shopping is easing that as well).
"It is often Londoners (you know, the detritus from everywhere else in Britain who moved to that shithole ... "
If that's what a Londoner is, what the hell am I? I was born and bred there, lived there until my early twenties and then moved away to various different places.
I could never afford to move back now, having got on the property ladder elsewhere.
But I consider myself a Londoner and always will. What else would I be? I miss my London - the colour, the life, the diversity, the culture. There is nowhere quite like it.
Not all Londoners live in London. And not all of those who live in London are Londoners...
I wanted to live in London ever since I was little and it took 30 years to make that dream come true. I've been here 7 years now and I can't wait to leave. It's fine for visiting but unless you are very wealthy indeed it's horrendous to live in. I might feel differently if I lived somewhere like Clerkenwell or Bankside and never stirred outside those neighbourhoods but I'll never be able to afford that. I can't wait to leave. Ooh - I said that twice. Clearly I mean it.
I lived in London for about 10 years and enjoyed it until I had kids when it becomes a right pain in the arse for a variety of reasons. Try getting a double buggy plus belligerent passengers on a tube for a start. I love visiting but don't have to do the nasty stuff like park or commute or pay a fortune for a haircut.
Having discovered Mr Topper and his £10 cuts I now find myself considering whether I would come down from Edinburgh for a haircut in London. Weird.
I'm feeling even more averse to London today - I'm tired and dispondent and it's just all such hard work being in London. Wanna go home. Cries, stamps foot.
Del, ah, sweet! Romance is a good reason to leave the dirty old smoke.
Good point, Anx - if I had a job, a house and a partner elsewhere I wouldn't regret leaving, (probably for Liverpool, to live next door to Anonymous in a £150,000 4-bed Victorian house).
GSE, London is hard work. I've never visited Edinburgh but it does look great...
As with any major city I've visited, I love some things about it, like to go there from time to time, hate a few things about it too.
One of the aspects I dislike with all the major cities in the world nowadays is the fact that to a certain extent they all start to look alike, some shops and companies you simply find all over the world, it's the little unique things I love about London, as with most other places.
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