London is HORRIBLE nowadays! My rant...

[sim667]

Pickled Egg when I moved to Portugal I once was very critical of the town in which I lived and the country. I was told very clearly that if I didn't like it I could go back to where I came from.

I've got a feeling the OP is remembering Tokyo with slightly rose tinted glasses.

Yes parts of it are very nice, but parts of it are also like stepping back into the 80's.

 

[mango5]

Internet is also possibly harming London; you used to go to specific areas for specific things, but now buy them online. Been down Tottenham Court Road recently? Sofas not electricals are the big thing there now...

Things change over time eh? Not sure where the harm is here.

 

[hash tag]

Internet is also possibly harming London; you used to go to specific areas for specific things, but now buy them online. Been down Tottenham Court Road recently? Sofas not electricals are the big thing there now...

Have they got a sale on?

Heals have been in TCR since 1820 ish?

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Things change over time eh? Not sure where the harm is here.

The harm is that there is now no reason to go to TCR; in the past I would go there for stereo stuff, but you get that online now and so every other shop sells sofas, why would you bother? Just another area of town not worth going to, bland, boring, same old, same old, could be anywhere-ville. Camden's under threat of losing it's tat and oregano salesmen, music venues are closing at alarming rates, if you don't have a ton of cash London is no longer for you, I think that's harmful, you clearly don't. C'est la vie.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

I don't know that the electrical shops in TCR specifically are a particularly big loss but the clustering of shops in various areas does add to the character of the city IMO. I do think it's a shame to see them replaced by more fairly indentikit food outlets.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Have they got a sale on?

Heals have been in TCR since 1820 ish?

Of course they have a sale on, except the 2nd Thursday in October, that's double-sale day.

Seriously, every other shop there now sells sofas, who's buying all this crap?

 

[hash tag]

Quickly refers to my calender, thats the 13th this year. I'll be there, not.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Seriously, every other shop there now sells sofas, who's buying all this crap?

God knows. I work near a particularly large and expensive looking one and it always seems to be totally empty. I've no idea how it keeps going.

 

[mango5]

The harm is that there is now no reason to go to TCR; in the past I would go there for stereo stuff, but you get that online now and so every other shop sells sofas, why would you bother? Just another area of town not worth going to, bland, boring, same old, same old, could be anywhere-ville. Camden's under threat of losing it's tat and oregano salesmen, music venues are closing at alarming rates, if you don't have a ton of cash London is no longer for you, I think that's harmful, you clearly don't. C'est la vie.

Oh right. People who want stereo stuff don't have a place to shop around in town. People who want furniture do. I don't have much cash. I'm not really getting why shopping opportunities and central London house prices are the things people are despairing of.

 

[sang_bleu]

Have you ever been to Shoreditch?

 

[mango5]

I worked on Curtain Road from 1994—1998 and been back fairly frequently ever since. I agree that neighbourhood has changed almost out of recognition including in some nauseating uber-consumer ways. But in other ways it's loads better. Let's talk about slightly less central areas, less focused on business /shopping.
Any folk ready to condemn Archway, Kilburn, Tooting, for example?

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I worked on Curtain Road from 1994—1998 and been back fairly frequently ever since. I agree that neighbourhood has changed almost out of recognition including in some nauseating uber-consumer ways. But in other ways it's loads better. Let's talk about slightly less central business /shopping areas.
Any folk ready to condemn Archway, Kilburn, Tooting, for example?

Only every one in three shops in Hounslow High Street now sells handbags, rather than every other shop...

 

[mango5]

I remember when there were 3 greasy spoon caffs on South Molton Street in Mayfair, in the mid-70s. It's change to largely unaffordable designer clothing doesn't make me want to write London off.
Many places like Shoreditch and Balham and Angel and Aldgate and Wandsworth etc etc were utter shitholes decades ago. They're very different now. Nasty fat cat 80s boom foreign investment notwithstanding.
Some of us will weather the current changes and keep the place warm for the time when things change again.

 

[Ponyutd]

Oliver Twist walked for seven days to get to London.
If it's good enough for him, it's good enough for you whining lot.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Oliver Twist walked for seven days to get to London.
If it's good enough for him, it's good enough for you whining lot.

Dick Whittington, no?

 

[8den]

London has become the dumping ground for the globally rich.

What a bizarre turn of phrase, like New York, Paris and Monaco got ABOS' out against billionaires.

 

[Ponyutd]

Dick Whittington, no?

No Sir, the young Twist explains to Dodger he has walked seven days to get to London.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

No Sir, the young Twist explains to Dodger he has walked seven days to get to London.

Where did he walk from that took seven days?

 

[marty21]

Where did he walk from that took seven days?

Very slowly from Margate .

 

[Pickman's model]

I remember when there were 3 greasy spoon caffs on South Molton Street in Mayfair, in the mid-70s. It's change to largely unaffordable designer clothing doesn't make me want to write London off.
Many places like Shoreditch and Balham and Angel and Aldgate and Wandsworth etc etc were utter shitholes decades ago. They're very different now. Nasty fat cat 80s boom foreign investment notwithstanding.
Some of us will weather the current changes and keep the place warm for the time when things change again.

"The south will rise again"

 

[newbie]

I remember when there were 3 greasy spoon caffs on South Molton Street in Mayfair, in the mid-70s. It's change to largely unaffordable designer clothing doesn't make me want to write London off.
Many places like Shoreditch and Balham and Angel and Aldgate and Wandsworth etc etc were utter shitholes decades ago. They're very different now. Nasty fat cat 80s boom foreign investment notwithstanding.
Some of us will weather the current changes and keep the place warm for the time when things change again.

hmm, maybe. before TCR became the place to buy electronics it was the Edgware Rd (Henrys is still there, I think), which is now all shisha bars n stuff. That sort of organic center of gravity shift tends to support your point, but then in opposition to it, Chapel Market at the Angel was a magnet of little workshops, mending things like sewing machines, while Balham was a perfectly ordinary, if dull, area for ordinary people. Wandsworth, of course, has always been just a traffic jam surrounded by buildings: that's never changed and is never going to change, though there's not so many horses today.

 

[dessiato]

When I was twenty one I worked in Soho. The wg where there from 8:30 til whenever. I used to eat lunch in Soho Square with them. You don't see the girls there like that any more. It's changed, but change is not always bad. Soho has become almost family friendly, some great places to eat and drink.

 

[mango5]

hmm, maybe. before TCR became the place to buy electronics it was the Edgware Rd (Henrys is still there, I think), which is now all shisha bars n stuff. That sort of organic center of gravity shift tends to support your point, but then in opposition to it, Chapel Market at the Angel was a magnet of little workshops, mending things like sewing machines, while Balham was a perfectly ordinary, if dull, area for ordinary people. Wandsworth, of course, has always been just a traffic jam surrounded by buildings: that's never changed and is never going to change, though there's not so many horses today.

Balham was a red light district where young families were advised to avoid living. I'm thinking of mid-70s to late 80s. In Wandsworth, Garret Lane isn't a shithole just run down and overlooked in favour of Wandsworth Town, Earlsfield etc. The bit near the heliport is no longer a shithole, but unlikely to attract the ire of this thread. The bit of Angel I was thinking of is Essex Road and the top of City Road. Utterly transformed.
My point is that areas change, tastes vary, and writing the whole of London off because of corporate colonisation of some bits in the middle is a sign of the kind of lazy London bashing which generates a ludicrous universal truth that no one can be happy here - or even do more than survive - unless they're rich.

 

[newbie]

Balham was a red light district where young families were advised to avoid living. I'm thinking of mid-70s to late 80s.

There were lots of squats in Balham in the 70s, I spent a lot of time there. No-one ever said anything about red lights But then, London was depopulating in those years, particularly young families heading off to MK and the like.

I agree with your main point btw.

 

[Sirena]

I worked on Curtain Road from 1994—1998 and been back fairly frequently ever since. I agree that neighbourhood has changed almost out of recognition including in some nauseating uber-consumer ways. But in other ways it's loads better. Let's talk about slightly less central areas, less focused on business /shopping.
Any folk ready to condemn Archway, Kilburn, Tooting, for example?

Tooting's all right.

Actually, it hasn't changed all that much. A few new poshish eateries (nothing too expensive, though), a few new small wine bars, a few old pubs tarted up (mostly by Antic) and that's about it.

The whole 'little India' feel between Tooting Bec and Broadway is still solid and relatively unchanged.

 

[Ponyutd]

Where did he walk from that took seven days?

Bahnhof Strasse It doesn't say where he came from only it took seven days walking to reach Barnet.
Weak from hunger plus it was winter. Fair play to him.

 

[Winot]

I used to think that the reason London didn't feel like mine any more was because I don't live there (even though I lived there for most of my life). But actually it has changed beyond all recognition in the last 10 years. I don't think it belongs to most of us anymore. It belongs to international investors.

I drove through London on New Year's Day this year and was at traffic lights in Aldgate. They were building new flats next to the road and on the banner it said that the guaranteed return on investment was X within y years. No one is even pretending the flats are housing any more. They're empty investment shells.

Yeah that side of things has got worse recently and it's shit, but London is larger than that - it contains multitudes (population and the Whitman sense). There's still loads of ordinary bits with ordinary families going about their ordinary lives. And none the worse for that.

And some things are getting better. As I mentioned on the sofa thread, we cycled across Vauxhall bridge on Monday with an eight and 11-year-old to see some free art in Tate Britain. There are still loads of things you can do which are great and inexpensive and are unaffected by Chinese and Russian billionaires.

 

[Pickman's model]

When I was twenty one I worked in Soho. The wg where there from 8:30 til whenever. I used to eat lunch in Soho Square with them. You don't see the girls there like that any more. It's changed, but change is not always bad. Soho has become almost family friendly, some great places to eat and drink.

And fuck all record shops

 

[dessiato]

And fuck all record shops

It was a great place back then. I still love Soho, but it's very different.

 

[trashpony]

You're right of course Winot. When you move away, you really notice the speed of change though. I've only been gone 5 years and so many bits of London that I knew like the back of my hand have changed beyond all recognition.