Dear old London. What has she got?

General Discussion
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Years ago, while still at school (and that IS years ago), a friend and I would go off to the glamerous fleshpots of central London as often as possible; it was exciting,vibrant, magical and absolutely seductive. When he came to England from India years later, we of course had to go back ( Soho, Leicester Sq. etc). It was unbelievabley grimy, really tawdry and unattractive: so, might one's perception be a function of age and experience?. When I actually lived in London I very rarely managed theatres, restaurants and museums, far too 'knackered'; usually only when people came to stay. We currently live in Dorset's leafy lanes (nieghbours just outside hailing distance) and go up to see my son, who lives in Brick Lane: grim and sterile, but at twenty eight he seems to enjoy it.

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I LOVED London.

Will always have a soft spot for London...

But not in Love with the way London is managed.

Carry on laughing.

Making magic and romance.

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Glad that got a laugh; although I did it at the expense of showing my age lol!

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Me too

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Can I go with E. please Kwashie? That just made me laugh out loud.

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Me too - so romantic!

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I do accept your point of view, but from the ambiguous title of the post, it’s hard to know what point you were trying to make.

A. You love London
B. you don’t love London
C. You loved London before but now don’t
D. You never loved London, and now you don’t
E. London is not Trumpton

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You are there to enjoy London Kwashie and I do not stand in your way or throw stones at your house.S F is a place for self expression....

Many of you do not agree with my point of view but, perhaps you can accept this.

Vibrance is great.

I have expressed that.

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Thanks Suzanne. For that, London will always be magical to us.

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@ Nick awww - I have goosebumps reading this, how lovely.

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Those who go abroad to seek a better life… Somewhere someone is moaning about your bnb as well saying its new and regretting your move to their village…etc.



We accept you no longer love London, many of us do, and I don’t really understand the point of your post. Please explain.



You have a lovely place and life. We accept that!

You don’t like London any more. We accept that!

The vibrant city has not stood in some time warp. We accept that, Barbara!



Let those of us, either in London, or bi-located enjoy our city in peace.



You cant make your house better by throwing stones at your neighbour’s. Apparently.

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Yes London is rich in shopping experiences and has great parks....lived just near one.

Capitol of good food and a never a shortage of places to see and be seen in.

Borough market is a really good place to by foodie things and to spend lots of money.

Theatre and, perhaps an auditioning centre for the talented and gifted looking

for work opportunities. But for the young and the special....NOT for the older and not so bright.

So London is special for the privaledged to take their place.....or for those who create an invasion on

the generosity of the little island and take to manipulating what is on offer.

For me it is a place to collect my friends and bop around the restaurants for a week.

The London I hold close to my heart was where the really small and often scruffy shops would

be found hidden away in secret places just like finding migit gems.

Almost all of them have withered away without the sun in search of less greedy landlords and

councils.

So for me many of the wonders have been replaced by greed.Once a year or, perhaps every 2 years in

hope that leadership may change and all my buried treasure pops up again....that is my time for adoration.

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I fell in love with my OH in London. I knew her from France as her parents owned the closest bar to where we lived. The bar was at L'Arbre in the Charente. In the evenings I'd cycle up the hill to the bar, play a few games of bellotte with the café owners daughter (later my OH) and then freewheel back down the hill home.

Eventually I landed a really crap job in London loading the food onto the Eurostar and I also landed one room crap accommodation in Lewisham. My OH to be opted to do a teacher training course in Reading at roughly the same time. One day I received a call from the OHs mum asking if she could send a parcel of stuff to my address in London for her daughter to pick up. I thought no more of it. My OH made arrangements to come across and collect the parcel and asked if I wouldn't mind showing her and her friend around London (rather than waste tourist time getting lost). Well she turned up without her friend. :-D

So we spent the day together working our way across from East to West. I can't remember the exactly the route, but I know we did St Pauls, Tower Bridge, Borough Market, Covent Garden with the opera singers, clowns, street acts etc, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, The Mall, Buck House, Whitehall and then back across to Waterloo.

We had a great time, a dead easy stroll through London seeing as much as there was to see. Stopping off at bars and cafés on the way to try scones and jam and English tea. It was a beautifully sunny day until we arrived at the top of the Mall where it started to drizzle. As we headed down towards Buck House, I put up her umbrella and I did the male thing of "No, no, you stay under it, it's only raining a bit." So there was me holding the umbrella and walking to one side of it to allow her to be under it and then she just sort of linked arms with me to pull me under the umbrella. We stayed like that all the way back to Waterloo where she was taking her train back to Reading. We said goodbye with a bise and then a kiss that I'll never forget under the clock in Waterloo Station.

The rest is history and we are still very happy together 17 years on, but I do like to think that London, dear old London with all its charms, swung it for me that day - especially the London weather.

I can never watch anything now that involes the Mall, where she first took my arm, without getting a lump in my throat and a warm glowing smile when I think back to that day.

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Suzanne

You have just mentioned all the wonderful things I love about London - well said.

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We're currently living in London for the first time, after commuting here for years before escaping to the peacefulness of our small Herault village. It’s a complete contrast to our usual life BUT I love it.

I love the easy access to go to places via the Tube or DLR, I love the amazing parks - totally free, I love the fantastic museums - totally free, I love the Markets - totally free - Borough Market has become my local though one has to be careful which seller you go to as there are some which are like the Cheese sellers in France - entice you in by their big cheeses (or mountainful of heritage tomatoes and then sting you at £9 for 2 tomatoes - I don't think so!).

A walk down the Thames path, a trip on the boat up the river for a small fare, take in the views of Westminster, the towering skyscrapers and the eclectic mix of old and new architecture. Love some, Hate some, that is the beauty of London.

For us, great memories have been made. My eldest “One day mummy I will be as tall as the Shard”

We plan to get back to France early next year and for us, we will hold dearly our memories of London and will always relish coming back & re-exploring this amazing City.

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Ridiculous!

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Nothing, as long as you don't work for the Independent and like tweeting, lol:

"Twitter suspends British journalist critical of NBC's Olympics coverage
Social media site sparks wave of indignation after banning Independent journalist Guy Adams for acerbic NBC tweets"

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Good points Neil and what is wrong with being a journalist by the way?

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Very nice, I must say, very nice!