London is the worst place ever

[williethepimp]

And you would be right Jai Dee, I could never live in London being a Northener myself, one I couldnt put up with their accents all day long and two they dont have gravy in their Chippy's

Thank god for that Duke,i was beginning to worry about you....us Norvern Mankeys gotta stick together.....jellied eels? pie n mash? FFS-what sort of grub is that?

[JaiDee]

 "Northern Monkeys"

 

 "Southern Fairies"

 

  from Lock, Stock and 2 smoking barrels

[Quietguy]

some big London property launches are made first in Moscow , Hong Kong or Singapore now due to the super rich who gobble up the prime plots first. 

I saw a program recently about rich investors from abroad buying up property in London, and they mentioned Thailand as another place where new developments are being sold first.

[mardhi]

London is a very big city and you cannot talk about it as one entity

 

Basically you have the City and West End of London , Inner London and Greater London. I live in the City and i would not swop it for Bankok or id have to think hard about it as my business is based in UK. However as you move further away from the centre some parts are not so pleasant and i would swop in two seconds and emigrate.. my office is in a part of East London and its a hell hole.. id rather commit suicide than live here , but fortunately i dont

 

The City and the West end are what many think of as London but this part might as well be another planet . Parts of the West end are practically a Russian/Arab Monaco now with money being parked here in  property as its relatively safe in economic terms

 

I spent a lot of time in other big cities all over the world..Hong Kong, New York , LA,Moscow, Vegas , Milan , Taipei and so on and i think i would chose Hong Kong as a second place to live and work if i had to be based in one country for work.. if only i could afford a house there. But when i retire , sold the Family Silver and no work then maybe Bankok. To be honest i spend a lot of time in BKK anyway and feel like its my second home so i have a  happy medium

 

I considered buying somewhere in Old street/Farringon area when i worked there about 20 years ago.  what a mistake that was - I did not buy as i thought it was a dump and everything was closed on weekends.   But as always, location, location, location wins the day.   I remember looking at places for 100,000 Pounds - 2 bedroom flats in big old houses.   I hate to think how much they cost these days.

[Quietguy]

By the way - can you still park on single yellow lines after lunchtime on Saturday and not get clamped (and/or meters after 12 as i remember it). Always a good deal that was.  Drive up to the West End, park outside the BBC at Portman Place and it was free.  Two minute walk to Oxford Street.

I don't drive now either mardhi, so I'm not sure but I don't think you can park free anywhere in Central London at any time now. And apart from the parking charges you will have to pay the Congestion Charge (£8 I think) for entering Central London.

[williethepimp]

hows this for accomodation prices in london....

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2442595/At-theres-park-London-double-garage-sells-250-000--80-000-cost-average-HOUSE.html

[duke007]

And apart from the parking charges you will have to pay the Congestion Charge (£8 I think) for entering Central London.

I would happily pay £8 to get out of London, its a shithole

[Quietguy]

I would happily pay £8 to get out of London, its a shithole

I like London despite all it's problems. I went to Manchester last Sunday for the march to the Tory Conference to protest against the cuts, and I don't think it was any better (or worse) than London.

[Tomcat]

Thank god for that Duke,i was beginning to worry about you....us Norvern Mankeys gotta stick together.....jellied eels? pie n mash? FFS-what sort of grub is that?

 

ha ha .. i heard a deep fried Mars Bar is considered health food up North

[Tomcat]

In any big City there is bound to be some poor sap who thinks he is in the worst of all possible worlds and plenty who think they are in Paradise. Its easy to get the flem of your chest online and no cost.

 

Does anyone remember LB Chaser Doug from the old days. He lived in Bankok but was permanently moaning about it and anyone would think he had been exiled to Chechnya ...sit with him in a bar and he  would bend your ear for an hour about the travails of life in Silom and beyond

[Luung]

Well, what can I say, other than I agree with most of you....

I remember when I was a kid, listening to my old dad saying that 'today's' London wasn't the same place he grew up in & that he really didn't want to be there any more, & I'd look at him & think, Jeeeeezus, I really don't ever want to become that cynical about my home... But the simple fact is, that to me at the time, it was actually the centre of my universe, but now, at roughly the same stage in life that he was then, I'm actually worse, much worse... And it really isn't the same place that I grew up in... So I left for ladyboy paradise!

We've had wave upon wave of immigration & foreign investment which as caused a huge exodus out & all but obliterated whatever culture there was & completely changed the face of a once great & completely individually minded city.... We've been dumbed down & beaten down by political correctness, our suburbs are faceless, the rich are reckless & uncaring strangers, the estates are hostile underbellies where unintelligible patois are spoken & the once endearing, colourful, hospitable nature & almost Dickensian outlook of the local population has been lost forever.

But hey, that's just my perspective & for many who are having 'their' time now, it may well still be the centre of the universe for them as it's still a great place for the ultra modern trend setters & other cognoscenti amongst us.

For me, apart from what we've lost as a culture & a people, it's also about very much about money; because to put it very simply, when I had money my life was great... And when I didn't, it wasn't... And that's today's London!

Many of the regular posters know what I do for a living & for many years I was one of the token local's in a fabulous & incredibly well paid industry, with lots of parties & other perks, & with little me spinning around the city & west end in fancy classic sports cars, wearing fancy clothes & smokin' ceegar, with all the added accoutrements thrown in, dolly birds, bangles & whatever... AND I FUKIN' LOVED IT!... And then we got computerised, our value & status was slashed in all respects & I had to start living like a normal 'bod' again... And man did that hurt, because, as I said, it's a rich man's city, pure & simple!.. So there I found myself looking on, no longer able to afford what the city had to offer & the more I got pushed back into the grottier & nastier side of London life, the more I started to hate the place & see it for what it really was becoming... Outrageously overpriced, superficial, brutal, unforgiving & ugly!

It isn't called the big lonely city for nothing & that's coming from someone who was born & bread there!

@Paxo... To be honest mate, I've never heard any race of people moan as much as Australians... Really, I haven't.

@Quietguy & Tomcat... I remember the two very last free parking spots in the centre of London as I used to use them both of them regularly, one was in Prince Albert Way opposite Battersea Park & the other one was on market days & Neal Street Market, Covent Garden.... And get this Tomcat, I remember buying a brand new XR2 nearly twenty years ago & then having the bastard thing stolen three times in six weeks!!!.. I got it back the first two times, but the last & final time it was stolen from outside my local & I'd only popped down there for last orders... The last fukin' fifteen minutes of the night... Poof, gone!

@Willy... Shame you've got your head down working so hard when you're in London, because there's an absolute wealth of museums to enjoy & galleries too... Have you ever given the Royal Acadamy a look, you might just change your mind?

@Duke007... You're not even worth using bad language on... YOU ARE A PRAT!.. And you got your silly, girly knickers, all in a twist, because I made the merest hint of a joke about Mankland... Now look at you.

@JaiDee... Please, please, pleeeeeeeeeesse don't quote 'Lock, Stock & two steaming bollock sacks'... It brings me out in hives... And it's sort of, part of, the whole, 'It's cool to be a 'wrong un' syndrome", going on in London right now, where villans are heros & it's cool to be bad, just so long as you look really snazzzy & talk slick... Fukin' Guy Twitchy's got a real lot to answer for, he really has!

Anyway, probably one of the biggest mistakes I ever made was selling up in 2000... But that was how much I needed out of the place!

[SiamSam]

Good heartfelt rant Unc! 

[duke007]

@Duke007... You're not even worth using bad language on... YOU ARE A PRAT!.. And you got your silly, girly knickers, all in a twist, because I made the merest hint of a joke about Mankland... Now look at you.

 

 

Cheers

 

btw.. I dont think its my silly girly knickers that are in a twist here mate , 1.. I didnt see your joke about Mankland and 2. If you knew me then you would know my comments were made in jest because of the North/South divide

 

Mai pen rai coz Im off to the Boozer

[williethepimp]

I like London despite all it's problems. I went to Manchester last Sunday for the march to the Tory Conference to protest against the cuts, and I don't think it was any better (or worse) than London.

 

Manchesters ok,you get a lot more bang for your buck in Mcr.....there isn't that much difference in the salaries ,but the cost of accomodation in london makes living there prohibitive....

ha ha .. i heard a deep fried Mars Bar is considered health food up North

 

no mate-we dont do deep fried mars bar here,youre thinking of Glasgow........the weirdest we get is mushy peas.....

Good heartfelt rant Unc! 

i wouldnt call it a rant....a heartfelt piece I thought

 

@unc.......i suppose its like anywhere else,it'd be good to have a local show me round....last time i was there ,i was staying in southall,the local curry houses were looking daggers every time i went in,definitely hostile attitude,...me and my mate and the barmaid were the only 2 white faces in the local pub,and they were selling drugs openly outside the gents toilet...(we only went in to watch the footie) i fookin hated it.....you couldnt park anywhere ,even in the leafy suburbs without feeding a meter all day...i averaged 1 parking ticket a week ,even being ultra careful....

 

I loved the british museum,i'd happily spend days there,and it'd take days to see it all...the portrait gallery i was disappointed in....maybe I expected more ,but i dont think its a patch on most great city's galleries ...Chicago ,for instance.........

 

I didnt do the natural history museum(never do those-they bore me) and i didnt do the vic and albert museum(should i?)

 

I suppose my main problem with london is the cost...i feel i'm beng ripped off all the fookin time,60 pence for a piss in euston station!Anyway,i've the same problem with Dublin,a grossly overrated city if ever there was one...

[seven]

 

 

Does anyone remember LB Chaser Doug from the old days. 

Doug was great. 

[TEXASMAC]

 I don't have to read all the posts. All I can ask is have you heard of my hometown.... DETROIT. They filed for bankruptcy.

[globetrotter]

I don't have to read all the posts. All I can ask is have you heard of my hometown.... DETROIT. They filed for bankruptcy.

Was in Detroit once (back when it was murder capital USA) and managed to get lost, pretty scary place and that was during the day time

[pacman]

We've had wave upon wave of immigration & foreign investment which as caused a huge exodus out & all but obliterated whatever culture there was & completely changed the face of a once great & completely individually minded city.... We've been dumbed down & beaten down by political correctness, our suburbs are faceless, the rich are reckless & uncaring strangers, the estates are hostile underbellies where unintelligible patois are spoken & the once endearing, colourful, hospitable nature & almost Dickensian outlook of the local population has been lost forever.

 

Nicely put. As good a piece of prose I have read here. +1.         

 

 

@Paxo... To be honest mate, I've never heard any race of people moan as much as Australians... Really, I haven't. 

 

 

I don't want to start a debate about it, I say we are tarred with the same brush. Australians are quick to complain about anything, I do it as do most nationalities living in the west. But whereas I might whinge about my beer not being cold enough, the whinging I was referring to is specific to the thread.

 

For many years I dealt with British migrants who in the course of conversation couldn't wait to unload about how things have changed back in the Old Dart for the worse. I heard tale after tale about the things that drove them to make the move. And there's no value in repeating the stories to fellow Aussies, they have heard it too.

 

Who of us is the worst whinger? Dunno but I do know there are a lot of Poms here who feel the same way about London (and the UK) as you do.

 

 And it's sort of, part of, the whole, 'It's cool to be a 'wrong un' syndrome", going on in London right now, where villans are heros & it's cool to be bad, just so long as you look really snazzzy & talk slick... Fukin' Guy Twitchy's got a real lot to answer for, he really has! 

 

 

I hope this syndrome isn't going to be tolerated, it has the potential to corrupt great swathes of youth. We see it everywhere with the hip-talking rapper/drug dealer characters popularised by the entertainment media in the US & other places. Here at home our law enforcement agencies are starting a crackdown on the many bikie gangs in the country who are fighting a turf war for control of the distribution of drugs. They've announced these things before but now with so many of the principals involved being shot in public, it does appear to be more concerted this time. One can only hope.

 

As for Guy Ritchie, his reputation exceeds his ability IMO. I wondered how much credit he can take for his successful productions & how much is due to others? Did anyone see Swept Away, the film he made with his wife Madonna where her boat sinks & she gets marooned on an island with the first mate? I have never seen a film before that portrayed such poor discipline in its production values. There was obviously some in-joke running between cast & crew & in dramatic scenes, the shot opens with the cast grinning about something that is happening behind the scenes. And he shot the film & never noticed it. It ruins the ambiance of what isn't a serious film in the first place. But this failure to re-shoot scenes where people are inappropriately laughing reduces the entire thing to farce.

 

Anyway, probably one of the biggest mistakes I ever made was selling up in 2000... But that was how much I needed out of the place! 

 

 

I made the same mistake for different reasons. What seemed like a good idea at the time is a disaster with the benefit of hindsight. 

[Tomcat]

W

@

@And get this Tomcat, I remember buying a brand new XR2 nearly twenty years ago 

 

 

re stolen car

 

Actually mine was an XR2I..Fiesta a brand new 1800 Fuel Injected White one with all the trimmings... my brother used to have an Xr3 and i posted in haste the wrong model.. what  a car...and i only got one speeding ticket. . Crime is a big problem and thats a major downer, its a war out there.

[Luung]

@unc.......i suppose its like anywhere else,it'd be good to have a local show me round....last time i was there ,i was staying in southall,the local curry houses were looking daggers every time i went in,definitely hostile attitude,...me and my mate and the barmaid were the only 2 white faces in the local pub,and they were selling drugs openly outside the gents toilet...(we only went in to watch the footie) i fookin hated it.....you couldnt park anywhere ,even in the leafy suburbs without feeding a meter all day...i averaged 1 parking ticket a week ,even being ultra careful....

 

I loved the british museum,i'd happily spend days there,and it'd take days to see it all...the portrait gallery i was disappointed in....maybe I expected more ,but i dont think its a patch on most great city's galleries ...Chicago ,for instance.........

 

I didnt do the natural history museum(never do those-they bore me) and i didnt do the vic and albert museum(should i?)

 

I suppose my main problem with london is the cost...i feel i'm beng ripped off all the fookin time,60 pence for a piss in euston station!Anyway,i've the same problem with Dublin,a grossly overrated city if ever there was one...

Defo need someone to show you around Willy... Especially as most of the good stuff ain't exactly going to be where you'd expect to find it.

 

Should have done the V & A, Natural History & also The Science Museum... I promise you it won't be boring!!!

 

And agree whole heartedly, it's so unbelievably overpriced for what it is!... If you're a normal bloke on a normal salary, then you're standard of living will be so much better tup' North.

 

 

Nicely put. As good a piece of prose I have read here. +1.         

 

 

 

I don't want to start a debate about it, I say we are tarred with the same brush. Australians are quick to complain about anything, I do it as do most nationalities living in the west. But whereas I might whinge about my beer not being cold enough, the whinging I was referring to is specific to the thread.

 

For many years I dealt with British migrants who in the course of conversation couldn't wait to unload about how things have changed back in the Old Dart for the worse. I heard tale after tale about the things that drove them to make the move. And there's no value in repeating the stories to fellow Aussies, they have heard it too.

 

Who of us is the worst whinger? Dunno but I do know there are a lot of Poms here who feel the same way about London (and the UK) as you do.

 

 

I hope this syndrome isn't going to be tolerated, it has the potential to corrupt great swathes of youth. We see it everywhere with the hip-talking rapper/drug dealer characters popularised by the entertainment media in the US & other places. Here at home our law enforcement agencies are starting a crackdown on the many bikie gangs in the country who are fighting a turf war for control of the distribution of drugs. They've announced these things before but now with so many of the principals involved being shot in public, it does appear to be more concerted this time. One can only hope.

 

As for Guy Ritchie, his reputation exceeds his ability IMO. I wondered how much credit he can take for his successful productions & how much is due to others? Did anyone see Swept Away, the film he made with his wife Madonna where her boat sinks & she gets marooned on an island with the first mate? I have never seen a film before that portrayed such poor discipline in its production values. There was obviously some in-joke running between cast & crew & in dramatic scenes, the shot opens with the cast grinning about something that is happening behind the scenes. And he shot the film & never noticed it. It ruins the ambiance of what isn't a serious film in the first place. But this failure to re-shoot scenes where people are inappropriately laughing reduces the entire thing to farce.

 

 

I made the same mistake for different reasons. What seemed like a good idea at the time is a disaster with the benefit of hindsight. 

 

Your talking about the 10 bob Brit... Never hapy at home, never happy away... We didn't want them either.

I don't even really know what prose are, Paxo? You'll have to educate me... I had a lot to say & was just looking for the most consise way to get it down, but funnily enough, I looked at it, liked it & then instantly thought, fuck, it's going to be hard to match the rest of the post upto this!!? 

 

I actually designed a cartoon T'shirt for Madona to wear on that piece of filth film, 'Swept away'... And at the end of production they slashed my money down by half & said, "take it or leave it"!... Guess the lady didn't like it much!?... What a bunch of arse wipes!

 

Never even saw the thing in full panoramic technicolour either, as I found the film completely un watchable!

 

Re, the current adulation of all that's viscious in gangstaland & film (Art mimicing film & viccy vercy)... It's the old drip, drip factor, before kids know where they are, they're addicted!.. Damage done, I'm afraid

 

 

re stolen car

 

Actually mine was an XR2I..Fiesta a brand new 1800 Fuel Injected White one with all the trimmings... my brother used to have an Xr3 and i posted in haste the wrong model.. what  a car...and i only got one speeding ticket. . Crime is a big problem and thats a major downer, its a war out there.

I made the same bo bo, in haste too, mine was also a XR2i... And it was white!

 

My timing was wrong, as well, it was actually further back, 1987.

 

And to be honest, I really didn't want the thing back after the first time it was stolen, as it kinda gave me a feeling like someone else had been wearing my underpants.

 

Nasty car stat No:7456525835.... At the time the fuzz told me that the UK was, per capita, the worst first world country for car theft... Now that wouldn't surprise me today, but then, Jezzzzzzzz, I couldn't believe that it was actually worse than the States???

[Luung]

Cheers

Don't mention it!  

 

[Luung]

btw.. I dont think its my silly girly knickers that are in a twist here mate , 1.. I didnt see your joke about Mankland and 2. If you knew me then you would know my comments were made in jest because of the North/South divide

 

Mai pen rai coz Im off to the Boozer

Well I do remember it, but I can't be bothered to trawl back through the anals... So let's forget it & maybe agree that we can both be clumsy posters, (And OK, admittedly, I can be worse).

 

Anyway, "mai pen rai", as they say tup' North  ... Hope you had a good drink!

[JaiDee]

London, 1963

 

 

 

[SiamSam]

I wonder if she gained weight since then.

I certainly did...

[JaiDee]

Me in 1963.....I've gained a few since then also 

 

gained some height as well