For those who live in London - give me reasons to hate this amazing city!!
 

I looooooove London, I´ve been there in 1998 and o not have that kind of money to go once again!! So please people of London, what do you do not like about living and working in London? Maybe yours answers will ease my pain!!!! (yes, i am a drama queen)<BR>Thanks a lot!

The negatives about a city from a living and working standpoint have little to do with tourist experiences. I can provide a list a mile long of what's wrong with my city (not London), but tourists seem to have a ball here.

I know that qqq, but still i am curious! Maybe i will accept better the fact that where i live is no London.

Crazy, the grass is always greener. But I hear ya.

Here's one thing that Londoners hate about London - the tube. <BR><BR>London Underground must be the only organisation to take almost a year to get one escalator fixed (Picadilly Line, Earls Court). Absolutely ridiculous.

crazy<BR><BR>The tube. It's expensive, packed during rush hour, frequently delayed and a health hazaard. There's an email doing the rounds at the moment which talks about a survey carried out on a random carriage recently. The seat tested contained traces of urine belonging to at least 5 different people, as well as vomit, excrement, semen and animal hair. I don't know if it's true but it IS filthy. Once a few Londoners have a virus it tends to spread quickly because of the packed tubes and open plan offices...<BR><BR>The cost of living. Housing is very expensive in London, so is eating out and going out. You need to get a GOOD salary to be able to have a decent standard of living, for most of us it is a struggle, especially you love to travel, you have a lot less money for the home and for clothes and so on after paying your rent or mortgage and your monthly travel pass.<BR><BR>The weather. It's not as cold or dark as Scotland, but it's not exactly year round sunshine either... I love the seasons, and I don't mind the cold but I do hate the dark.<BR><BR>On the plus side, there's lots to do, fantastic work opportunities (says the woman who has just taken redundancy from her secure job, sheesh) and eating out is always a pleasure.<BR><BR>It's a wonderful melting pot of people from all around the world and, despite what people say about unfriendly locals, it's easy to make friends if you are proactive about it.<BR><BR>A plus for Europe in general is better annual leave allowances though this is not just London, obviously.

Thanks for the info, Kavey. I think I'll stand when I take the Tube in May!!

Vita<BR>LOL<BR>I just don't think about it too much, usually most commuters just want a SEAT!!!<BR>But I do wash my hands after travelling on the tube before I eat anything...<BR>Kavey

Vita, my advice would be to stay well clear of the tube. You'll find that most tube stations are only a 5 min walk from each other but the tube makes the distances look a lot longer. <BR><BR>You can do a great walk from Picadilly via St James' Park, Green Park, Hyde Park and the backstreets to Holland Park and take in some of the best sights in town.

Thanks, Londoner. I'm going to try to walk and be above ground as much as possible. Funny thing is, I take the Tube (or Metro as we call it) every day to work. I don't think I want to know what's on those seats.

Soryr, but the tale about the terrible unsanitary conditions on the tube has been proven to be a fabricatoin/urban legend. But do wash your hands as soon as you can! (I travel with those wipe packets.)<BR><BR>http://www.snopes.com/toxins/london.htm<BR><BR>crazy, why not just do everything you can to make your next trip possible? You say it's been 4 years. Well, if you'd been putting all your purchases on a frequent-flyer credit card, you'd be well on your way to your ticket by now. Between ff miles and home exchange, I took a trip to London almost for free last summer. You can, too!

If you want to visit anywhere in zone 2 or further out it's NOT walking distance so for most commuters, they haven't the choice.<BR><BR>For tourists, most stick to central London and can walk and use buses more easily...<BR><BR>Walking within central London is straightforward enough, Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Charing Cross, Warren Street, all these stations are in a small central area.<BR><BR>

That's a fair point. I live and work in central London luckily so can get away with walking to most places.<BR><BR>I wouldn't really advise any tourist to stay outside of Zone 1 though if they really want to see London... <BR><BR>

Hate to say it but from June to October, tourists. They congregate at the entrance to tube stations, they stand on the wrong side of the escalator, they pee in Leicester Square. It's true, I think that London loves foreigners but hates tourists.

I am a traveller, you are a visitor, they are [sniff] tourists.....<BR>I was born and bred in London, so how could I hate it? It can be exasperating for all the reasons already mentioned, which history suggests were common long before tubes and tourists were even dreamed of (hundreds of years ago visitors complained that Londoners were always rushing). It's a lot to do with mood and expectations. Yes, I hate dark winter afternoons, but I love the opportunity to close the curtains, turn the heating up and sit down with a pot of tea, a buttered something and a detective story. I hate the crowds (especially those immediately in front of me, and when will they bring back hanging for people who go through a doorway and then stop dead...) but I would miss the variety, of the people themselves and of all the shops and services that they attract. But if one more estate agent tries to persuade me to sell my flat....

Oh, Patrick, what a lovely response. Now I want to live in London, too......

OH MY GOD! Just reading this makes me long for a ride in that crowded tube, a walk in the early evening to the local pub for a pint, being jostled by the crowds on Oxford street, a nice browse through the shops of Convent Garden, a stroll around Sloan Square...ah London, London, how I love you. What is there to hate? Nothing, nothing, nothing.

Read Henry James. He wrote a million reasons to hate the city he loved.

Patrick Wallace, your description of a dark winter afternoon in London almost made me cry with homesickness! I'm packing!

Crazy about London.....this isn't working out quite as you had hoped, is it? LOL

That is true M. Giggle! people, attention please! you are not helping much! And the tube is much better than the buses that i have to take every day!!! I love the tube! (giggle , what is LOL? i know is a internet language, but i am not very familiar with it.)

LOL = Lots of laughter<BR><BR>ROTFL = Roll on the Floor Laughing<BR><BR>ROTFLMAO = Roll on the Floor Laughing My Arse/Ass Off<BR>

Thanks a lot Kavey, and i loved your answer about housing and everything!!!<BR>That is the kind of comment that i was looking for.<BR>Crazy

You're welcome!!

I LOVE London as well, I would give anything to live there, but one thing I can't stand is the antiquated banking system. To transfer money from a checking to savings account or vice-versa, I had to actually wait to be seated at a desk with a bank person to get the transfer. You can't do that on a cash machine. That's annoying.<BR><BR>Also, stores close early, with very few newsstands/food places open for a late night snack attack. Then again, I live in NY where things are open 24 hrs a day.<BR><BR>Oxford Street on weekends, and Marylebone area as well. Full of tourists and European schoolchildren on tour.<BR><BR>But I'd give anything to roam around the aisles of Sainsbury's at 4 am on weekends! (Yes, some are open 24 hrs from Thurs through Sat).<BR>

It’s funny – as a visitor to London I find myself increasingly enjoying the bits that are outside of the Circle Line precisely because they’re less accessible and maybe more representative (?) than the central districts. It’s like visiting New York and never going past the north end of Central Park or over to Brooklyn. You know intellectually that it’s a minority of the people who live in lower/midtown Manhattan or Westminster/Kensington/Chelsea, but the absence of landmarks or tourist attractions, combined (always) with inadequate time, means you ignore these areas, and, hence, most of the “life” that goes on in these great cities. <BR><BR>So that’s my criticism, I suppose. The density of interesting things to do in the central part of the city keeps one from visiting the outer parts, ergo, interacting with a broader range of people and seeing “life as it is lived” by a much larger slice of the population than those bustling on Oxford Street or standing (sitting? – ha!) on the Piccadilly Line. This is not the case with some other big cities – Los Angeles for example, where the attractions are so spread out that one is forced to learn about the whole metropolis in order to get the visiting job done. There are some big European cities where the same thing holds IMO – Moscow, maybe, or even Barcelona on a smaller scale. London is a rather concentrated embarrassment of riches for the visitor. That’s good news and bad news in a way.<BR><BR>On a personal note, what especially bugs me about London? Kings Cross – what a dump.<BR>

The high cost of living.<BR><BR>Cigarette smoke everywhere.<BR><BR>Rain rain go away.<BR><BR>

Working late tonight and this thread is making me so happy. :)