London

Sorry to exclude those of you who don't live in the capital. I had a brief scan of the 16 pages you get if you type London in to the search but... what do we think of London? Not just as cyclists, infact especially not as cyclists. I can't make my own mind up and I've been here 25 years. Mostly I think I hate it, I really really hate it but can't imagine living in any other British city. Why do we live here? If you were born here why have you never left or why have you returned? I came down South to be a student and now I feel like I'm a prisoner serving life with no chance of parole.
So, London? in your experience, in culture, what is there to say? What book, film, record says something about London that you agree or disagree with?
For me it's this: it's weirdly apt and seems, in it's melancholy and sense of failure and decay, to get more apt every year.

YouTube - Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street

Never thought I'd miss London so much as what I did living in Paris for 9months

Dunno what other City I'd like to live in either. London's shit(due to the mojority of toerags leaving here) but equally ace at the same time

I know a lot of Londoners move down to Brighton but Brighton's wank. Bristol's a great city but miles from anywhere, Manchester's cool, but cold and grey, Oxford's nice but boring and full of tourists....

Ah London, I still haven't got sick of the place. A born and bred South Londoner - I lived elsewhere but always came back. It pisses me off sometimes, but I still get a warm feeling whenever I ride across a Thames bridge at night, there's something magical about this place - it's hard to describe - one day I might get sick of it and leave..but not yet.

YouTube - Morrissey - Come back to camden

Never thought I'd miss London so much as what I did living in Paris for 9months

Dunno what other City I'd like to live in either. London's shit(due to the mojority of toerags leaving here) but equally ace at the same time

I know a lot of Londoners move down to Brighton but Brighton's wank. Bristol's a great city but miles from anywhere, Manchester's cool, but cold and grey, Oxford's nice but boring and full of tourists....

No mention of Liverpool?
Why doesn't that surprise?

Why would anyone wanna live in Liverpool?

Too early for a derailing, thankyou.

YouTube - Ralph McTell Streets of London

True story - I was on a school holiday in the lake district in the good old days when teachers would take kids to the pub with them in the evenings. Anyways, this song was playing and most of the pub was singing along. When it came to the chorus our group was singing strrets of london as loud as we could whilst another large group changed the lyris to streets of wigan.
Don't suppose you were in Braithwaite back in 19 cough, splutter....

As far as I know I've never been to Braithwaite but good story. I should point out that I'd rather have hot oil poured into every orifice in my body than live in Wigan.

I love London for its energy and dynamism ; it is a place that is always changing. If you live in a city like Paris, a city that seems to devote its entire energy to preserving the past, you can see that it is this energy that 'makes' London. Having said that I probably wouldn't want to live there again. Even though I love London I don't see much about the UK that makes me want to return there. Britian can't even give the poor old Gurkas a fair shake ..:(

"what do they know of England who only England know?" as Kipling put it.

I'd rather have hot oil poured into every orifice in my body than live in Wigan.

But that's not really saying that you've not phoned the estate agents, is it?

Loved it when I lived and worked there (0-29 years) but now I live somewhere altogether more sedate and semi-rural I could never ever go back to living there. To me, having taken a step back and viewing it from afar (well, not that far, but you get my drift), its a serious shithole.

BUT, whenever I go for drinks/meetings/etc. and I step out of Liverpool St. stn. I realise its a great fucking city despite all its flaws.

But that's not really saying that you've not phoned the estate agents, is it?

I'm warning you; on topic or I'm telling them the truth about what really happened when I met you. And yes, that was a camera.

I'm warning you; on topic or I'm telling them the truth about what really happened when I met you. And yes, that was a camera.

• I know you tried to box my brownie...*
  

YouTube - The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset

Oh yeah, forgot this.

• I know you tried to box my brownie...*
  

He tried to fudge it as well.

I knew when I typed the word 'culture' it would end up like this....

YouTube - The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset

Oh yeah, forgot this.

But that was actually written about Waterloo in Liverpool

I knew when I typed the word 'culture' it would end up like this....

So similar to clutter!?

But that was actually written about Waterloo in Liverpool

Bollocks. There's no Waterloo Station there for Terry to meet Julie.

'was'

But that was actually written about Waterloo in Liverpool

Yeah, the famous Waterloo underground station in Liverpool huh.

YouTube - The Clash - Guns Of Brixton Video

On a very personal level what I like best about London, is sitting out on the stoop steps of Bravington road in the summer, everyone in the manor listening to the cricket - the West Indians with their portable radios on the stoops, the Indians watching it on TV in their cornor shops, it seems that nearly everyone comes from a different place in London but we are all Londoners - it is being from London the brings us together. If people ever ask where I am from I always say London, never say England. I don't really like England, I don't think I ever did. Wiganwill (where the fuck is Wigan?) is from another planet as far as I am concerned but we are both Londoners.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Calling_(song)

It was an easy sell for me. I lived in a lot of places when I was really young (Athens, D.C.), but I spent most of my life in a fairly large city with a really small-town mindset (Jacksonville, FL), always wishing I could be somewhere that 'mattered' and where stuff actually happened. And, growing up in the 80s and watching lots of MTV, London always seemed really 'cool' or something. Plus, Americans love London. Anyway, I visited in 2005 and wished I could live here one day, but knew I probably never would. But I ended up here less than a year and a half later. I love all the options for everything (food, shopping, entertainment). I love the fact that London has such a diverse population. I love the sense of history (like the fact that the road around the corner from my flat has been there since Roman times). The weather's not great, but the summers are lovely and I appreciate actually having seasons (something that you don't get in Florida).

I've only been here a little over two years now, but I'd have a hard time moving away. Almost anything would seem like a 'step down' to me. Maybe not NYC. But London's so much closer to so many things... NYC is all the way across the Atlantic.