6 months back.....

[bunbury61]

I think we differ on it being better than it used to be. Hard to believe but it was once a chilled out, world leader in street and youth fashion. Lots of want to be and up and coming artists, musicians, and the like could live with relative ease, if far from grand, in inner suburbs which had real soul. Something no where near as evident these days, (I take my 2012 experience, when went back there to live the spring/summer)

Areas like Notting Hill/ Bayswater/ Fulham/ Kensington / changed considerably over the years.

 

Of course London will always have something special and those seeing it through new eyes for the first time (say over past decade or so)will likely have another impression.

Those of us that had decent living conditions, at a reasonable price ,in the heart of one of the most happening cities pre Big Bang and early years after will likely always suffer with nostalgia for the times that were.

 

What ?????...in the 80s ...london was on its arse ...it wasn't a groovy happening place ...it was tired ,washed up ...yesterdays news.

In 2016 ...i ain't talking about the political situation or its many problems ,but London right now ,is 10 times better than it used to be .

I don't care about the cost of living in London,because I wont be ...iam talking about the buzz of being there ....

Its influence is still right up there ,and the money is pouring in .....

[bunbury61]

Try not to get too bogged down in middle earth.

 

I don't ...aint watched any of them

[bunbury61]

What ?????...in the 80s ...london was on its arse ...it wasn't a groovy happening place ...it was tired ,washed up ...yesterdays news.

In 2016 ...i ain't talking about the political situation or its many problems ,but London right now ,is 10 times better than it used to be .

I don't care about the cost of living in London,because I wont be ...iam talking about the buzz of being there ....

Its influence is still right up there ,and the money is pouring in .....

P.s ...london still leads the way ...music ,fashion etc ...name 5 other major cities that trip off the tongue globally before London ?

 

Erm erm ...paris maybe ...new York maybe ...struggling now

[flag of convenience]

Maybe that's why artists use the only platform available to them... the internet? Which in itself seems remote, totally over-crowded and commercial.

 

Very remote. Doesn't at all compensate for the loss of artistic localities in our major cities. Glad to see Berlin fighting back, but even there only a matter of time, one feels.

[flag of convenience]

P.s ...london still leads the way ...music ,fashion etc ...name 5 other major cities that trip off the tongue globally before London ?

 

Erm erm ...paris maybe ...new York maybe ...struggling now

 

London has lost a lot of its panache I felt compared to previous decades. It has a far more commercial air. Wealthier look. Of course it remains global. It is a major centre for global finance. The tourists keep coming. Poor immigrants flock to do low paid service jobs and live in often substandard digs.

 

London has certainly lost a number of the cheap icons of the past. I mean eating places known to many regardless of class, where a diversity of human kind rubbed shoulders. Areas where folk in the arts camped. Often lived in studios or even bed sitters, but hardly mattered as the scene was all around them. Even old favourite gathering places like long established coffee houses have moved up market, one in fact, was at the point of closure a few weeks ago in the Old Brompton Road, since reprieved but no a scratch on the relaxed nature it once was.

[handsomewill]

someone has been at the rose and then stuck the rose tinted glasses on here. London is a grey, crowded dump. if you get your buzz out of fighting your way through swarms of tourists, squeezing into congested tubes to start your two hour commute and sat in traffic then good luck to you, everyone is different. I could think of nothing worse than living there! even after a few days I'm ready to leave.

 

give me paris, Barcelona, Sydney, Tokyo, NYC ahead of London anyday, but that's just my view.

[flag of convenience]

What ?????...in the 80s ...london was on its arse ...it wasn't a groovy happening place ...it was tired ,washed up ...yesterdays news.

In 2016 ...i ain't talking about the political situation or its many problems ,but London right now ,is 10 times better than it used to be .

I don't care about the cost of living in London,because I wont be ...iam talking about the buzz of being there ....

Its influence is still right up there ,and the money is pouring in .....

 

London was a great city in the 80's and before. It didn't have the same swagger, with over paid banksters, 20 something's in the finance industry earning ridiculous money.

 

It was more inclusive. A city of diverse tribes. Never an easy place, but a lot of fun could be had on not a lot of money. The look has changed quite noticeably in my eyes from the eighties. Far more serious, less relaxed, more conformist.

 

Sure if you relate to money pouring in with the unfolding of a better city, due to the gloss and obvious massive increase in wealth among some. On purely creative and on a human scale, London has declined considerably IMO.

 

I'd prefer Amsterdam or Berlin these days. Both cities at different points of the struggle to maintain 'realness', as London was back in the late 80's early 90's, to which the outcome will quite probably be much the same.