The difference being of course that I have been to London far too many times (most recent a week ago) and most of them don't even know where Hill is let alone have actually been here.
Going to London for a football match is a lot different to living there for over 40 years. You can look down an average terraced street but when you go through the doors the insides can be absolutely stunning.
London is the undisputed economic power house of this country (unfortunately). It's also the undisputed cess pit. I feel we provincials are fed too much of the former and too little of the latter.
**** me you've gone native We have this discussion every couple of months or so, and all the usual exiles apologetically pipe up for their new home. Everyone up here is sick to the back teeth of hearing the virtues of London extolled by any number of self-interested turds, BoJo's latest 'interesting' gaffe, Tube strikes, house prices and the like. Up here and to anyone outside the M25 no one really gives a ****- we all have our local news to digest and yours is not of national interest. How does it feel to be in a place where you pay over the odds for everything, where rip offs continually stalk the unwary, where the air is foul, where the water has been pissed-out at least times, where pretentiousness and vanity are lauded etc etc etc. If you enjoy living down there, good luck to you.
I heard something similar recently, but I think it was about us and Swansea having played each other in all divisions.
People defending London are generally reduced to pointing out what it's near rather than what's near them. If the same argument was applied elsewhere, within the same travelling time range, most places would blow London into a cocked hat.
Shooter Hill- what a dump that is. CAFC/MFC territory peopled by shady characters pushed out of Deptford, New X & Lewisham. SE london alone has more **** areas than the whole of Yorkshire: Kidbrooke, Eltham, Plumstead, Thamesmead etc
sell your three bedroomed semi in the suburbs of Hull and see what you get in those "Nicer" parts though !!!
London is like a country within itself, as such it has some great areas and some **** ones. I've lived in Finsbury Park, Crouch End, Woodgreen, Wembley, Tooting and Clapham. Crouch End and Clapham were amongst the best places I've ever lived, Wembley was without doubt the worst(closely followed by Huddersfield, where I lived for six months and hated every minute). While I was young I really enjoyed it, but as soon as I had kids I wanted them raised here, so I moved back and commuted for twenty years before also moving the business here.
It's funny that people who come down to watch a game of football a few times a year think they have more knowledge of a place than somebody who has lived there for 40-odd years. Never mind the environment then but what about the people. I like the people from Hull but if you go out in Hull you have a pretty good idea what the women are like. If you go out in London you can meet women from all over the world. A woman from Finland is totally different to a woman from Brazil.
I know plenty of people who moved down there when young (and jobless),and after about ten years when they had a bit of brass, wanted out as it was becoming too hectic, stressful and crime-infested. Most amusing of all is the conceit that London 'pays for' the rest of the country, conveniently forgetting the countless thousands of creative provincials it has sucked out of the rest of the country, thus impoverishing us all.
I moved to London and stayed in Earls Court for a week and then three years in Gospel Oak which had Hampstead Heath, Hampstead, Highbury, Kentish Town and Camden Town right next door and you could walk/bus/taxi it from central London. I then moved to Hampstead Garden Suburb for a year which was boring but I was supposed to be studying for my finals. I then moved south to Clapham, then Raynes Park, Southfield and now I'm at Colliers Wood. When I was younger I preferred north London near to central London but now I'm older I prefer south west London. You might criticise places like Wembley and east London but I kept away from those places because there are plenty of great places. I knew people who lived very near to Hyde Park and Bloomsbury even when they were training to be accountants. You might say things are expensive in London but you can earn a lot more as well. Some goods and services may cost 50% more in London but you can easily earn three times in London what you can in Hull. If you are on a tight budget in London there's lots of things going on that are free or very cheap.
I prefer to live in London, I work from home, walk downstairs to my office which looks onto my garden. I can walk to the local shops and restaurants and take a drive to Wimbledon Common, Richmond Park or the countryside. I know you can get to the countryside easily from Hull but there's more of a leisure industry in and around London catering for your needs.