6 Things I Hate About London

This is going to be a slightly heavy one – you are warned. Now I did a ‘things I love about London’ post as well and did a post listing the tourist traps to avoid in London as well. I don’t want to be negative but yes, there are things about London I don’t like or honestly, hate. So I am just being honest about what I hate about London.

Now I have tried to ensure this only covers London specific stuff and not the UK in general since I definitely can’t comment on that. I have never lived outside of London. Some of the points might overlap with the UK in general and I will explain in detail when I get to it.

Expensive

This is no surprise and I don’t really want to say anything more about this as a general state of affairs.

The points I do want to make is public transport in London being so expensive compared to an Uber or using a car is something that really annoys me and sometimes, even makes me angry. I personally think unless you have children or are differently abled (pregnant, aged or otherwise unable to walk) no one needs to drive in Zone 1 and private cars in Zone 1 definitely should be banned. Public transport needs to be subsidised as well to encourage people to use it. Right now, even if its two of us its probably cheaper for us to take an Uber than use the tube together which is really bad policy. (Although we don’t since I don’t use Uber and love using public transport. Buses are my favourite!)

Weather

This isn’t something London as a city can really help too much but yes, weather here is just bad. The impact on London is as a city it struggles in rain, snow, sunshine – almost any kind of weather. If its rains too much our tube and buses struggle, snow completes wipes out all hope and even sunshine derails trains since the glare is too much!

Poor environmental and civic consciousness

You guys know this is something I feel very strongly about. For the first world city it is, civic and environmental consciousness in London is extremely poor. This was actually quite a surprise to me but I shouldn’t have been – this surprise only shows my prejudice. As a global first world city, I had assumed London would have efficient and progressive environmental systems in place and environmental education would be high among Londoners. Sadly, that is not the case.

We already used our own bags for grocery when I lived in Bombay – plastic bags were either charged for or unavailable while London has recently started charging for plastic bag usage. When I compare it to Bombay, I do compare it unfavourably in this and other environmental aspects. Recycling in London is definitely not upto the par. Although my council has excellent recycling facilities, most others do not. Unnecessary plastic usage is rampant and most people don’t think twice. Every cafe sells food and drinks in single use plastic – which is not the culture in Bombay. There are few water fountains to fill your own bottles and so on. Its a very negative way to think about it and I have to say I obviously didn’t manage my expectations. Maybe its wrong of me to compare London to the Scandinavian ideal but I did expect it to be way progressive than it is.

Homeless people

This is probably the hardest thing for me to deal with in London. Seeing homeless people in London just kills me, breaks my heart. It makes me sad, angry, frustrated and a whole other host of emotions. Its also because the area I live in has a lot of homeless people out on the streets and its something that is constantly on my mind.

Now yes, almost every city in the world has homeless people but let me get to the point I want to make. London has a huge housing problem which of course, is one of the main factors leading to the homelessness problem. And in every fancy part of town (Kensington, Chelsea etc.) you see loads and loads of expensive homes lying empty. I know it is not an easy problem to solve but I don’t see London as a city even trying, to be honest. People keep buying investment properties in the city and living in other countries. This is probably not a London specific problem but definitely effects London acutely due to higher migration to the city from the rest of the UK and a higher population.

I also think this problem makes me especially frustrated since in a city like London this is not an impossible problem to solve. Honestly. In 2016, there were about 8096 homeless people in London and you can assume a steep increase in the last few years. But even with this increase, this is not a impossible number to deal with by an extremely rich city like London.

Corruption

Like I mentioned above, linked to the homelessness issue is people funnelling illegal money into the housing market in London. It also seems like every white collar criminal or corrupt oligarch finds their way home to London and is welcomed with open arms. Either way, the level of corruption in London is something I find very discouraging.

No spontaneity

This was something that used to bother me a lot but it doesn’t bother me that much anymore. London is not a city you can be really spontaneous in. I found it quite difficult when I just moved to London from Bombay since my lifestyle in Bombay was so different. I made plans with friends on the day and just walked out of the house even at 10 pm to a bustling city. Thats not how London works. You would need a reservation, think about when the tube shuts (partially at least) and so on. I do think this is a slightly unfair criticism since it is probably just different cultures of different cities. The other theory I have is about hot and cold cities. Hot cities everywhere in the world work later as compared to colder cities.

Now that was quite a downer I admit. But loving a city means opening your eyes to the good and the bad, recognising it for the faults as well and trying your best to do the right thing. What is something about your city that you hate? How do you try and fix it or makeup for it? I would love to hear your stories as well from the cities you love.

Do the usual – follow us on Instagram and Facebook and the rest. I love getting comments but don’t get too many nowadays on the blogs/ posts since its all on social media so comment if you have any thoughts on the post. and as always, thanks for reading.

– Anisha