London yesterday - what a scruffy old dive!

[spindrift]

Then drove to Leytonstone to visit Grandparents' grave in St Patrick's RC cem

Mary Kelly, Jack The Ripper's last victim, is buried there.


Leytonstone has a long way to go but it's improved in the 9 years I've lived there- Eurostar at Stratford opens next year, The Olympics promises the biggest urban park in Europe for 200 years and Stratford City, built above the flood plain using Eurotunnel spoil, is gonna be bigger than Bluewater.

East London is vibrant, multi-racial, booming and in the next four years faces the biggest changes since the luftwaffe visited.

People who don't like London can go and boil their heads.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

I think you shouldn't put words in my mouth, as it were.

Riiiiggghhhhtttt....

Oh well, this is the Cafe rather than Politics, so I'll leave it there, but I'd equally ask people to avoid the usual splurges of prejudice too...

 

[spindrift]

There are whole swathes that are pretty much off limits to polite society

Nonsense.

 

[Maz]

the stabbings in east london at least are almost entirely due to some charming gangs of asian teenagers, I go to West Ham football and they think they own the place

Do you get many Asians inside the ground?

 

[ChrisKH]

Do you get many Asians inside the ground?

I think the problem is that a Premiership Club has its football ground in an area that is now largely populated by immigrant Asians and blacks. So the possibility for conflict is always there. If it's not one side (i.e. out of town mainly white supporters) it's the other (residents). Despite being born in West Ham, I rarely go back now.

 

[JamesAC]

Riiiiggghhhhtttt....

<snip>but I'd equally ask people to avoid the usual splurges of prejudice too...

Quite.

 

[User482]

It always amuses me when Londoners complain about their public transport system: folks, you don't know you're born! As trying to get around Bristol by bus would prove...

 

[domtyler]

It always amuses me when Londoners complain about their public transport system: folks, you don't know you're born! As trying to get around Bristol by bus would prove...

Ahem, the thread was not started by a Londoner.

 

[Globalti]

Yes it was! I was born in London.

 

[tdr1nka]

Ahem, the thread was not started by a Londoner.

Couldn't you just tell?

 

[tdr1nka]

*makes for petard hoisting department*

 

[simon l& and a half]

Yes it was! I was born in London.

but you left....to become (gasp) a provincial

and I'm always praising public transport in London. It's brilliant.

 

[Globalti]

Yes, having actually lived and worked for 6 years in London later in life I would agree that public transport is excellent, on the whole.

Ken said that congestion charging and the London tour start were two things in his life, which turned out better than he expected and he wasn't wrong. Last time I went to central London on business I was impressed at how clean the air seemed and how quiet it seemed as a result of there being fewer cars and vans belting around. Mind you, cars have got cleaner since I lived there in the 80s....

 

[Abitrary]

As a londoner born and bred, but often working away, the 2 things that get on my tits going back are:

-women driving round roundabouts whilst talking on their mobiles
-man bag men. Probably non-london in origin. The type that shake your hand as if you're a leper. The type that look like their face would crack if they had to smile. The double breasted duffle coat wearing shadows of humans that you just want to give chinese wrist burns to.

 

[ComedyPilot]

People who don't like London can go and boil their heads.

I'll put the pan on now.