Anonymous wrote:Lived there 2007-2013 and can confirm OP’s post. We lived in Holland Park in a “fancy” flat and one day the flat above us had flooding which poured down into our foyer straight through the light fixture.

London is fun to visit but DC is so much better in terms of living standards.

And that’s saying nothing of the glorious climate we have in DC!

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Anonymous wrote:I take it you did not previously travel to London before you moved there? It's been going down hill since before Brexit.

No

Never traveled to London before living here

We are here until q3 2025 😭

I can empathize! I lived there for less than a year of a supposedly permanent move. I HATED it. The winters are the worst too! So dark at 4pm and always overcast.

Like much of the northern US in winter...

No way. No comparison. Boston might get snow. It might have snow. But there are also blue skies during winter. The sun does not shine in England between October and March.

Just like Chicago and Minneapolis.
But not as cold. It's damp in London, but you can fly to the Caribbean on short order.
Grow up, OP. What a whiner.

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Anonymous wrote:I posted earlier about having lived in both London and DC. You can't really meaningfully compare your experience vacationing in a place with living there. If you haven't had to work in a place, pay taxes there, hire a plumber, or try to find a decent school for your kid, you dont really know it.

Most Americans would be horrified at the condition of rental apartments in the UK (run-down, no clothes dryers, no garbage disposals), much in the same way that Londoners would be horrified to discover the number of important US cities that are wholly inaccessible by public transit.

Most Americans would also be frustrated by the need to be on hold for 40 minutes starting at 8 am to get one of the NHS appointment slots available that day at your local surgery, with its 10000 person patient docket. They would also be shocked to hear the NHS mammogram lady say, "See you in 4 years." On the flip side, Americans would also be pleasantly surprised when their NHS mammogram, scheduled for 10:30, actually takes place at 10:30, something that you could be sure wouldnt happen in the US.

All European cities have small apartments with few amenities - it comes with being old and crowded... why pick on London?

Munich, Zurich, Frankfurt, Vienna, Hamburg, Lyon, Amsterdam, Madrid for example have much better building construction, insulation, and plumbing in their homes

American homes are cheap but insulated well and have good plumbing for the most part

Swiss, German, Austrian and northern Italian homes are built out of good materials, insulated, good plumbing but cost to salary ratio is high

uk is unique in being expensive vs incomes with uniquely poor conditions

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/english-homes-more-expensive-and-in-worse-condition-than-most-developed-nations-report-12976858

https://www.pbctoday.co.uk/news/planning-construction-news/english-housing-is-worst-in-europe-report-finds/133243/

Sure. I’d happily live in London again but having just finished expensive repairs on my Victorian terrace house, I totally agree the housing is often of a poor standard. I don’t think anyone disputes that, do they? As pointed out in the report, most of the housing is much older than what you find in other European cities. This is to be expected as London’s wealth and growth meant it developed into a large metropolis much earlier than many other places. The curse of developing earlier is what might have been cutting edge infrastructure or construction at the time can be quite difficult to adapt many years later. Hence, the sewage system is now sub par, tunnels in the tube are too narrow to fit air conditioning onto train carriages, etc. Materials and building standards have changed a lot since the late 1800s when many of these places were built.

The most obvious solution is to knock it all down and build new modern efficient housing (if anyone had the money). Of course the irony is the old style of architecture is what lends London and many British towns and villages much of their charm. It’s all a trade off.

Anonymous wrote:And many employed Brits who don’t have private health care would still choose NHS over paying for health insurance. As a young healthy person, I definitely would (though I did have private health insurance through work). No question at all that American healthcare is better than the NHS, but if you’re young and healthy, it’s nice not to have to pay anything for health care and still know you’ll have access to it if needed. I think many employed Americans would choose that if they could

Anonymous wrote:You are right on about the quality of British “professionals.” I work at an international company and the Brits produce high school level work. It’s so frustrating. And these are graduates of Oxford. I guess those schools accept anyone.

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Anonymous wrote:I’ll be honest, I’m sort of enjoying the dopes who are so insecure they’ve been mesmerized by London and assume it’s intrinsically superior. The accents!!

Probably the only time you ever left the US.

The food is objectively trash. Yes, there are a handful of good restaurants; no sh&t, it’s a global financial center with 10 million people. But many, many “nice” restaurants serve bland, boiled produce. Beans (plain) are a breakfast staple. The leading condiment by a good margin is mayonnaise. Get the hell out of here with London being a food Mecca.

NHS is trash. Granted I’m rich, but US health care and even godawful US medical insurance are models of innovation and efficiency by comparison.

Immigration has gotten to a level that is gross and dangerous. (We’re catching up on this one, admittedly.)

The tube is OK as far as public transportation goes—it’s insanely crowded and hot as hell, but you can get anywhere. But here’s the rub: I don’t want to take public transportation. And driving (or being driven) is an absolute nightmare.

Buildings and hotel rooms and offices and restrooms have all manner of outdated (but affixed!) gadgetry, plugs that don’t work, visible piping, doors and lifts and carpets that haven’t been replaced in decades, the paint on buildings is cracked, garden walls and sidewalks in varying stages of disrepair. You’ll just be walking down the street and here’s a defunct valve sticking out of the wall with signage from pre-WW2. Ho-hum.

Guess that’s “chic”?

I love a lot of things about the USA too, and of course it is perfectly okay to have preferences and to like some things more than others or even to hate London, but, as a Londoner, I really think you’ve just not experienced London properly.

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Anonymous wrote:I take it you did not previously travel to London before you moved there? It's been going down hill since before Brexit.

No

Never traveled to London before living here

We are here until q3 2025 😭

I can empathize! I lived there for less than a year of a supposedly permanent move. I HATED it. The winters are the worst too! So dark at 4pm and always overcast.

Like much of the northern US in winter...

No way. No comparison. Boston might get snow. It might have snow. But there are also blue skies during winter. The sun does not shine in England between October and March.

Anonymous wrote:Like so many other cities (for a variety of reasons), there’s lots of good immigrant food. Eat that.

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Anonymous wrote:Try being a Jew there. It’s your experience plus hate.

Give actual examples. Have the 6yos been stabbed to death? Have the college students been shot with one being paralyzed? Did they get stalked and harassed while working a Kosher cart by a former state dept official who gleefully says that more Jewish kids should've been killed?

Try being Palestinian. PERIOD.

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Anonymous wrote:Try being a Jew there. It’s your experience plus hate.

Give actual examples. Have the 6yos been stabbed to death? Have the college students been shot with one being paralyzed? Did they get stalked and harassed while working a Kosher cart by a former state dept official who gleefully says that more Jewish kids should've been killed?

Try being Palestinian. PERIOD.

Anonymous wrote:Try being a Jew there. It’s your experience plus hate.

Anonymous wrote:Just returned from a week’s trip to London and I can confidently report that it is not, in fact, horrible.