London's population set to decline for first time since 1988

[Lechasseur]

Re: provincialism - fair to say Paris feels more "French" than London does "English"?

Yep absolutely

London feels way more like NYC than it does anywhere else I've been in England (and the otherway round is true as well, I feel NYC is more like London than anywhere else I've been in the US, although it still feels more "American" than London feels "English").

Paris, although it is quite different from anywhere else in France, at least feels French to a large degree. The Rive Gauche in particular feels very French, along with the area around Boulevard Haussmann, and others.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

London is extremely English. Englishness is not something for foreigners to define.

[King of Kensington]

A century ago, London was certainly the less diverse city, it was only 3-4% foreign born.  In Paris it was closer to 10%, as there was some continental European immigration to France in the 1920s.  But today London certainly has the more "global" population.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

I was one of the people who left last year!

Might move back sometime perhaps even in the near future, but Covid was the deciding factor.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

My issue with London is to me--it never lives up to the reputation it sets for itself. Just look at this thread. It's portrayed as one of the two great poles of the Western world, coequal with New York, the heart of cosmopolitanism and business in Europe. And for me--especially as an American raised where Manhattan essentially defines what a city is supposed to be--it just doesn't measure up.

Manhattan's population density is 70,000/square mile. Inner London's is 29,000. New York has 290 skyscrapers. London has just 25. When you're on Fifth Avenue or in Central Park you feel like you're in the center of the world. Being at Oxford Street or Hyde Park just seems underwhelming by comparison--which is fine. But London is so insistent on calling itself the flashy and bustling "capital of the world" and it just doesn't feel that way. The only cities that can measure up to the grandiosity and sheer impressiveness of New York are in East Asia and they don't have the same multiculturalism and diversity.

Meanwhile, European cities like Paris are--in some categories--really better than the rest of the world. It isn't like America or Asia have a response to Haussmann's boulevards or the Louvre or the cuisine. Other European cities--Madrid and Milan being the most immediate examples--are similar. But London? It's fine, but it isn't as beautiful as much of Continental Europe and it isn't as impressive as much of America. It's just okay.

The fact that comparatively few people live in Central London is more a reflection of English living habits (namely that, compared to the US or Continental Europe, far more people live in single-family houses than in flats), and I don’t think this makes it “underwhelming” in any way.
I can understand why the skyscrapers of Manhattan give off gravitas, but I personally find London more pleasant (because the buildings are less oppressive) and interesting (because there is greater architectural diversity) to navigate because it lacks this quality.

Any way you look at it, London is a “world city”: it is a financial centre, a cultural capital, with a leading theatre and arts scene and the best selection of museums anywhere in the world, and is unrivalled in its diversity and multiculturalism.

When I stand on the South Bank, look at the city from Waterloo Bridge, or approach St Paul’s from the Millennium Bridge, I hardly feel underwhelmed. Of the examples you mention, Oxford Street is a hellishly busy chain shopping drag, but Hyde Park leads to another of the great things about London, that it has more green space than any other city of its size.

At the end of the day, though, this is all a matter of taste.

My favourite walk is from Hyde Park, past Buckingham Palace through Green Park and St James' Park, across Westminster Bridge and up along the South Bank. And yes, I think the architectural diversity from Baroque to Brutalist to glass and steel skyscrapers is to the city's credit.

Anyway, what I miss most about London is that it has just about the best dance music scene in the word, only rivalled by Berlin and far ahead of everywhere else. I hope it survives covid.

[King of Kensington]

What percentage of Londoners live in SFHs? What percentage rent?