This is an interesting take on London from an outsider. The villages point is important - to really get to know the town you need to get out of the centre and visit a few of the villages (Hampstead, Kilburn, Notting Hill, Camden, Kensington, Greenwich, Hoxton etc) - there's a lot of variety there and as the author says a lot of very mixed areas, each with their own personality.
This can make travel a chore, but if you have friends in the same area, you don't have to meet them in the middle of town, and some areas are very well connected. It also gives the city interest as there's always a new area to discover when visiting friends. Walking and biking round London is also rewarding if you like cityscapes because it varies so much.
Second, when a fast-food industry adopts some food type in London, it completely wipes away all other options to try it, leaving you only with a dull ersatz (this is what happened to sushi, for example). Just like with the music scene, the competition for a spot in a good restaurant can be fierce.
This is not accurate, though I can see why you might have that impression if you live somewhere sterilised by big brands like the centre of town or Canary Wharf where the only option is yo sushi. There are plenty of horrible chains for every cuisine catering to tourists, but there are a lot of great sushi places in town, like Jin Kichi in Hampstead or Inaho near Notting Hill. So this doesn't ring true to me at all - if you're eating in London there's no reason to entertain a chain restaurant, and thousands of alternatives, even if the most popular to get busy on weekends.
The analysis of financing rings true though - London does feel divided into those who work in the city (a different jurisdiction and a different world), and those who don't. Pay scales, careers and culture all change as you cross that divide, and unfortunately Canary Wharf is like an island insulated from the areas which surround it - most of London is quite different from that though. As the article says, funding for startups outside finance is not always easy (I'd love to hear contradictions of this).
The things I treasure the most about London, having been here for a decade or so, are the genuinely cosmopolitan and egalitarian culture, and the mixing of world culture occurring here in the last few decades. While some resent this change for me it is the redeeming feature of London, the part which makes it feel like a world city, not just the capital of a small nation shrinking in importance. Take a typical bus in this city and you might hear a dozen languages spoken in the space of a journey, from all over the world. Perhaps this is something we'll see more of in every city as the world continues to shrink.
This can make travel a chore, but if you have friends in the same area, you don't have to meet them in the middle of town, and some areas are very well connected. It also gives the city interest as there's always a new area to discover when visiting friends. Walking and biking round London is also rewarding if you like cityscapes because it varies so much.
Second, when a fast-food industry adopts some food type in London, it completely wipes away all other options to try it, leaving you only with a dull ersatz (this is what happened to sushi, for example). Just like with the music scene, the competition for a spot in a good restaurant can be fierce.
This is not accurate, though I can see why you might have that impression if you live somewhere sterilised by big brands like the centre of town or Canary Wharf where the only option is yo sushi. There are plenty of horrible chains for every cuisine catering to tourists, but there are a lot of great sushi places in town, like Jin Kichi in Hampstead or Inaho near Notting Hill. So this doesn't ring true to me at all - if you're eating in London there's no reason to entertain a chain restaurant, and thousands of alternatives, even if the most popular to get busy on weekends.
The analysis of financing rings true though - London does feel divided into those who work in the city (a different jurisdiction and a different world), and those who don't. Pay scales, careers and culture all change as you cross that divide, and unfortunately Canary Wharf is like an island insulated from the areas which surround it - most of London is quite different from that though. As the article says, funding for startups outside finance is not always easy (I'd love to hear contradictions of this).
The things I treasure the most about London, having been here for a decade or so, are the genuinely cosmopolitan and egalitarian culture, and the mixing of world culture occurring here in the last few decades. While some resent this change for me it is the redeeming feature of London, the part which makes it feel like a world city, not just the capital of a small nation shrinking in importance. Take a typical bus in this city and you might hear a dozen languages spoken in the space of a journey, from all over the world. Perhaps this is something we'll see more of in every city as the world continues to shrink.