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Visiting London I would be mainly worried about the traffic, although I believe that riders and drivers are much the same, just as bad here or there, the problem in London would be the huge volume and in particular crossing roads. That must be really difficult for people who can not move so fast, wheelchair users etc.
Has anyone had contact with, or been helped by, the Metropolitan Police, or the City of London Police?
I think the large numbers of alleged asylum seekers from there give a false impression. They are, apart from the few running from family blood feuds (which like London gangland violence a tourist won't get involved in unless exceptionally unlucky), actually just economic migrants because it's a fairly poor country. It's great to visit, though, and I'd definitely recommend going there, and having a ride on the quirky if knackered railway before it ends up closing.
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Never had a need for it, and nor is any tourist likely to. It might be prudent not to tempt fate by walking round with your wallet in your back pocket where it can be easily grabbed (amazes me that anyone does that anywhere, really), but crime against tourists is minimal. The only place that has a reputation in central London is Leicester Square/Covent Garden, and it isn't even that good, so just don't bother with it!
Crossing roads is the same as anywhere else. Use the pedestrian crossing. Indeed, as limits are 20mph pretty much throughout central London it's less fraught than many other places.
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The biggest risk in London is mobile phone theft, I've known a few get caught by people riding past on bikes, and they're savvy but just got distracted for a minute. But- unpleasant as it is- a ride-by mugging doesn't tend to be violent.
I've not known anyone experience that, though I have *heard* of it, but as in any big city it's not prudent to walk around with your head in your phone unaware of your surroundings, not least because you'll walk into people. If you want to use your phone, stop somewhere sensible away from the road/cycle path and this won't happen.
Last time I was in Miami, I met a woman who asked if: a) Birmingham was a "no go" area; and b) Jewish people were fleeing Europe for Israel for their own safety. She had the wit to check when she met someone randomly (in a church) but other will have just swallowed the lies.
You see that a great deal on the internet. Right wing, crackpot, Trump loving, nut job videos saying Buckingham Palace is deserted, large parts of London are no go areas, Sharia Law declared in XXXXX etc etc
It is complete bunkum. Also, there is a really unpleasant racial undertone to it all driven by the fact the mayor of London is a brown, labour politician. The worrying thing is we are seeing more and more of it here via social media and actual media smears. This means more and more simpletons are lapping it up and regurgitating it. You see hints of that in some posts here. It is worrying
I must add that my views of London are influenced by living there in the mid-1980s. If anything, as a law abiding citizen in those days, your biggest risk was some junior copper deciding to throw his weight about.
I would add one or two other areas where it is best to avoid wandering around like a gormless tourist. Soho: only a few years ago I used to earn a few bob by delivering legal documents to one of the side streets and there were still plenty of dodgy characters about. The areas outside main stations: Kings Cross always seemed the worst. Crowded shopping areas: Oxford Street is probably the worst as that is where tourists want to go. However, if you follow the advice above and don’t wander around aimlessly with your wallet and ‘phone on view, you really have nothing to worry about.
Visiting London I would be mainly worried about the traffic, although I believe that riders and drivers are much the same, just as bad here or there, the problem in London would be the huge volume and in particular crossing roads. That must be really difficult for people who can not move so fast, wheelchair users etc.
As pointed out in a previous post I live in a village.
The greatest danger I find when walking around in London are the huge number of fast moving cyclist to be aware of when trying to cross a road. Last time I was in London was last winter and I walked through the back streets from Tottenham Court Road to St Pancras Station after dark at around 6pm. At road junctions, when I was trying to cross and I was looking out for cars, there were also cyclists coming towards me from all directions. Don’t get me started on the scooter riders on the pavements!
Also, there is a really unpleasant racial undertone to it all driven by the fact the mayor of London is a brown, labour politician. The worrying thing is we are seeing more and more of it here via social media and actual media smears
Absolutely. The mental gymnastics they use to blame Khan for the failures of the Metropolitan Police, whilst also pretending there are no failures in the Metropolitan Police and Cressida Dick was unfairly sacked, are quite something to behold.
I've not known anyone experience that, though I have *heard* of it, but as in any big city it's not prudent to walk around with your head in your phone unaware of your surroundings
I used to work at a central London University and it happened to my colleague (a wordly wise East Londoner) when I was standing next to her on a cigarette break. But university campuses are prime hunting grounds.
Absolutely. The mental gymnastics they use to blame Khan for the failures of the Metropolitan Police, whilst also pretending there are no failures in the Metropolitan Police and Cressida Dick was unfairly sacked, are quite something to behold.
And there are undoubtedly problems with the met police and with Khan as Mayor ( although he, you know, wins elections so........) but these "outlets" insist that the brownness of the mayor is the cause of the problems and that with a whiter mayor there would be no problems!
I think the large numbers of alleged asylum seekers from there give a false impression. They are, apart from the few running from family blood feuds (which like London gangland violence a tourist won't get involved in unless exceptionally unlucky), actually just economic migrants because it's a fairly poor country. It's great to visit, though, and I'd definitely recommend going there, and having a ride on the quirky if knackered railway before it ends up closing.
I think it's more the fact that seemingly every crime drama has an Albanian gangster in it (seriously!) and that in parts of the UK there are actually issues with Albanian organised crime gangs. It all creates the perception of a particularly dangerous country full of gangsters, when in reality it's no worse than many other European countries.
Unfortunately the railway was closed when we were there, we visited the station at Durres though. I agree it's a great country to visit!
Thanks for the advice all, is the DLR safe at night? Deptford Bridge DLR Station is literally 1 min walk from my accommodation!, I know they are unstaffed but surely again they would be quite busy at that time, even somewhere like Deptford Bridge?
The DLR has a member of staff on every train; the train may be formed of multiple units and so you could board in the unit with the member of staff present. I've never personally experienced any problematic behaviour on the DLR, as an occasional user.
I stayed at the Premier Inn between Deptford Bridge and Greenwich stations a few weeks ago; I had no concerns about the area.
Yes, fair point - students probably sit above tourists as crime targets, as they tend to have expensive electronics and are often not very streetwise. I never got mugged while at university in Manchester, probably a combination of my size and appearance (I look more than a little bit like a nightclub bouncer or rugby player - tall, bulky and very short hair) and that I'm actually very cautious and streetwise despite possibly not needing to be, but I heard stories of it happening to others almost daily.
Me too. Paris has some redeeming features but I largely see it as a crime ridden dump. It might be familiarity, but central London feels very safe to me. The suburbs less so - a couple of months back I walked from the climbing wall near Brixton to Brixton station and that felt edgy (though nothing untoward happened), but the centre is fine. On the other hand Brixton is a bit of an extreme example, I've done a similar walk from a music venue in Camden to Euston and that didn't feel in the slightest bit dodgy.
Barcelona for instance...it seems impossible to walk down La Rambla without someone at least attempting pickpocketing (I tend to keep my hands in my pockets down there) and someone once attempted it in Amsterdam too (I didn't have my hands in my pockets, but brought them down quickly and gave him a massive belt in doing so and he went away). I've never knowingly had it attempted in London. In Barcelona I've also seen someone attempt (and fail) to take someone's phone off the table in front of them in an indoor restaurant - never saw that in London. Yes, laptop bags walk in the City, but it's never felt like you needed to be overattentive.
The point you appear to have been making is that he wins elections so he must be "alright". Boris (certainly not my mate!) proves that unsavoury characters can win elections and aren't "alright", regardless of skin colour.
It goes without saying that the Mail is unpleasant.... I was under the impression from your post however that there are outlets overtly attributing his many failings to his skin colour. If I got the wrong idea then fair enough.
Oh there is. I've just booked a trip down to London for a meeting, and within 30 seconds my bank manager was on the phone asking if I'd like a mortgage for it....
Oh there is. I've just booked a trip down to London for a meeting, and within 30 seconds my bank manager was on the phone asking if I'd like a mortgage for it....
Just don't visit one of the coffee shops at Coal Drops Yards or you'll need to sell a kidney (and I'm used to London prices). Mind you, it's worth visiting as a stunning repurposing of railway architecture
Me too. Paris has some redeeming features but I largely see it as a crime ridden dump. It might be familiarity, but central London feels very safe to me.
Ive been to various countries across Europe, and the only place I’ve felt really concerned for my safety is Paris. Not just for one off incidents, but all three occasions I have visited I have been made to feel unsafe. Such as people trying to mug me - there very obvious gangs trying to find easy pickings. I’ve never felt unsafe in all my hundreds of visits to London - familiarity has something to do with it of course.
On my visit to Berlin there was a very obvious gang operating at U Görlitzer Bahnhof. In Leipzig there was a gang who encircled me in the park by Leipzig Hauptbahnhof. However most of the time in those cities I felt safe, but Paris seemed much more intense! Why it’s considered a romantic city I really don’t know.
A bit off topic, but my travels have made me realise that London is certainly not as bad as sensationalist media want us to think. And likewise Paris is not the romantic place it’s made to look like!
On my visit to Berlin there was a very obvious gang operating at U Görlitzer Bahnhof. In Leipzig there was a gang who encircled me in the park by Leipzig Hauptbahnhof.
The areas around medium and large stations, often including the station itself, in Germany does tend to attract crime. They aren't areas I'd hang around in. For instance Hamburg Hbf always felt rough, and it's the only place I've ever seen someone openly injecting drugs (by the look of him it wasn't insulin or heparin).
By contrast in the UK this is mostly not the case, not even in London. Kings Cross was a bit dodgy but has mostly cleaned up its act, and the areas around other London termini are generally OK (though some station toilets feel unsafe since charges were removed, most notably Charing Cross, to the point that I'd like to see them reinstated albeit with a contactless payment option).
The areas around medium and large stations, often including the station itself, in Germany does tend to attract crime. They aren't areas I'd hang around in. For instance Hamburg Hbf always felt rough, and it's the only place I've ever seen someone openly injecting drugs (by the look of him it wasn't insulin or heparin).
By contrast in the UK this is mostly not the case, not even in London. Kings Cross was a bit dodgy but has mostly cleaned up its act, and the areas around other London termini are generally OK (though some station toilets feel unsafe since charges were removed, most notably Charing Cross, to the point that I'd like to see them reinstated albeit with a contactless payment option).
I felt Hamburg Altona was slightly dodgy when I was there, though not enough to make me want to go elsewhere. Though that may be something to do with it being around 0630 and having just arrived on the overnight ICE from Munich (so basically no sleep). Or possibly the drab architecture of the concourse/shopping centre bit...
I felt Hamburg Altona was slightly dodgy when I was there, though not enough to make me want to go elsewhere. Though that may be something to do with it being around 0630 and having just arrived on the overnight ICE from Munich (so basically no sleep). Or possibly the drab architecture of the concourse/shopping centre bit...
By my late 90s memory Altona wasn't too bad, just quiet. It's outside Hbf towards the bus station that was grim to the point of dangerous (the other side towards the main shopping street was OK). It was just all a bit Euston in architecture terms. Lots of that Brutalist stuff in Germany, they had to build rather more of it than we did because we, er, helped them with the land clearance needed for it in the late 30s and early 40s, and they seem less rushed to remove ugly but functional buildings than we are.
Hence Paris syndrome, said to occur (rarely) amongst Japanese and other Asian tourists who arrive in Paris for the first time expecting a holiday in a romantic 'City of Light' and being confronted by the dirty, gritty reality.
Wikipedia said:
Paris syndrome (French: syndrome de Paris; Japanese: パリ症候群, romanized: Pari shōkōgun) is a sense of extreme disappointment exhibited by some individuals when visiting Paris, who feel that the city was not what they had expected. The condition is commonly viewed as a severe form of culture shock.
A friend of mine lives in New York, and visits London about as often as I visit there.
I find New York quite threatening due to the number of people walking around muttering/shouting to themselves, as well as people hanging around at subway stations who aren’t there to catch the train. I think that is unpredictable and risky. However he is confident that it’s totally normal and is not remotely threatened by it.
Meanwhile he finds London threatening due to the number of people who stand around looking ‘angry’ and on edge - he says he feels a tension when walking around certain areas augmented by the media reputation for knife crime. I can see what he means but am not remotely threatened as I’ve had enough experience to know that it doesn’t mean anything.
A friend of mine lives in New York, and visits London about as often as I visit there.
I find New York quite threatening due to the number of people walking around muttering/shouting to themselves, as well as people hanging around at subway stations who aren’t there to catch the train. I think that is unpredictable and risky. However he is confident that it’s totally normal and is not remotely threatened by it.
Meanwhile he finds London threatening due to the number of people who stand around looking ‘angry’ and on edge - he says he feels a tension when walking around certain areas augmented by the media reputation for knife crime. I can see what he means but am not remotely threatened as I’ve had enough experience to know that it doesn’t mean anything.
I don't think it's new thing, I recall my aunt from the USA being absolutely terrified on the tube in the 1980s, even in a group, despite the fact my parents were quite happy for me to use it on my own as a child of 12 or 13.
Can't speak for New Yorkers specifically but I think many other Americans just aren't used to public transport and they like their 'personal space'.
The London knife crime rhetoric in the states is just a scare tactic used by the gun lobby.
We occasionally get police briefings at our central London office, biggest risks as others have mentioned are ride by mobile phone snatches (common around London Bridge), bags stolen in pubs and mobile phones snatched from pub/restaurant/cafe tables. What can be intimidating but not usually dangerous in that part of London are Milwall football fans going through London Bridge station on match nights - can be drunk and noisy, aggressive begging and people with mental health issues living on the street.
I think that's very true. What it misses, of course, is that I'd rather have a knife pulled on me than a gun. With a knife, I can only be harmed if within about a metre of the attacker. A gunman can shoot me from a fair way away. Thus, all other things being equal, a knife is less threat.
That's not to do down the youth gangland knife crime problems in London, but purely seeing it from the point of view of personal safety of a visitor who isn't in a gang and doesn't intend to purchase or sell drugs (bar paracetamol).
A friend of mine lives in New York, and visits London about as often as I visit there.
I find New York quite threatening due to the number of people walking around muttering/shouting to themselves, as well as people hanging around at subway stations who aren’t there to catch the train. I think that is unpredictable and risky. However he is confident that it’s totally normal and is not remotely threatened by it.
Meanwhile he finds London threatening due to the number of people who stand around looking ‘angry’ and on edge - he says he feels a tension when walking around certain areas augmented by the media reputation for knife crime. I can see what he means but am not remotely threatened as I’ve had enough experience to know that it doesn’t mean anything.
I've been to New York a few times as well and perhaps it's the Londoner in me but it never felt unsafe. I would say that central Manhattan is a bit crowded for my liking but in the other boroughs and indeed in places like Greenwich Village, it's very pleasant.
I've been to New York a few times as well and perhaps it's the Londoner in me but it never felt unsafe. I would say that central Manhattan is a bit crowded for my liking but in the other boroughs and indeed in places like Greenwich Village, it's very pleasant.
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