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From Times Online
March 13, 2007
London calling
It’s cool, classy, cosmopolitan — and it should secede from the UK. Business Editor James Harding on why London is the new capital of the world. Do you think he is right? Post your views using the form below
A couple of years ago, a friend of mine bought a one bedroom flat in Chalcot Square in Primrose Hill, London NW1. He paid £480,000 — just less than one million dollars. As I was living in the States at the time and flabbergasted by the price, he explained: “Chalcot Square is the best place in Primrose Hill, which is the nicest part of London, which is the coolest city on earth.” Location, location, location. “This is the best property on the planet.”
In fact, he was a few miles off. The most prized piece of real estate on God’s green earth has a view of the Serpentine rather than of Joan Bakewell’s living room. The Candy brothers, two upmarket property developers, have started selling flats at Number One Hyde Park for £4,200 a square foot. That means £84 million — $164 million — for a nice, roomy apartment.
Why? Because London is, indeed, the coolest city on earth. The capital of the world. New York, like Paris, has become a mini-break destination, a playground for grown-ups who enjoy the same standard tourist menu: a walk around Central Park; a shopping trip in SoHo; an entertaining, if unsurprising, show on Broadway; and a very large steak.
The world loves a long weekend in New York but, these days, prefers to make its home in London. New York has the nostalgia, London the future. New York defines the metropolitan, London the cosmopolitan.
And the reason for this is that foreigners in New York are, always, just that. The city treats even its long-term residents from abroad as visitors, welcomed on to the cocktail circuit, perhaps even to a share of a house in the Hamptons, but never to the power-broking tables at the Four Seasons. “New York is always American,” says Bill Roedy, the American who has spent the past 15 years in the UK running MTV world-wide. “Like Paris is French, Moscow is Russian, New York is American.”
London, on the other hand, is passport-blind. It does not have the luxury of being the de facto capital of a continental economy. So, it is international: it treats its visitors as citizens, as players.
Consider Chelsea Football Club, owned by a Russian, managed by a Portuguese and made great by a striker from the Ivory Coast. The Yankees may sign up a third baseman from the Dominican Republic or a pitcher from Japan, but the management is born in Brooklyn.
The men who run two of Britain’s largest mobile phone operators — Vodafone and Orange — are US-educated Indians. The world’s biggest mining companies, run by an American woman and two Australian men, have their headquarters in London.
In January, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French presidential candidate, came to London to chase the votes of young advertising executives and derivatives traders who had quit Paris. Last week, the head of the Democratic National Committee’s fundraising efforts came to the British capital, too, eager to tap up American expats willing to contribute to the 2008 campaign.
The mandarins of New York are currently gripped by a bout of Woody Allen-style neurosis, fretting that the city’s stature as the capital of world capitalism is being sapped by London. Last year, Mayor Mike Bloomberg and the New York senator Chuck Schumer commissioned McKinsey, the management consultants, to examine why international financial business was drifting away from Manhattan. And it suggests that their paranoia is justified.
In business terms, London’s claim to be the world’s favourite marketplace is not just a boast, it’s a statistic: the report found that in the past five years international companies have not been choosing to list on the New York stock exchanges but to float their businesses in London. In 2001 the US accounted for 57 per cent of all stock market flotations over $1 billion — otherwise known as initial public offerings (IPOs). By 2006 this had fallen to 16 per cent. In the same period, Europe’s share of the world’s big IPOs had risen from 33 per cent to 63 per cent.
Small companies as well as big ones have been choosing London. The Alternative Investment Market, which is where start-ups tend to go to sell their shares in the UK, listed 870 new companies in the five years since 2001, while Nasdaq, the market for new ventures in the US, listed 526.
Just to be clear, IPOs account for only a fraction of the investment banking business. New York still has much more money flowing through it than London. The financial stock of America’s business capital, which means the amount of money that flows through it in shares, debt and bank deposits, was $51 trillion in 2005. In Europe as a whole it was $38 trillion.
But London has the momentum. “By any of a number of measures, New York still dominates,” says Jim Burton, who used to be in charge of one of America’s largest pension funds and moved to London in 2002 to run the World Gold Council. “But from the perspective of where financial business growth seems to be heading, London does have a ‘buzz’ . . . the Russian, Chinese and Indian business moguls are not flocking to New York. [London] seems like the more vibrant place to be.”
London already leads New York in some new and growing areas of business, such as certain kinds of derivatives. The big boom industry in US financial services over the past decade has been securitisation, which involves the pooling of different kinds of debt to be sold on to other investors. It is reaching saturation point in New York but just taking off in London.
The significance of the surge in new foreign listings in London is twofold. One, the growth in financial business these days is not home-grown but cross-border. Two, when a company comes to market it is not the end of a cycle of business, it is the beginning: new share issues, share buybacks, debt finance and mergers and acquisitions can all flow from that first IPO.
London’s financial workforce has been growing while New York’s has been shrinking — the City added 13,000 jobs between 2002 and 2005, expanding by 4.3 per cent to bring London’s total financial labour market to 318,000, while New York’s slipped back 0.7 per cent to 328,000. If the trend continues, at the end of next year there will be more people working in finance in London than in New York.
Wall Street has blamed the resurgence of London on regulation, immigration laws and the tax regime for foreign residents. There is some truth to this. After a spate of high-profile corporate collapses, Congress passed a set of new corporate governance rules known as Sarbanes-Oxley that made the whole business of operating a company in the US a lot more tiresome. Foreign companies used to consider a New York listing a badge of honour. In the past three years, many have come to see it as an unnecessary bother. They have come to London instead. (The UK has also done a good job of making the Financial Services Authority a selling point of doing business in London: while New York is governed by a rules-based regulatory regime in a litigious country that is susceptible to frivolous lawsuits, London’s regulators operate a principles-based system that has an altogether lighter touch.)
In the wake of the September 11terrorist attacks, Washington also tightened its borders. The visa restrictions have stopped many foreign scientists, mathematicians and economists from travelling to the US. The UK’s relatively open borders have become a competitive advantage. The tax regime in the UK has also played a part, but a less important one than many people think. The lenient treatment of nondomiciled residents — typically, very wealthy people who buy homes in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea but claim that their real “home” is elsewhere — has added to the lure of London. But, according to the private bankers at HSBC in St James’s, a Russian oligarch gets as good, if not better, tax terms in Moscow as he does in London.
But more than these technicalities, what matters is geography: London is the centre of the world.
From London it is possible to work a normal day and talk to Tokyo in the morning and Los Angeles in the afternoon. A businessman can get on a plane from Moscow and be in London in five hours, from Bom-bay in seven, even from Beijing in nine. This is one of the reasons why, over the past 25 years, London has turned itself into an international marketplace while New York has remained essentially a domestic financial capital.
The other factor is history. Since the late 1970s London, once the capital of a trading empire, has transformed itself into the hub of the foreign exchange markets. It became the place for European companies to borrow money, the home of the Eurobond. And in the past decade it has extended itself beyond the Continent to companies from India, Russia and China.
London’s restoration is fragile and Washington’s missteps compared with Westminster’s adroit handling of regulation and immigration have made a difference. But there is, if you like, some manifest destiny to London’s resurgence in the age of globalisation.
Deep inside the Bank of England there is a room where the directors meet around a huge, oval mahogany table. The Courtroom is, frankly, a vulgar neoclassical eyesore — but despite the pretentious opulence and faux history of the place, one thing is authentic: the weathervane.
High on the western wall of the room, this clock-face tells which way the wind is blowing. Historically, an east wind would bring the merchant ships up the Thames and, with them, a surge in business. A west wind would prompt the merchants to set sail and the bankers to rein in credit.
The point is that London has long been sensitive to the trade winds. More than that, it has been adept at exploiting changes in the tide and the climate for its own commercial gain. And in recent years it has swollen thanks to this openness to foreign merchants, who have sailed in because they are fed up with the pernickety, litigious culture in the US, or because the City is a short hop from their homes in Moscow and Bombay, or simply because they like the safety on the streets, the serenity in the parks, the quality of schools for their children and the choice of restaurants.
British cuisine, once a contradiction in terms, has become such a hot ticket that you need to book nearly a month in advance to eat a plate of offal at St John on the weekend.
London has qualities: geography, history, culture and, more than that, a grudging embrace of all comers. Within a short walk from Trellik Tower in West London you can find a coffee, a cheese sandwich and a custard pie from Lisbon that make you feel as though you are in a provincial Portuguese café; you can eat a plate of steamed dumplings from the Royal China that would satisfy a discerning Shanghainese; a steaming, home-cooked nabemono at Inaho that could come from the Ginza; not to mention a great Indian at Malabar, a fine Lebanese at Fairuz and all that groovy Asian fusion stuff at E&O in Notting Hill.
A weekend in London is like a world’s greatest hits of city living: an English breakfast at Tom’s on Westbourne Grove, a morning spent browsing vintage Americana on Portobello Road, an afternoon watching the best French footballers at Arsenal, Chekhov at the Royal Court or Puccini at the English National Opera, Irish oysters at Sheekey’s for dinner, then out clubbing with the Russians at Annabel’s or the royals at Boujis (I’m making this up now). The next morning, a Spanish string quartet at the Wigmore Hall, a proper Sunday lunch, then a sleepy stroll past the Renoirs at the National Gallery.
No question, all this takes money. A lot of it. Much more than most Londoners have. But the capital’s claim to global leadership is not, sadly, because it is an example of equality. In terms of equal opportunities and the income gap, London has nothing to crow about. It has an alarmingly high level of unemployment — 8 per cent — and the wealth gap is wide and widening.
It’s hard to say which personality, New Yorker or Londoner, is preferable — the ballsy versus the stoic, the gruff versus the curmudgeonly, the sharp-tongued versus the quick-witted. But the real difference between the two is this: New Yorkers come from the five boroughs; Londoners from the five continents. They are Poles, Pakistanis, Brazilians, Americans, Nigerians and more. There are, it is said, 300 languages spoken in London.
London is absurdly expensive. New Yorkers point out that the cost of living in their city is nearly half what it is here. Yet Charles Alexander, who is in charge of the UK operations of General Electric, America’s biggest company, says of his American colleagues in London: “They don’t want to leave.” They like the life, the schools, the style of the city.
None of this means that London’s future preeminence is predestined. Last month London First, which lobbies government on behalf of the city, convened a meeting of top bankers, lawyers and policymakers to consider how to respond to New York’s concerns about its competitiveness — for the Bloomberg/Schumer report was not so much an exercise in self-doubt as a political manoeuvre to ensure the repeal of much of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation and a loosening of the visa restrictions. The Big Apple is going to bite back.
Bob Wigley, who runs Merrill Lynch in London, was at the meeting. His chief concern, he says, is complacency. London needs to worry about its transport infrastructure (in particular the long-stalled construction of Crossrail); it needs to be vigilant about its tax regime and defend its system of regulation. But, more than that, Wigley gives warning that “London needs to look east, towards the competition coming from Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong”.
Many see the real test of London’s future in its ability to cement commercial relationships with countries to the east of Europe — in particular, to make it the destination of choice for companies from India and Russia. But if the City can replicate what it has done for Europe in the subcontinent and the former Soviet Union, then its place as the world’s capital of free capital will be assured for a long time to come.
In September 2002, Paul Auster wrote in The New York Times about his city’s relationship with the rest of the country: “Alone among American cities, New York is more than just a place or an agglomeration of people. It is also an idea.” New York is the de facto capital of America and still a beacon to people around the world. But London has become an idea, too, and not as a refuge for huddled masses but as the most desirable address for global elites. For them, the argument between New York and London is done. They are just left quibbling over the preferred postcode: NW1 or SW1, Regent’s Park or Hyde Park.
‘NY is cheaper and more convenient’
The Londoner in New York Vicky Ward
Recently I had dinner with three British girlfriends at a bistro in the West Village in Manhattan. We were Amanda Foreman, the historian; Abigail Asher, a film art consultant; and Joanna White, a TV documentary-maker.
We are all married working mothers and have lived in New York for years now — Abigail for 20, myself for ten, Amanda probably for eight. Joanna has lived here on and off since she was 15. The inevitable question cropped up: would any of us return to England?
The consensus was: “Don’t be absurd.” New York is such a convenient city — everything is a five-minute walk or a 15-minute taxi ride away. And far cheaper than London. Ready-cooked meals arrive in five minutes; dry-cleaners collect and deliver your clothes the same day. Hairdressers come to your house. Computer technicians swing by to fix your e-mail. The pharmacies deliver cough drops for my children; and my new best friend Charles, the chief sales assistant at Ralph Lauren, sometimes drops off sale-reduced sweaters for me to try on at home if he thinks that I’m too busy to visit the store, which is all of two blocks away.
Don’t get me wrong. We all miss various aspects of England. I get a lump in my throat when I see photographs of friends’ children in wellies, playing in soggy fields.
Yet the irony is that London today seems vibrant and cosmopolitan thanks in large part to US influences, from Nobu to Starbucks.
London Fashion Week is slowly getting more ink, but the major British designers Luella Bartley, Matthew Williamson and Alice Temperley still have no choice but to show here. Wall Street money may be relocating to London; fashion and entertainment dollars are not. And even Wall Street dollars aren’t rushing that fast. London may have lots of investment banks and hedge funds but they are all branch offices. New York is HQ.
I have a feeling that Mayor Bloomberg will soon be retracting his comments about why London could replace New York as the centre of the world — and here is why.
What many Londoners might mistake for a failing in the Big Apple is one of New York’s greatest strengths: we have Haitian and Bangladeshi taxi drivers; yours are all English. London cannot shake its British habits.
New York is a genuine melting-pot, while London is several cities coexisting uncomfortably , like a bag of stoats. English London has very little to do with Russian London or American London or Arab London; stately-home England has very little to do with aspirational England. New York, by contrast, has such a powerful personality that it subsumes your other attachments and makes you something more: a New Yorker.
For all the hand-wringing in Davos and elsewhere about the evils of “income disparity”, at least in New York our billionaires pay taxes. A Russian resident not “domiciled” in London need give nothing back to the city.
Our mayor is a brilliant businessman and philanthropist; yours is not. And in New York, a true meritocracy, our billionaires underwrite the building of dozens of schools and libraries each year through charities such as Robin Hood, where wealthy board members pay all the administrative costs so that every penny raised goes to eradicating poverty in the city. Come, tired and poor and yearning — work; succeed; give back.
The other evening my husband and I attended a gala dinner to raise funds for the British Memorial Garden, a monument to honour the 67 British victims of the 9/11 terror attacks and to celebrate the friendship between the US and Britain. New York City’s Parks Commissioner, Adrian Benepe, said that New York had much to thank the British for, chiefly the fact that without them “we’d all be speaking Dutch”. Now, perhaps, London could learn a few more words from us.
Vicky Ward is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair
‘London has endless possibility’
The New Yorker in London Erica Wagner
I had a small dinner party on Saturday, so I headed off to Borough Market to shop. A bus along the sunny Thames to London Bridge and then in the thick of it, stalls selling everything delicious that you could imagine eating and more.
I bought gravadlax, Old Spot bacon and unpasteurised cheese; I bought steamed puddings and custard and I had coffee, standing on the cobbles, from the Monmouth Coffee Company. I was in heaven.
I headed home to make my supper; one of my guests was coming from Paris, which you might think was a big deal — but then it’s only two hours away by train, isn’t it?
Of course, London isn’t perfect. Borough Market is under threat from Network Rail (www.sabmac.co.uk — please sign the petition), and it’s fair to say that if I’d been in New York City I could have done my shopping at the Greenmarket in Union Square. But — and don’t get me wrong, I adore New York — it wouldn’t have been the same thing. And, yes, my friend could have come from Paris, too, but I reckon jet-lag might have taken the sparkle out of his conversation.
I left New York when I was about 18; I came to Britain to go to university and never went back home, as I admit I still think of it. I moved to London more than 12 years ago and don’t see myself leaving anytime soon.
There are many things about New York that I miss. I miss the Brooklyn Bridge. I miss Nathan’s hotdogs on the boardwalk at Coney Island. I miss the subway, which is cheap and clean and runs all night. I miss coffee cups that say It’s Our Pleasure to Serve You! in faux-Greek script, and I miss the Staten Island Ferry, which now doesn’t cost a dime. There are times when I wonder what the world and his wife are on about when they hymn the superiority of dirty old London over any other city. Not long ago there was a travel piece in The New York Times advising visitors to London on how to get a taste of the vibrant nightlife: go to Leicester Square, said the writer, at 11.30 on a Friday night. You what? Rejoice at the streets awash with puke! Chortle as you take a stinking night bus home! I ask you, as they say in New York.
And yet: here I am and here I remain. For London, as the great city’s great biographer, Peter Ackroyd, would tell you, allows of everything. In its disorder, in its sprawl, in its clutter and mess and ramshackle air, there is a sense of endless possibility, of secrets ever to be discovered. I don’t love London in the way I love New York, but London never ceases to fascinate me, perhaps because I know that I’ll always be a stranger here. But maybe everyone is a stranger in London; only London truly knows itself.
It fascinates me the more as it has changed over the years. They say now that London has the best restaurants in the world; I suppose that depends on what you are looking for and what your price range is. But it’s not Gordon Ramsay or Richard Corrigan that make me love London. It’s the breadth and spread of the place, its oddness, the fact that it is a city where wealth and poverty still coexist.
When I go back to New York I have a sense of a place that is now almost segregated by wealth. The Upper West Side, where I grew up, would no longer be affordable to people such as my parents were when I was growing up. Of course, London “gentrifies” too: the East End, where I live, has changed immensely since we moved there ten years ago. Yet to me London is still more socially mixed than New York; it’s harder to make assumptions about others, and people are more likely to have a wide, strange variety of friends than to move in small, safe circles.
London is a dainty place, a great and a gallant city; all the streets are paved with gold, and all the folk are witty . . . So goes a song I learnt years before I came here; and now I know it was sung with some irony a couple of centuries ago. But only some. I am glad to be a New Yorker — a New Yorker who lives in London.
For the inside knowledge on property, food, health and culture in London’s most vibrant postcodes, watch Cool In Your Code, our online TV guide to the capital’s finest locales timesonline.co.uk/coolinyourcode
london is very much nyc in the 80's and if anyone denies it they are simply wrong. the wealth here is jaw dropping while the poverty is just as much so. in nyc you don't see tramps drinking on the streets or beggars asking for change but in London it is everywhere. you have council estates situated next to multimillion pound flats and the way the city is set up forces you to see the discrepancy every day which does get depressing after a while. i have been to the worst areas in nyc and the worst areas in London and without a doubt a council estate in london is MUCH worse. there is no sense of community at all because the population is so transient and those 60's tower blocks are without a doubt the most depressing soulless things i have ever seen in my entire life.
that being said I LOVE london probably because i work in finance and can afford it. i really don't see why anyone would choose to live here if they can't afford to live in a decent area!
alex, London,
London has a gloomier weather, and you hardly see the sun shine throughout a day. The doble-decker buses are colourful and inviting. The black taxi drivers are much more professional than those yellow cab drivers.
Kelly, London, UK
I am lucky enough to be born into a very wealthy family. I have lived in New York and London which do I prefer?
I lived in a penthouse flat in New York and I still felt squashed. People have said how good it is that it densely packed and sometimes yes but on the whole I like a bit of room. People love a up and coming city's but New York has made it, it can't go anywhere else and London is having a comeback.
Look at the wider picture business isn't leaving New York because of New York there leaving because of America. Because America can't provide security, it doesn't looks more internally than internationally.
I moved to London because the family company moved for the incentives London provides. The culture is more intellectual and European. I have never had to try and be less well of but yes the working class struggle in London because everything is very expensive.
For me its London but I have only seen the best. If EU is the next Superpower London will be the unofficial Capital
Lukas , London Now, Europe
Even if London is better then NY it's not because of the reasons mentioned in this article. Let's look at sme of them: London's streets are safer--def. not NY has much lower overall crime rate. London is more international - this is not worth a response. London is more accepting of foreigners - ridiculous: NY doesn't even have the concept of a foreigner. The real reason London is better is not not because it accepts foreigners more then NY but because it is so British - and the British are, pound for pound, the most creative and interesting people on Earth. But lets get this straight - the Brits are in no way more acceping of foreigners than NYers.
Patrick, Portland, OR
Mike, you are very mistaken simply because your definition of diversity suffers; Let me explain.
Density is not a good or representative measure of diversity. If anything, high density means lower quality of life. I 'm not sure why you believe that the crazy density you described in NYC , waiting on lines for hours, would ever make people feel good. In my opinion, NYC's major problem is its geographical size. London is a huge geographically city just like Chicago and this is something that New yorkers would love to have because life is simply easier.
To the point , however: diversity can only be determined according to how geniuinely cosmopolitan a city is. That does not mean a specific white-black rate as you are suggesting but it means people from all over the world being able to integrate themselves fast and efficiently but at the same time to be able to maintain their own cultural idiosyncracies. NYC offers the first but not the second whereas London does the opposite!
Sergio, London, UK,
And if LA was so great, David, surely madonna, gwyneth paltrow, etc wouldn't leave and move to London! Were stars move has nothing to do with anything. It all has to do with opinion. I personally prefer London, but New York has one advantage-they don't complain as much. Almost everybody complaining about London is British while the ones praising it aren't. Wake up and realize what you have people. Every major city in the world has poverty, crime and fiflth so learn to deal with it and focus on the positives-like having the most exciting, diverse city at your doorstep
Tony Smith, Colorado springs, CO
This article and the supposed world point of view has always been of the 'whites' perspectives. What about advanced modern Tokyo?And what is the percentage of working class in the world's population? Much more than the fewer but bigger voices of the upper middle class that could afford cities like London. How could London be a capital of the world when most under privileged people of the world cannot relate to it? When the world are shifting towards the East, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Tokyo, Bangkok, Mumbai, Beijing , and ok, Sydney... are all upcoming cities of opportunities. But if East is Asia , only one city is truly Asian...it is Kuala Lumpur. Where else can u see working class Nepalese rub shoulders with British expats at the night market in the upper class Bangsar neighbourhood and see harmony in that. Or Chinese traders making profits off the Arab students? Or a Malay police officer giving summon tickets to a Norwegian? Not Singapore,coz the citystate is only a small island.
Borne-O, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
I dont see the point of this article. While London certainly is a great city, it is not even comparable to NY in diversity and population density, among other things.
Ok, in London 71% of the population is white. Of that, 60% is british white. By contrast in NYC, only 35% of the population is white. Even though the foriegn born population in London has been rising (31%), it is still not at the levels of New York (36%).
The population density in London is 4700/km2 (15,200 in Kensington and Chelsea). The population density in NY is 10,300/km (25,800 in the Manhattan). So even London's most dense area is much less than the whole of manhattan, which is 5 times the geographical size and includes districts such as Yorkville, where the density is 50,000/km2.
For me, the feel you have walking down the streets of London remind me more of Linkin Park, Chicago than NY. Not to mention, NY feels younger and a little more hip while the people in London seem, well...lame.
Mike, New York, US, NY
New York and London - the two best cities in the world. London is newly resurgent; New York recently aware its preeminence is not to be taken for granted. This is healthy, for both cities. London had long needed a shot of dynamism, New York one of more proactive urbanism. At the end of the day, it comes down to a matter of taste. London is, naturally, more European - it is still stodgier and more class-aware, while some would say more genteel and 'civilized'. New York is more American - it has far greater energy and defines 'dynamic', where some could see abrasiveness and unfettered ambition. Both are great internationalist cities, London most recently driven by its proximity to Europe, Russia and the Middle East, New York as a result of longstanding immigration, being HQ of the UN and an overriding philosophical perspective. Me? I'll take New York for its greater dynamism and energy, but lets be happy we have both. Competition, as both cities would say, is good.
Scott Caristo, New York, NY
London nicer than New York City???? Are you kidding? Not even in the same ball park. I go to london often and it is great, but to compare it to New York City from the Arts to all the Culture's is ridiculous.
Why must you compare your city to any city? If something or someone has class, it does not need to be stated.
Colleen, New York
Lover of all cities of the world!
This writer sounds like the writers at BBC.
Colleen Benedict, Otisville, New York
London is fantastic. Certainly, it has its downers but so does New York. I love them both, however, I prefer Los Angeles to New York but that is another story. I think it is splendid you can walk easily in both cities. People may complain about London's weather, yet, New York winters are long and bitter and the summertime is so sweltering and humid. LDN for life!!
Oliver Henn, London, England
I now live and work in Washington DC and have spent time in Oxford, London and NYC. I don't see much difference between London and NYC other than the personal independence in NYC. London and UK in general is very central in nature. You have to be in the center to get somewhere in time, see something, or even feel London. NYC is more sprawling and in an even manner.
Oftentimes I experienced this kind of depressing feeling leaving London Central by train. The clear distinction in the good central and not so good/depressing outskirts.
NYC on the other hand is cleaner, greener, with more open spaces, and better architecture.
Weather is another issue in London!!!
Jim, Washington DC, USA
So many comments, so little time. I'm a 20 somthing living in the surburbs of London and I LOVE MY CITY. Yes, it has it's problems, but doesn't NY with it's congestion and filth or Paris with it's ghetto slums on the ourskirts? I chuckle at all the comments from apparent middle aged commuters who have panic attacks at the prospect of leaving their leafy villages in some non-descript county. You like a different life, as a 20 something London has everything to offer me and more. New York is also great and populated by people who are proud warts and all - that's the difference.
Bob, London,
Having lived in London for the last decade and just spent the last year away from London travelling the world, I have to say I'm not looking forward to going back, and this isn't because I dislike cities or find it too expensive (although it is), it's just that I've seen far better; give me the lifestyle in Sydney or Melbourne or even Singapore, any day. London is broken; it's infrastructure doesn't work, it's dirty, overcrowded, unfriendly and tatty. Even the cultural and entertainment aspect is overrated, although I do admit I miss the food choice.
David Evans, London, UK
I live and work in London and Singapore, each location equally for six months of the year. The contrast between these great cities is stark and ever-widening. To me, London is the past; Singapore is the future. I feel the two cities are a microcosm of what is happening globally in the 21st century. We are seeing the decline of the debt-ridden, feckless and indisciplined West, and the rise of the productive, financially prudent, self-disciplined East.
Joe, Singapore / London, SIngapore / UK
London is great - it's so old and decrepit of course bits are fallng apart, but it's constantly being reinvented. It's hard to tell if it is regrowing or rotting but it is definitely changing, which is why it's exciting.
Pointless complaining about the tube - it was the first one in the world!! Everyone else say thank you : ) It also covers a much larger area than most capitals tube networks. It's things like this that make London cool anyway, there are pub floors in London older than New York
Eclayton, London, London
I'm currently a student in London and am really enjoying the city. It is vibrant and exciting. It is also undeniable that it is a huge financial centre, the single most significant alongside New York.
However the city also has serious problems regarding congestion, pollution and particulary crime and anti-social behaviour. It is also very expensive and only the well-off can really afford it.
I also have found the night-time atmosphere in cities on the Continent including Rome, San Sebastian and Paris to be much nicer as in London although boasting numerous fashionable clubs and bars there are large numbers of drunken yobs on the streets and dozens of police vans.
I have never been to New York and so cant comment however I must admit that the lure of the Big Apple is much greater than my desire to come to London- however much I am enjoying it.
Chris, Oxford/London, UK
it should secede from the UK
----
Too right. As any actual brit (any non-Londoner that is) could tell you.
Peter, York, UK.
London, New York, Paris - any votes for Sheffield as "world capital"? - well there is one now!
Mitch Peacock, Boston, USA
Oh for God's sake. New York isn't the one trying to convince anyone who will listen that it is the "Greatest City in the World." New York let's the city speak for itself. Who cares anyway? I've been to both and they're both fantastic cities...although New York is a little less filthy than London, though that isn't saying much. I actually liked London, though most people I know say it's just like every other big city in the world. There's nothing unique about it.
There is an aura and a pulse in a lot of cities but I did not get the same feeling when I stepped out of Heathrow as I got when I stepped out of LaGuardia and onto the New York streets for the first time. I even felt more when I walked out of Charles De Gaulle (though I am not claiming by any stretch that Paris is the greatest city on earth). I like London, I've been there several times but it just doesn't have the aura and excitement of New York.
Ellen, Denver, Colorado, USA
London is a lovely city. Not quite sure it has supplanted New York. However quite correct about the BBC.
ed buscemi, New York, USA
Agree, as a ww2 baby I was brought up with the Beeb. I have lived in the USA for many years and now find CNN International news more balanced and comprehensive.
Do still read the Times but on line.
Andrew Evans, Raymond, Maine
Please, Erica Wagner, check your facts. I thought the Times would be a reputable source of information. I love Borough Market and was horrified to hear from Erica that it was under threat from Network Rail's plans. So being such a fan of the market, I emailed about 50 people to get them to sign the petition; only to hear that this is not the case at all. Read the Borough Market website http://www.boroughmarket.org.uk/ and find out what is really going on down at Borough Market/. Is this SABMAC petition just a way to harvest email addresses? I think the Times ought to give a more accurate view. Erica, I hope that you will take a look at their website and enjoy many more visits to the Market at Borough.
Sue Ide-Smith, London, United Kingdon
Fantastic artilce. Having lived in London for 9 years and returned to Sydney 18 months ago, I remain incredibly fond of the city I called home for so long. I have worked in other capitals around the world, but none comes close to the welcoming feeling of home in London. No question, there are problems in London, but it functions and remains an incredile city
martin w, sydney, australia
The number of xenophobic comments on here astounds me.
OK, it doesn't astound me, since it became obvious quite some time ago that an awful lot of Brits love to blame "them" and not "us", but it does annoy me.
The rudest people I've met in Britain have been the Brits themselves, by the way.
Starling, Lancaster,
I was born in NYC, lived there till I was 11, moved to London, lived there till I was 18, returend to London to visit when I was 29, and then returned to live in NYC in 1999 for one year when I was 34. Now I live in Austin, Texas, a great little college city of less than 1 million (the greater Austin area that includes several suburban towns) and is probably the most cosmopolitan city under 1 million in the U.S. Every New Yorker I've met who has moved here would never move back, and every Londoner I have met who moved here would never move back. These days you don't need to live in New York, London, San Francisco, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Paris, Chicago to be in a cool, hip, cosmopolitcan environment with access to cool music, great restaurants, great companies. Living is better, cheaper, and technology being the great equalizer you can live anywhere and still have a great job with tons of income potential, and you can live in a virtually crime-free environment!!!
Fernando, Austin, TX
Live in an expensive city and hardly see the world, including your own city. I suppose glancing at passing limos and stately homes could make one feel that the world converges upon the city. However, this feeling, this self-indulgent hubris is debilitating to critical thought of those who are not tycoons, or their posse. This said, all frills and no knickers.
AS, OMA,
Ola!
I am a portuguese living in london for almost 5 years now. I have to admit it is very hard to say either i like London or not? Is it an exciting city, Yes sure, but for whom?
If travelling around won't kill a large portion of your day the utterly high prices sure will help ensure you don't overdo your enjoyment !! So yes there must be an elite that does enjoy the city fully mostly because it can afford to do so. Nonetheless i wonder what happens to everyone else. To be fair it is all a matter of trends. Specially those that some media makes us all want to believe in, city marketing is a matter of survival let us not be fooled! Maybe in 10 years time people will prefer living 'la dolce vitta' somewhere else and have periodic shots of overwhelming cultural exposure over a nicely spent weekend! At least i will!
Joao, London /Lisbon,
"New York, by contrast, has such a powerful personality that it subsumes your other attachments and makes you something more: a New Yorker."
- Liverpool, despite its small size and relative unimportance, does that too.
We should value this. We do have other cities.
As for London - the excessive infrastructure subsidies need to stop. It is unnaturally congested and nature should be allowed to run it's course, encouraging business and people to leave. Whilst provincial cities are left to decay, somehow, means are found to keep this cholesterol ridden monster alive. Free market capital indeed. Let it choke!
Al Campbell, Walsall, England
I moved to London a year ago. I dare say people who can afford £480,000 for a house don't see have a bad time here, but the vast majority of us struggle to get by on incomes that would be very respectable elsewhere in the UK, London weighting notwithstanding. For our money, we get to rent a shoebox in an area infested with hoodies and covered in graffiti litter; we get to pay over the odds to travel on filthy buses covered in moronic graffiti tags and squeeze onto unreliable tube trains. Thankfully I can just about walk to work, because I wouldn't wish a daily London commute on my own worst enemy! There might be a lot going on, but most of it's rubbish and it all costs a fortune.
As soon as I can, I shall leave London without so much as a backward glance. In fact, were it not for career considerations I'd have left already and gone back to a city that, whatever its reputation, I enjoyed living in far more than London: Hull!
Martin, London - unfortunately,
While I agree that London is more cosmopolitan than New York (I would blame this on more restrictive US immigraiton and visa rules, not on the attitudes of New Yorkers themselves), there was one factual error in the article that should be noted; specically,
"The Yankees may sign up a third baseman from the Dominican Republic or a pitcher from Japan, but the management is born in Brooklyn. "
George Steinbrenner, the famous owner of the Yankees, was born in Ohio. General Manager Brian Cashman was born in Kentucky. While it is indeed true that manager (equivalent to coach for those of you who don't know about baseball) Joe Torre is Brooklyn-born, this has nothing to do with home bias--previous managers have been from elsewhere (predecessor Buck Showalter was a Floridian).
In fairness, that list does corroborate the article--those people are all American.
David Nystrom, Antigo, Wisconsin, United States
It is true that London is the coolest place in the world in
two decades but,in the case of America put most energies
in Iraq,middle east.Mr Bush is not Mr Clinton.
Just the time the UK catch the wonderful opportunity to develop the regulation ,immigration laws and the tax regime .So intelligent the UK!
Now America is still the main motor of world business.they
are still the giant.
The Giant Dragon,China,is awaking now.All the world are
attracted by the huge market.It is an amazing place!
So in my view,from short term it is true that London is the coolest places.
mei, Shenyang, China
I lived in London for five years after graduating and left swearing I'd never return. Two years on, in a new job and a medium sized provincial city, I sometimes wish I'd never left. For all the litter, the crime, the stressed out people and the expense, there's something magical about London that completely takes one out of one's self like almost nowhere else. If nothing else, it's a town where it is absoultely impossible to be bored.
Celine, Nottingham,
Bit of a pointless article really. You could either sing the praises, or write a long list of the problems for most of the major cities of the world.
London is a great city if you have a bit of disposable income and plenty of energy. It has enough choice for you to never get bored and be able to avoid whatever you don't like (if not, you're probably not designed for city living).
A tourist could never truly understand London, NY, Paris etc though. It's good that different global cities should be able to provide different experiences.
JS, London,
We finally moved out of London three years ago and our quality of life has improved dramatically.
London is great if you like congestion charges on the roads, overcrowded trains and buses, streets full of immigrants and shops that charge the earth.... If you are a dynamic young thruster then it's probably a good place to live and work but for myself (a one-time dynamic young thruster) It's OK to visit occasionally - say once a decade.
Apart from that - I'm happy just to be able to reflect on the fact that, having not seen a vehicle of any sort for a couple of hours, when the local farmer drives his tractor past my front door it must be the rush hour.
BP, Somerset, UK
London the capital of the world? Has James Harding ever ventured out of the London bubble? I have worked in numerous cities in the world and London is by far the worst. Not just for the fact it expensive, dirty, crime ridden and the transport system is abysmal, but the people are the rudest, most arrogant, obnoxious people I have ever come across. If Scotland gains devolution, can we all go with them, and leave the cesspit of London and it's people to their own devices?
James, London, UK
You don't have to be rich to love London. Yes it is extremely expensive, and finding affordable accomodation is hard. But I'm a student, and I love London, and can't wait to get back.
As for some of the other comments, I think that reflects on preference for either city or country life. Fair enough for those who prefer rural enviroments, but it doesn't make London a hellhole. Some of us prefer big cities to enviroments we find intensely boring.
Dave Richards, Jerusalem, Israel
Jay, London - I don't see any issue with numeracy here. The apartments in question are indeed 20,000 square feet in size. Not the largest in London by any means.
Frank, London, London
I am constantly amused how London self critiques London. If it were a person at a party it would be telling everybody in the room how rich and wonderful it was, tall and beautiful, how it had everything... and nobody likes that. Closer to the truth it hides an insecurity which is slowly being revealed. I can't wait for some accurate and honest perspectives on cities, particularly London. Enough navel gazing, there's amazing things all over the world, 'provincial' is a state of mind.
Matt, London, UK
Sorry but all you American and Londoner commentators are blinded by patriotism and nostalgia.
The capital of the world is Tokyo. Ask anyone who's lived there.
Pete, Cov,
Unless you are wealthy or working in finance, London stinks. It is overcrowded and crime-infested with a creaking infrastructure and an ever lower quality of life.
"Westminster’s adroit handling of ...... immigration" . Are you kidding?? London's population is due to grow by 500,000 in the next decade but, as usuual, no proper planning is in place. Relentless haphazard growth has lead to the atomisation of London into wary, competing ghettos. Sadly, ethnic fusion does not extend much beyond the smart restaurant menus.
Janet, London,
What nonsense. London is an awful place to live. Get out while you can. Lisbon is the place to be. Sunny, warm and by the Ocean.
traveluzion, London,
Trofirm, look at Sylvia's post. New York has the same problems as London, but US immigration policies are MUCH stricter than those of Britain. Maybe it's not the fault of the foreigners after all, hmm?
Starling, Lancaster,
I work in a large global advertising company in London in an international role. I can tell you that more and more advertising, marketing and communications companies are shifting their global headquarters to London. The Americans just can not understand how to work with countries outside the US whereas London being part of a small country has always had to do this and is much better placed to be the world's business centre. Also its virtually impossible to go and work in US currently, its a closed country.
Charlie , London, UK
sorry, but London is just english.
JC, NYC,
i pity the fool that lives in london!
mr T, newcastle,
Just spare a thought for the poor people of England and the rest of Britain. As Londoners, displaced by non-Brits flood out of London to buy affordable houses while yet others snap up our houses for weekend retreats, we have to pay, and there is ever-increasing pressure to build on what is left of our countryside. I would welcome some kind of financial catastrophe which made London undpopular with the rest of the world. Exit many foreign incomers, leaving room for the Londoners to go back to London.
Trofim, Birmingham,
Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul, New York, Los Angeles, London, Madrid, Rome, Zurich... how can someone know that one of these is the "best" city in the world? If you are a citylover, they are all great. If you prefer the countryside, all of them must feel like hell.
Johannes, London, UK
I don't know that much about London. I visited it briefly and loved it. However, I lived for about 10 years in New York and know that the advantage of New York can be its disadvantage as well. New York is on an island. That can be a good thing as everything is concentrated. However, it starts to get old after a while and starts to feel too small. You can't get really get on or off the island that easily. Everybody hangs out in their little section and goes to the same bars and it starts to get boring, even though that might seem strange for such a large city. It has gotten even more boring as the prices have gone up and the young poor people that used to make NYC cool are finding it harder to live in Manhattan. What is left is a core of yuppie posers, who may be successful in their office jobs, but are not that cool, even though they are all trying their hardest to look cool to each other. I live in a midsize college town now and find much more hipness here at a smaller cost.
sylvia, Georgia, USA
I lived in London in the nineties, and loved it. When I returned for a holiday late last year I was horrified. The filth, the poverty, the rudeness, the hostility and the sense of menace are overwhelming. London is no-longer a community in any realistic sense of the word, but a group of competing communities deeply suspicious of the other and grudgingly coexisting only for the sake of making a filthy quid. The indigenous culture is in full retreat – so many of the friends I knew there in my younger years are desperate to get out and fearing for the future. What a tragedy.
Matthew, Sydney, Australia
I think Paris and Tokyo are the best city in the world. London and New York always behind.
Londoner, London, UK
Ivan, you confuse me. You complain about there not being any English people in London anymore, but you've moved abroad yourself? To a place where there aren't any English people either?
I'm afraid the politest people I've met in England haven't been the English.
Starling, Lancaster,
We finally managed to move out of London last year. Our quality of life has improved dramatically. London is a hole and only nice to live in if you manage to afford a £1million property and only travel a short distance every day. It's probably great to live in if you come from parts of the third world that's worse, like a big percentage of Londoners.
Otherwise, London is great to visit, there is lots to do as long and it's easy to manage if you plan it very well.
Kriek, Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire
Another attempt to sell something "being ludicrously expensive" as if it were somehow a desirable quality. I'm sure London is a fantastic place if you are running MTV-worldwide, and without doubt great for people in the financial sector, but the reality is that most Londoners are not and they are struggling to do much better than break even. Most of us doing normal jobs live miles away from the centre because we've all been outbid by the great business leaders you trumpet. We have to spend a lot of time in unpleasant public transport which is why we rude and agitated. Getting home after a night out involves watching the clocks or waiting in cold vomit-ridden streets for an unreliable night bus. And casual visits are just impossible - when was the last time you went around to see a friend (in a different borough) for a cup of tea? Seriously London is sorely overpopulated. You need to be earning at least 60k, preferably around 100k to be living comfortably.
Mike K, Austria,
No doubt the secession proposal is somewhat tongue in cheek, but I still find it pretty sickening.London puts more in the tax pot per head because there are a lot of very rich people here.Tax (and other income) is collected up into a big pot and spent on a national basis, with everyone getting the same.Simple.Do you really think the hip replacement in Burnley comes any faster? Is the operation performed in a nicer hospital?Of course not.Unless you disagree with taxation and redistribution all together (maybe you do, this is The Times after all),then you don't have much of an argument.Hey,let's stop worrying about the poor in London too!
Also, if anything London actually doesn't just get the same as everywhere else, it gets a bit more in a lot of areas.The arts in London,for example,have experienced their recent boom in large part because of increased government subsidies.This money doesn't just come from London.
I live here and I love it, but I still care about the rest of my country.
Harry Stopes, London,
"Financial Services Authority a selling point" ? Don't forget the SFO can't seem to ever get a conviction in big "City" cases, is that a selling point too?
London is indeed wonderful as you say - but mostly for the very wealthy, for the British it's always been too high priced.
Stan, Expat, Texas, USA
I am Indian. I have now been in London for the best part of this decade. I don't love London but I appreciate the opportunities that it offers young professionals. However, it is a blighted city. There are many problems with London and those problems for me destroy any chance there might be of feeling any real love for this place.
First, it is a needlessly expensive city. I say needlessly because there is really no reason why everything here should cost twice as much as anywhere else. It is now more expensive than Tokyo.
Secondly, it is not safe. James Harding is living in an alternative universe if he has convinced himself otherwise. Many of my friends have suffered directly at the hands of hoodlums (and they are NOT poor people living in council estates). In fact, someone I knew (a solicitor) was murdered last year.
There are better places to live in - Dubai and Singapore come to mind. Given an equivalent career opportunity, I would move there without hesitation.
Nitin, London, UK
No, Londoners are as rude to foreigners as New Yorkers are. And Parisians are and Moscovites are and and and....
JNH, DC, USA
London is a great city. And, to the extent that it even matters, it could be the capital of the world. But the suggestion that the roots of New Yorkers are limited to "the five boroughs" while Londoners are from "the five continents" is absurd. Most of my friends from the exterior also find Americans to be friendly and solicitous. At the very least, we offer cold drinks and doggy bags. Portuguese food? New Yorkers and New Englanders have been enjoying it for over a century.
Brian, Hyannis, Ma
James Harding is typical of many arrogant londoners I have met. The only reason London is considered a'great' and 'global' city is because of its status as the capital of the faded British Empire, built on the back of the worlds first industrial revolution which originated not in London but in Manchester. When Manchester was the workhouse of this country we provided a large portion all of this country's wealth and its manufactured goods. Does that therefore mean that the rest of the country owes us in Manchester something? Until James Harding wrote this article, talking about how Londoners subsidise the rest of us, I had never even considered it, but now I think maybe we should claim something back from our capital, it seems that you owe us an Empire for which you reaped the glory (and the money).
James Roberts, Manchester, UK
Don't listen to the commuters: they don't spend quality time here. Of course London looks unattractive if your dominant experience of it is train stations and the view from the commuter train window!
Paul , London,
London the capital of the world? Perhaps only because you've never tried Tokyo...
To Get the negatives out of the way first: the language barrier; you never really stop being a "foreigner" (it's a very mono-cultural society); frighteningly crowded trains at rush hour, especially into the popular stations
Now for the positives: cheap reliable frequent transport (60p for the shortest journey) with fantastic connections criss-crossing the city; much cleaner than London; very safe (anyone can walk safely alone any time, day or night, in most parts of the city); cheap food (if you're not deliberately looking for fresh sushi and $100 melons); over half a dozen shopping districts each of which makes Oxford Circus look like a village highstreet; the list goes on and on.
Edwin, Tokyo,
London best in the world? You are having a laugh!!!!!
Of course tourists love it, they don't have to live in it.
Its a sick capital that is bleeding the majority into poverty.
Mr S. PORT, London, uk
I am an American who having just returned from living in London can truly say I miss this wonderful city! I miss seeing the shows, visiting the landmarks and listening to the accents. While I agree that London is geographically located in a place that makes travel accessible, the world does not revolve around London. On the contrary, in many ways, London seems to mimmick the world, and I found that very disappointing! London needs to embrace those things that make the city unique- especially now as preparations are underway to showcase these things to the world during the Olympics.
Donna, Madison, USA
NYC is too expensive...I can't imagine how insufferable London would be.
phil, nyc, ny
We are certainly spoiled for choice!
I just think it's great that Brits and Americans love each other's major cities.
Forward Anglosphere!
Eric Laimins, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
London rocks even more now I don't have to live or work there.
Perce, Tunbridge Wells, UK
Sorry mates; not quite yet.
Bob Hall, New York, USA
i think London is an interesting city, full of things to do, different cultures, many different people but there is a big problem: you need a lot of money to enjoy a decent quality of life.
And the weather it's not really good, meeting the english people here and trying to be part of their life it's not an easy thing; I'm sorry but from my point of view London is a very difficult place to live.
I've been staying here for more than six years and I prefer NY, no comparison at all.
I am from Italy and i live in London so it means that there many good things in here too that I appreciate.
giovanni , london, uk
I love New York (yes, you've heard that before). Well, I have to, I was born here. I have also loved London since the first establishment shot of Big Ben in "The Prisoner". Both are great, dynamic cities and both deserve to share the title "Capiral of the World". Of couse, you've had a few centuries more practice at being the centre of the world, but we're getting used to it. Unfortunately, while London's just had a convenient little set of islands to rule, New York's had to subjugate itself to Washington, D.C., a (badly) planned purpose-built capital for a continent-sprawling empire. Give N.Y.C. the chance to secede to about the size of us and the ten surrounding counties of the metropolitan area (a little larger than Singapore). Then we can keep the majority of the money we generate and not have to fork it over to the superpower-that-shall-not-be-named, and then let's see who's the capital of what.
Ariel Cinii, New York, Rep. of New Amsterdam
Those who accuse the author of this article of arrogance or hubris should try talking to a good few New Yorkers. Londoners may be guilty of navel-gazing vanity but at least we know it. A good many New Yorkers I know are provincial, utterly convinced of their city's (illusory) superiority and too ignorant of anywhere else to have a viable conversation on this topic with. And they're the most cosmopolitan people in the US. I'll take London thanks. Not because it's perfection on earth: its wealth disparities are shocking; its daily stresses corrosive, but it has a tolerance and a variety that leave every other city I've ever visited (and, yes, that includes New York) standing. And Paris? Forget it.
Dominic, Lovely London Town, UK
For someone who can afford to drop GBP 480,000 for a one bedroom flat, life is sweet anywhere they live! (Even in New York.)
Bernhard Hoff, NJ, USA
A smarmy PM throws up a dome, a few Brazilians get shot and now London is more cosmopolitan than New York. I guess that means that you should take the UN off of our hands. Good luck trying to collect on the parking tickets.
Paddy , Cranston, RI, US
London? New York? Forget it, there's never been a survey where Zurich doesn't come out in poll position.
James Brown, Paris, France
You have appreciate cities to appreciate London. I also work and live in a large city in the states; however, I am from a small town in Pennsylvania. When I retire, I will leave the city life behind and return to my small town roots. Many cities, like London, for some, are a great place to visit and work, but don't want to live there. I would take a country home in beautiful Scotland or Northern England anyday over London.
Also, the reader should remember unless you are talking about a Native American, we "Americans" are really a melting pot of the world. To say Yankee "management is born in Brooklyn", what does that mean? I was born an "American" in Pennsylvania but my family is proudly German, English, and Irish. My wife: Irish, English and French. The writer should have derived what Yankee management is comprised; he may be suprised.
Paul, Sterling, USA
I've always found London to be a vaguely depressing city and never can understand the hype surrounding it. Britain has some beautiful places but London isn't one of them. And can either NY or London really compete with great continental cities like Florence, Venice or Barcelona? I don't think so. Being a hub of capitalism hasn't improved the lives of average Londoners (or New Yorkers for that matter). People want a decent and affordable quality of life rather than the chance to rub shoulders with some crooked billionaire.
Marie-Louise, Brussels, Belgium
From the comments above, I would guess that You Find What You Look For." I visited London in 1957 as a student and have pinched pennies ever since in order to get back (now to a borrowed shoebox) for 2-3 months a year. From Heathrow (WHAT hassle?) the Tube takes me almost to my doorstep. I walk everywhere-- the City, Knightsbridge, Earl's Court... I don't eat out; I cook for myself and friends. I queue for cheap theatre tickets, splurge on an opera & champagne at Covent Garden, visit museums, art shows, do research for writing projects, & explore neighborhoods new to me (and not yet upgraded to blandness). The multiplicity of peoples, food shops, book shops, and the history so thick on the ground all are exhilarating. London dirty? You find that in any city if you look. Crime there? It happens, but I've never witnessed a one in fifty years, and I can still walk home at night after the theatre. I can't have, let alone afford, all that in New York or L.A. I can't wait to get back!
Jane Curry, Los Angeles, California, USA
I live in Norfolk. I have Norwich for a city when I feel the need. I live a few hundred yards from the sea. The loudest noise I face is a cacophony of birds demanding seed and fat balls as they chase each other around the garden in a sex-inspired frenzy. Rabbits amble into the garden to say hi. There are beautiful parks and beaches to walk (I am a few minutes drive to where they filmed the beach scene of Shakespeare in love. There are wonderful organic local farm shops with the tastiest meats and vegetables you can imagine. One place I went to recently the fellow didn't have carrots on his stall, so went into the field and picked some.
London, like most cities, is noisy, ugly, dirty and expensive. It is a hell hole.
Nope, I am happy with my fresh air beaches and good, plain, local food
Neil Murphy, cromer,
I don't think so.
I don't think New York is either. I prefer to not think of any one city as "capital of the world."
This smacks of self importance.
James Troscinski, Grosse Pointe Park, USA
I disagree with Mr. Harding's assertion that the cosmopolitan nature of London is what makes it so special.
I don't travel nor choose to live in Italy, Spain or Indonesia because I hope to encounter/interact with nationalities from around the globe. I'll venture there to immerse myself in Italian, Spanish and Indonesian cultures, and the indigenous population.
Multiculturism dilutes cultures. Right -Wing? Racist? I truly believe it.
Laurence, London,
"Could you please call "Bombay" by its proper name?"
He did. In English, that is what it is called. The fact that it is called something else by the people who live there is irrelevant. We don't call Florence "Firenze", do we?
Martin , Hereford, England
The idea of a London secession is simply fatuous; London is supported by a populous hinterland of millions of people commuting from outside the city, which in itself is a range of different villages; what commitment would the many welcome foreign residents have, if things get tough? Who would be the taxpayers? Is it remotely realistic that London could adopt the trappings of an independent state, such as its own armed forces? This sort of thing simply plays into the vanity of our ridiculous mayor.
Peter, London, UK
Having grown up in the crime capital of the world (Johannesburg), it's not really the crime that bothers me, but rather the transport system. Taxis are expensive, trains are horribly, horribly over-crowded, the tube turns into a sweaty oven during the summer and the buses are driven by maniacs. And then most of them stop at 11pm, not starting again til 4/5. Otherwise, I love living in London.
Lisa, London,
Utter Nonsense
tk, geneva,
Every city has its problems, I just wish that for once Londoners, and Brits in general, would have a little pride in what is theirs. A city is made by its people and so long as people keep muttering and grumbling about problems rather than taking some sort of action against them then things will never change. When other cities residents' are told of the merits of their cities they accept the compliments with a little pride. When someone here writes an article showing some of the advantages of London, nine out of ten people write in with criticisms.
I'm not saying that London is perfect, far from it, just as no city is perfect. But it would be nice if people could accept that lots of people love London and are willing to work towards changing the things they don't love rather than just moaning about them.
Williams, London,
Used to live in London. Was so glad to get out of there.
Vancouver, now that's the coolest city on earth.
London is not the centre of the universe, although it looks like most broadcasters seem to think so (remember the snow on a postage-stamp sized bit of the South East a few weeks back?).
Starling, Lancaster,
I really don't understand this apparently irresistible need to glorify one great city by denigrating the other. A proud, native-born New Yorker, married to a proud native-born Lo ndoner, I find each city so distinctively sui generis that to say one is better than the other is like saying green is better than tall. The Times article writers go on about finding this kind of food in one city, that palace of culture in the other, and on and on. I've enjoyed every kind of food and culture I could imagine in each city, but embraced in each by that city's character. And that, I imagine, is what I most love about these cities: they have character!
Though always a New Yorker at heart, I no longer live in New York. At my age, Southern graciousness and climate do offer benefits that a northern city's pace makes difficult to achieve, if not impossible. But, similarly, if I lived in Britain at my age I suspect I would not live in Metropolitan London, either.
Joseph Judge, Gainesville, USA/GA
It is difficult to see what the connection is between London and the rest of the country. Is London really part of the UK any more or is it just a sort of massive urban version of the Cayman Islands? Why does the rest of the UK put up with the destructive centralising policies of the capital? Why don't the British adopt a federal political constitution as in Germany that would allow the regions to flourish and enable greater prosperity for the UK as a whole, and not just one small corner of it? I honestly don't see the point of living in such a dirty, greedy, dishonest, materialistic and dangerous Capitalist free-for-all. This article is such triumphalist nonsense. British people just need to get over the whole Empire thing rather than constantly reviving it in jingoistic articles such as this one. The reality is that the world economy is highly interlinked and places like London and NYC are made vulnerable by their dependence on the rest of the world.
JL, Paris, France
I visited London last summer and I must indeed say that it is quite of a city.
I agree with it being somewhat dirty, but only in some areas and for the most it is a pleasure spending time there.
Maybe I decide to move there later in my life but for now I like it just the way it is living up north here in Stockholm.
Niklas, Stockholm, Sweden
London is one of the world's great cities and if people can't see that, then it is their loss.
My advice is to stay away from Leicester Square/Picadilly and explore a bit. There are world-class museums which are free to visit; a huge selection of parks, which are also free; a vast selection of markets; countless pubs; beautiful buildings to rival any city in the world; more world famous landmarks than most cities and restaurants which cater for any taste imaginable.
London is wonderful and I wouldn't swap it for any city in the world.
Olly, London, England
I think it might be a good place to see and learn new culture and new way of living but it is not really a good place to live.
I see my home country Cambodia as a better place as there is sun shine in the whole year. My country must be a country of the world which is rich in term of culture and open minded people. With time and effort of my people, the world would discover how great my country is.
Ly, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Having been born and bred in the most beautiful city in the world (Sydney) the first impressions of London where awful. I hated everything. But somehow the cultural and social dyslexia, the wealth and poverty, the dynamism, the art scene, the music scene, the food, the constant thump of life, it inexplicably grows on anyone who loves to live for everything they can get. I just had a long sunny lunch along the river at Hammersmith. It was beautiful. Everyone was beautiful. Sydney Harbour it aint, but it got 10/10 for feeling.
Jim Tsihlis, London, UK
I live in London and I love it. The sheer variety of experiences available takes my breath away. And not everything is expensive. The major art galleries and museums are free. I work with Italians, Romanians, Ghanians, British, Australians...in a professional job. London has opportunites. It also has problems....but then there are millions of people living here...of course it has problems! I wouldn't live anywhere else...
LuLu, London,
I sometimes prefer self delusion over reality too. So the statistics may show some very rich people are getting richer in London. There are also some good shows and museums in London. Good for a short break. But to be any ordinary young person working on a normal wage it must be like living in the victorian age. A tiny bedsit takes most of your pay and everything else is so expensive.
Tim, uk,
Mr. Harding errs. He avers the management of the Yankees is Brooklyn-born. In fact the MANAGER of the Yankees is Brooklyn-born; the owner is from out of town.
A New Yorker in London
Abbott Katz, London, UK
I would not live anywhere else!
Ignoring the posh hang-outs Hardy talks about that only rich people frequent, and ignoring the tourist hell-hole that is Leicester Square, in terms of quality, diversity and size of the clubbing scene in general, and gay scene in particular, there are very few places on earth that rival London. Add to that a fascinating mix of people, a respect for those being an individual and tolerance of all things different, despite having lived in a lot of different cities, I wouldn't call anywhere else home.
Yes, the place is embarrassingly, excrutiatingly expensive, not the cleanest, has an archaic transport system (although try living in Chicago/US!) and perhaps not the safest. But we put up with it the best we can. Life for me is about having fun and variety of experience, not about minimising all inconveniences.
Neil, London,
im in full agreement with Johnathan. Zurich is by far and away a nicer experience.. cleaner, friendlier, more efficient and as u rightly point out the party capital of Europe for the last 3 years.. Having lived in London for 10 years I am determined never to return... Crazy cost of housing, enormously high taxes (direct and indirect), hugely expensive public transport (it has cost me more to travel to Rugby fm London and back by train than fly to Zurich and back) and overly intrusive (its the most cctv'd city on the planet), ... And now the cherry on top, particularly given the 8pct unemployment, extraordinarily smug to boot.
Bill, Zug, Switzerland
They stoled my camper-van in London and the five of us had no kind of help from the Police.
nunzio suppa, ragusa, italy
Neither London nor New York exists, except as a mental concept. To argue which is the grander is an exercise in futility.
James Benson, Scarborough, England
London the capital of the world???, risible by any measure!
NYC is, will be, and ... end of discussion!
Welcome to the 21 Century London and Paris!
Helmuth von Riese, Chicago, USA
A few years ago my wife and I spent some time in Paris. Then we visited London. The come-down was remarkable. London, which I had remembered fondly from my visits 30 years ago, now seemed dingy, ugly and cramped compared to Paris. Even New York looks better now. That's not to say that if you have a lot of money, London can't be a great city, but for most of us there is no comparison.
Spike, New York City, USA
I remember going to London on a daytrip with my parents and sister, it was surprising in 1977 at 10 years of age, especially seeing a homeless person, searching for food in a waste bin, inside the park in full view of Buckingham Palace. I would not be surprised if the majority of the rest of the country, felt London to be an alienating kind of place, out of touch with the rest of the country. This can only be summized from the media and the government living there.
Peter Hagan, Liverpool, England
Good to know that 20,000 square feet is required for a 'nice, roomy apartment' in London. I suppose one would have to agree it would provide the bare minimum of space required by Mr Harding; shame the Times doesn't have a calculator, or a proofreader, to help with numeracy.
Jay, London,
I moved to London from Hong Kong ten years ago and have never thought of going back. It makes every other city look and feel like a village. People don't judge you on your colour or race, but on how hard you contribute to the economy.
As for some of the views posted on here by Australians. As an Asian I thought that I was going to be lynched every time I go to one of your cities. I will always be from Hong Kong but London has my heart.
lee, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Those who claim London is the best city in the world tend to inhabit a parallel universe to most Londoners. It's a world of big salaries, annual bonus payments, property ownership in nice parts of town, the best private schools, a wide circle of affluent friends, private parties, etc. When I lived in London, scraping along on about 20 grand a year, it certainly didn't feel like I was living in the greatest city on earth - more like the biggest and most miserable hell hole on earth.
Mike, Swindon,
Not long ago I read that 10 years ago the most important factor towards quality of life was the community, now its looking after yourself. That is what london has become. After 20 years living there I have moved away, disilusioned with its trayectory. The 90’s where the peak for london, when everyone strove to make it a better city. But now it has become an investment hotspot, attracting ‘multicultural’ millionaires who hardly contribute to make it a better place, just more unreachable and isolated. The comunities are being ripped out, by selling off post offices, schools, hospitals, fire stations, pubs, etc, converting it into a millionaires playground with no soul. Londoners have become money obsessed just because its so necessary to keep them living there. The infrastructure is well behind other european cities (transport, medical services, getting a good plumber…). You are ripped off wherever you go, and then again by your own mayor. I moved away a year ago and I am surprised how little I have missed this new london. I like to keep intact the memory of a rich exciting london I once new.
hanna, madrid,
This article is breathless hype. I live in central London and work in the City, and it's clear that, "great" as London may be, it no longer has a culture of its own. unlike the author, I don't think this absence, which is recent, is anything to celebrate. Authentic culture is part of the glory of other great cities, such as Tokyo, Moscow and Paris, and it is likely that these cities will, ultimately, outlive London. Of all the great capital cities, London is now the least representative of its home country and culture - to its detriment. It is quite possible that either London or the rest of Britain may, one day, secede from each other. The question is, who will organise the air lifts in time for breakfast at Tom's?
S. Grey, London, UK
My point exactly, as David Lau, of Hong Kong, in Hong Kong, do you talk as you write, as I can only assume you repeat everthing you say.
I rest my point on Davids laudible excuse for living in London, self interest, self greed. very sad really. I only hope his mouse finds relocation quickly, for only a man who counts the days to moving back to London , from his own home location. Has serious belonging issues.
Live well and prosper David.
Peter Hagan, Liverpool, England
Well said Mr O'Kane above!
What of the downtrodden ordinary Londoner, fighting his way to work every day on the Clapham omnibus, to subsist in his shoeboxed- sized "studio"?
London fails dismally in all of the following categories which are essential to qualify as a great place to live:-
1. Quality affordable housing.
2. Ease of transport/ congestion.
3. Crime.
4. Polution/ climate.
JC, London, UK
I love both cities! I live in neither so I don't have to choose.
David, Jerusalem, Israel
I think the notion of emphatically declaring one city or another as the "best in the world" is absurd. By whose standards? Rich people who can afford to buy million dollar walk-in closet size apartments and sniff condescendingly at those of us who miss out on the opportunity to live in London? Yeah, I think I'll pass.
Dan Haugh, Richmond, VA
Actually, a plate of dumplings from Royal China would greatly disappoint a person from Shanghai - the restaurant's Xiao Long Bao are nothing like the real thing.
Lee Sai Fon, London,
Even though London born in the early 50's, I probably lived in the city for no more than 8 or 9 yrs, altho' commuted in for several more. I have lived in France for the past 11 years, and have to have my fix several times a year by returning to London. There is a buzz about London, that I have not found in any other European city. New York residents on my one visit there were so rude, as I found with other US cities over the years, that I shall not bother to return to spend what little money I have there. Crime? No more than one should expect in a city that size. Corruption ? Go to India, or anywhere in east Africa. Heathrow ? Appalling, but with terrorism a threat that must be taken seriously, what can one expect ? With the congestion charge in London now, getting about is great. You should not NEED private cars in London. I haven't tried anywhere further east than Delhi, so I cannot comment. But would I move back ? If I could afford to; not 'alf !
pondlife, France,
What is the difference between Multiculturalism and Colonialism?
Someone who moves to another country should be prepared to fit in with the host country's culture; if not, then he's no better than a 19th century coloniser.
Hence Multiculturalism (which has NOTHING to do with race) is totally alien to normal, human reflexes. In fact one of the most dangerous people in the UK is London's mayor, Ken Livingstone, who is forcing his multiculturalist agenda down the throats of London's citizens and pushing increasing numbers of UK citizens to bale out of his hell-hole to become rootless emigrants in someone else's culture.
Pierre, Paris, France
I live in London and have done so for 30 years. Make no mistake though that London is an overpriced, overtaxed and overworked city. We generally earn good salaries compared to the rest of Europe, but what about our expenses and standard of living? £4 for a single ride on the tube? £10.50 for an adult cinema ticket? The recent council tax increases? What else is so great about this city? It's dirty, expensive, has a shocking transportation system and increasing crime. Its only cool to those who can afford to buy (and are stupid enough to buy) one bedroom flats in 'Chalcot Square' for £480,000. London has class in parts, but I'm sorry to say is not a classy city. Anyone been out on a Saturday night to the west-end recently? Noticed the binge drinkers slumped on the streets and/or fighting (women included)? Call me traditional but that is not classy. Cosmopolitan it is, but lets be honest, its not a big trumpet to blow when we have so many other issues to address.
Real76s, Old Street, London,
Reading the comments reaffirmed my thoughts, the London you're describing is an elitist enclave for the haves. On the other hand what makes New York so vibrant and exciting is that everyone from all over the world come here to not just share but contribute to its energy at all economic and social levels. Whatever economic level you live at here in NYC you can entertain, dine and wine yourself with some of the best foods and events anywhere. We embrace all who come here. And you are so wrong about tourists being outsiders. Tourists are so much part of this great theme park. We have a saying that if you're bored in NYC, it's because you're boring.
Get a grip on yourself man, don't you know yet that NYC is the center of the Universe we don't have to spend words to justify it, just come here and know it for yourselves. "You gotta love it, New York."
Retired expatria
Michelle L, Bastrop, Texas
I came to London 20 years ago and married an English girl. She wanted to live in the UK so I stayed. I go back home to Oz for two or three weeks every year.
For a long time I could not imagine living anywhere else. It was exciting. But I fell out of love with London some years ago. I find it now to be dirty, overcrowded, expensive and crime ridden - the long faces on the underground each day demonstrate that for most of us life in London is a daily grind.
My wife remained in love with the city for longer than I did. But she has now had enough.
In a few years time we will be leaving for Australia and a house in the hills outside Brisbane - far from any 24 hour supermarket or a highway. Where the streets are dark and quiet at night and I do not wend my way past aggressive teenagers wielding cans of beer. Perhaps we changed as we got older - our likes and dislikes and what we considered to be important altered. But I no longer have any affection or love for London.
Hugh, London,
London is a great city but it increasingly caters only for the rich. The majority have to struggle to get by. Do we want our city to be a centre for the global rich at the expense of the ordinary citizen?
As things stand I'm tempted to move to the North or to emigrate. The prime reason is money, there is no point living in London unless you earn £100,000 or more. In the North I could buy a house on two thirds of my salary in London I face the insecurity of renting.
Steve, London, England
I've just been to NY for the first time & I find it wierd how people say that London is a dirty city. New York was absolutely disgusting! So much pollution (no Congestion charge & it shows) rubbish & rats everywhere, and this was in Manhattan not the forgotten outskirts. The subway was even worse! No electronic signs telling you when trains were due, and yet more rubbish & vermin everywhere - it felt like London in the 70's.
I went with a girl from LA who now lives in London & she was as shocked as I was. We were both glad to get back to a city where the roads are wide enough to see the sun, taxi drivers actually know where they're going & are polite, and you can't taste the carcinogens when you breathe in!
V, London, UK
London has a real buzz to it. But then so does New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Moscow, Buenos Aries and numerous other cities.
This article is tired and jingoistic tub-thumping.
S Newton, Bristol, UK
London is a toilet!!! It is the capital of the world because no English people live there any more. The people are rude and unhelpful, the cost of doing anything is astronomical, it is unsafe, the transport system is a joke, Tony Blair, Ken Livingstone and their loony clan live there and I for one am not proud to have it as the capital of the country I love.
One of the reasons I left and moved to Berlin, now that is a city that has it all!!
Ivan, Berlin, Germany
Telling that those who criticise are not Londoners!
I have no desire to live in e.g. a leafy village, but recognise that for others that suits them.
London is a great city. It may not suit everyone but it certainly suits me.
Gill , london,
London has no caracter, identity or soul, so it will accept anything from anywhere as "local". Other then that, the city is a nice place for those that can afford to live a posh life, the well to do, the rich, as for the poor...well, the poor has to work long hours to be able to pay an arm and a leg for a badly furnished bedroom with inprovised kitchen and shared toilets and shower rooms, in houses that where built during Queen Victoria's time.
If this continues much longer, eventualy there will be only two kinds of people li