London is considered one of the safest places to live in the world. However, the reality is that it is definitely not a place for everyone! The term, British nicety, exists only in your imagination when you are living in the capital of the United Kingdom, London. In London, there is an unexplained rashness and aggression among people, which exclusively visible during the peak hours of morning and evening.
Yes, the city is one of the most developed cosmopolitan cities in the world? However, is it a haven for most of its residents? Not exactly! Here is why you will find a lot of problems when you are shifting base to London from another place, especially from the countryside or from a small country or city.
One of the most expensive places in the world
You get paid quite a lot of money to work in London. You might get less than half of this if you were to do the same job in Birmingham or Brighton. On the face of it, this does look like for the perfect chance for your personal and professional growth, doesn’t it? However, what you must also know is that the cost of living in London is exorbitantly high! A small house or even a garage can cost you hundreds and thousands of pounds!
So, if you are planning to move to London and then make it big in your life, you are probably going to face a lot of disappointment. You will find a lot of difficulty in getting your accommodation and meals sorted, let alone making it big in your career in this expensive city. The only way to survive here is to move to London after you have an established and super-successful career to back you up.
- The madness called underground trains
The tubes, or the underground trains, are the lifelines of London. While they seem to be all glamorous and beautiful from the outside, you should travel in one of these trains or just visit one of the important stations during the peak hours in the morning (around 7 to 9 AM). The so-called professionals display their best possible selfish and arrogant behavior during these times that it can drive any sane person mad. This is one of the worst parts of living in London, according to most of the residents.
Londoners don’t hesitate to jump queues, push people and ignore kids and the aged people in the queue to make sure of their place in the trains. Even once they hop on to the trains after a lot of pushing and pulling, they don’t smile at their co-passengers. They are busy plotting their exit routes. If you are from a quiet place in the world, all of this may seem very rude and inhumane to you, but that’s how London has always functioned. Brace yourselves for the madness and rudeness if you want to make London your home.
- You change when you are in London
The most dangerous aspect of London is that it changes the natural character and attitude of its residents. When a person behind you overtakes you on the road, you are naturally forced to increase your speed. When you get into the bus daily and find that your fellow passengers aren’t returning your smile, you are forced to stop being nice to people. When you notice that you can get a small inch of place on the train only by pushing people, you start doing that.
Most of the Londoners feel that though they found it quite difficult to adjust to the rudeness and pace of the place initially, they had now become so used to the city that it is impossible for them and their loved ones to shift elsewhere. That’s what London does to you. It attracts you with its growth opportunities, makes you forget your niceties and then makes you become its addict.
- The climate
London is cold for almost 9 months in a year. Out of these 9 cold months, it rains for 6 months here. The cold and rains are so much that it affects your normal routine. The British love to crib about their weather, don’t they? They get their predictions right, but still, they haven’t been able to find solutions to wade through the terrible climate that they have to live throughout the year.
Londoners who love the city may argue that the climate isn’t as bad and extreme as places like New York and Minneapolis; however, the truth remains that London can make you mad and irritated if you love the sun. You will experience the beauty of summer for only 3 months in a year, which is quite a short phase, indeed!
- Your mental strength will be tested
London is one of the high-stress cities in the world, because the stress caused by commuting to and from work, on an everyday basis, can test your mental strength. You might be surprised to know that close to 500 people seek the counseling services of the British Association of Anger Management in one day. These people opt for online and personal consultations to keep their anger and stress at bay while traveling in the high-peak hours. This includes people who travel by road and the ones that travel by tube. In a city, where there around 7 million people travel by road and around 1.5million people travel by tube, this kind of mental stress is unavoidable.
The experts from the association counsel their members on how the consequences of their anger can have a big impact on their lives. London is a city where you need to get counseling services to commute safely! If this doesn’t convince you that staying in this city will make you mad, we don’t know what will!
In a nutshell, all that we want to tell you is that London is not the city for you if you are sun-lover, gentle and compassionate towards others. The country is beautiful and developed; however, it still needs to go a long way in terms of keeping its residents happy and satisfied.
Written By Boyan Minchev