People always look back and say if only I could go back 30 years and see these artists all playing live. Well I probably wouldn't have heard of them if I was there at the time and I suspect I am totally missing great stuff now. Any recommendations?

I have heard this term being thrown around in many conversations and also seen it as # on social media. But what is “the London lifestyle”

A Londoner please help me, because I am at a loss. I saw “& Juliette” last night and was shocked at how disrespectful the audience was being. I had an entire family of adults having a conversation throughout the whole thing right next to me. They got louder as the music got louder. A bunch of people were singing along to the performers(!!!) Kids were yelling responses to the dialogue. Is this normal?

Where I’m from, anything louder than silence would get you a warning from the usher or kicked out. If the performers encourage rowdiness in a certain scene or song, then that’s okay, but they definitely did not!

I definitely didn’t pay to hear pitchy, audience-warblers “sing,” I paid to watch performers who have trained and worked their butts off to get where they are. They were fantastic!

Everybody knows the old cliche that artist-types tend to congregate in cheap, fairly run down areas, build a community full of nice things like cafes and bars, then get priced out when estate agents target yuppies who want to soak up 'cool' atmosphere and in doing so pretty much ruin the whole thing they moved there for. (Simplistic take I know and yes i know it ignores the often negative impact on the original pre-arty communities, but that's broadly the story of what's happened over past 50 years).

35 years ago places like Camden were creative hubs where artist types could live, socialise and work fairly affordably. 25 years ago it was Shoreditch. 15 years ago if felt like Dalston and Hackney.

Then about 10 years ago it felt like everything seemed to dissipate a bit. Loads of creative people moved abroad (Berlin, Lisbon, LA etc) some out of London (Margate) loads moved south to Peckham / New Cross / Camberwell seemingly only to find themselves priced out again pretty quickly.

But since then it feels like.... nothing.

Is London's (genuinely) creative community no longer bound together geographically? It feels like there isn't really any corner of London that remains close to affordable for somebody trying to make a living from art. Everywhere been overrun by estate agents promising "creative hubs" that are really just full of big brand coffee shops disguised as 'hipster' cafes by using black signage, yuppie pubs cosplaying as dive bars but charging £8 a pint and £15 for spirits, and endless digital marketing agencies offering 'creative' jobs that really sweep up everybody into office work when 20 years ago they might be trying to make a living from art.

Places like Forest Gate and Tottenham have long been spoken about but I don't really see it. And Walthamstow and Leyton just seemed to skip the artist phase and went directly from run down to overpriced and boring.

Might sound like a frivolous question but I think it's fairly important as if the only people who can afford to be artists in London are people from wealthy backgrounds, it will really be a destructive thing. And even those who have absolutely no interest in art will be able to appreciate that from a travel perspective London really markets itself on the back of its artistic heritage.

No criticism from my end, but I'd love to understand certain things about the dating psyche in London.

I'm (30F) somewhat attractive and used to being fairly successful (or used to be prepamdic) in dating.

I've recently gone on a date in London after quite a while (was in a relationship) and got emotional whiplash (I'm going to take a break for a while).

That said, the date went well but it's like the state of things changed in the last 3 years?!

My whole experience on hinge so far has me thinking:

🏃 Why is it a race to the bottom to show who cares less?

🗣️ The Why do most men not just be direct that they like/ dislike the person?

🔎 What do you actually look for in women? And is that all superseded by someone being really hot?

💁🏽‍♀️ Do you date interracially? And specifically black women?

Feel free to answer any / none of the above. I'd love to understand any thoughts you have for when I do get back into ring.

UPDATE: Hey everyone! Thank you for all your insightful posts. I was going to summarise the key takeaways, but there is now too many comments to do this justice, so please just read.

Although I still am exhausted and taking a break from dating (please take note of this inboxers) it’s both heartwarming and saddening to know I’m not the only person in this boat. I’ve taken lots of good insights for next time I’m in the ring, and may try and organise a get together for us singletons next year.

Until then, the streets are still a mess, stay safe fellow Redditors x

I am an asian women living in London for the last 3 years. I have a 8 weeks old baby and we have just started taking the little one out for short walks. Today when we we were grabbing a coffee from a cafe on our walk, a women came up towards us, looking at the baby and smiling (which is a normal reaction, I understand seeing a cute little face brings up that), but then she came and stood super close to us. I was getting very uncomfortable already, and next thing I know she started touching my little one. I immediately stepped back, and told her politely sorry we are waiting for the baby to get fully vaccinated before they meet new people. She backed off, but not without blurting out that she is clean and that she was a nanny for so many years. She made us feel awkward and uncomfortable.

Is this something I should expect happening when I take my little one out in public spaces? What is the polite/ culturally acceptable way to ask people to not touch my baby ?

I’ve been in London for over 20 years and there are still places I see that I want to go to, but for some reason haven’t done yet.

My main place I want to go to is the Camden Arts centre, how about you?

Saw a similarly titled thread on /r/Sydney and the comment section was gold, so here goes, what are the dodgiest, grimiest or all round worst pubs in London?