I keep having this feeling that, unlike many other European cities, London is not trying to preserve its uniqueness. The beautiful old historic buildings are not being restored and maintained as well as they deserve. And ugly new buildings are crowding them everywhere. It was already like this, in a way, 22 years ago but now this trend is even more pronounced.
The Sister has a theory that the British have decided to direct their efforts to preserve the country’s uniqueness towards supporting and promoting the endless melodrama of the Royal Family, which is why neither resources nor any real interest are left for the preservation of the face of their capital. I’m not sure I have an opinion just yet.
Tomorrow we are going to Berlin, so I will be able to compare Berlin to London.
Clarissa's Blog 
Great post!
N
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London, as the largest financial sector in the world, acts and is treated as almost independent of the rest of England now. I have a genuine fear that the Summer Olympics will prove this as the rest of England (and Britain overall) will be almost totally ignored.
I also totally agree, London isn’t as aesthetically pleasing as it could be or ought to be.
I’m not really a fan of London at all. Abominably high rent prices are pushing poorer family out, and some students too. There are people my age who, despite having all the ability to get into institutions such as the LSE or UCL, have opted to bypass London all together and apply to universities in cheaper areas.
London, to me, represents a lot of what I dislike about the shape of Britain right now; a place of such history and culture, but is being ruined by successive inept governments (and a bumbling Tory mayor) and a concentration of financial power into pockets of small areas.
I appreciate that both of these things are inevitable in the kind of society in which we live, but oh well.
Have fun in Berlin, by the way.
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+London, to me, represents a lot of what I dislike about the shape of Britain right now; a place of such history and culture, but is being ruined by successive inept governments (and a bumbling Tory mayor) and a concentration of financial power into pockets of small areas.+
– Yes, you verbalized my very vague feelings perfectly!
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When I visited Berlin about 10 years ago, what was very striking to me was that the east part had maintained/renovated buildings and in the west part, lots of facades, etc. were falling apart. Maybe you can tell us if that’s still the case… I think the reason was that after Germany was reunited, a lot of funding was poured in the eastern part in general, not so much into the “rich capitalist” western part, which was expected to take care of itself.
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In London, the beautiful old facades are crumbling down in many places which looks very sad because they deserve to be treated better. We’ll see if it’s the same in Berlin.
Germany is supposed to be a rich country, though, isn’t it?
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‘And ugly new buildings are crowding them everywhere’.
Lack of space is a huge problem in the UK, especially in London. We’re a tiny country and everyone’s just jammed in together. As Jamie mentioned above, London is treated separately from the rest of England – but I’d go further and say that, for a lot of people, London IS England, and everywhere beyond might as well not even exist. Thus, a hugely disproportionate amount of people want to live in London, visit London, and build in London – hence the overcrowding of the people and the buildings.
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I know understand why Russians dig London. This is exactly how things are in Russia. There is Moscow and then there’s the rest of the country
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In fact the Royal Family pays for itself overall.
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