Pension boon

[MrGongGong]

Yes, it's swings and roundabouts, but after all is said and done, London is significantly more expensive than anywhere else in the country, with or without taking property prices and rental costs into account. But it's still a free country and you can believe whatever you want to believe.

I think (apart from property) it really does depend on how you live and how much time you have.
If you have time on your hands the cost of food in London can be very low indeed as can eating out (Dhosa's in Tooting )
What does strike me as someone who doesn't live in London but frequently works there is that people are always complaining about public transport which works (for most of the time) really well and is very cheap compared to other parts of the UK (when it exists).

[french frank]

Is there not still London Weighting and the London Premium?

[vinteuil]

I don't think he did. At any rate he frequently took refuge from London to the village of Winterslow where he did much of his writing and even stayed on the outskirts of the Swiss town of Vevey for a time as he was so enchanted with the region. What's more, since he was presumably writing at a time when there was a deeply repressive government and severe economic distress in the rural areas due to poor harvests, enclosures and heavy taxes and duties to pay for the wars, it sounds like a complacent contempt of the fortunate for the economically oppressed.

Here are two different passages, from C19 writers with a far wider experience of life at that time than Hazlitt and a better understanding of it...

... aeolium - I was being mischievous - as was Hazlitt. His polemic against Wordsworth's "Excursion" was an attack on what he saw as a sentimentalization by various of the Lake Poets (he had, of course, been intimately involved with that world, and his revolt against it - particularly against Wordsworth who (he thought) had betrayed the principles of The French Revolution - was consequently all the more virulent) of the real difficulties and unpleasantness of rural life: Hazlitt was standing up for the virtues of a complcated civilized world against the imagined simple Rousseauesque virtues of 'country life'. A position I share, having grown up in rural Wiltshire and having escaped to civilization as soon as I could...

Much as I love Dickens, I don't think he had a "far wider experience of life " than Hazlitt: his take on the lower orders strikes me as far more sentimental than anything Hazlitt wrote. Cobbett, now - 'respect', as da yoof say...

[Beef Oven!]

I think (apart from property) it really does depend on how you live and how much time you have.
If you have time on your hands the cost of food in London can be very low indeed as can eating out (Dhosa's in Tooting )
What does strike me as someone who doesn't live in London but frequently works there is that people are always complaining about public transport which works (for most of the time) really well and is very cheap compared to other parts of the UK (when it exists).

There is so much competition in the food markets in London - I agree, if you have a bit of time, or more importantly know where to go, things can be cheap.

About transport in London, visitors can be impressed, but if you depend on it on a daily basis, the experience can be different.

There's a Dosa 'n' Chutney across and down from Tooting Broadway tube. Price reasonable, portion size good. My dosa was a bit greasy and could have done with a bit more taste, but perfectly fine if that's your bag.

[ardcarp]

I think Hazlitt knew what he was talking about

Very amused by the Hazlitt, extract! Not one of the Lincolnshire Hazlitts, I assume.

[P. G. Tipps]

... hmm. It's still Glasgow though, isn't it?.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/3200695/Lonely-Planet-guide-rates-Glasgow-as-one-of-the-worlds-top-10-cities.html

http://herald-events.com/inspiringcity/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Inspiring-City-website.jpg

http://www.ashtonglasgow.com/userimages/Ashton%20Lane.JPG

http://www.visitscotland.com/cms-images/5x3-large/regions/glasgow-clyde-valley/peoples-palace

http://www.rampantscotland.com/glasgow/graphics/cochrane_st_pavement_cafe_glasgow00585g.jpg

http://dtmw9u23bb9ya.cloudfront.net/uploads/image/file/5204/G28_main_building_aerial.jpg

Still the same 'Dear Green Place' as Defoe so rightly described it!

[aeolium]

Much as I love Dickens, I don't think he had a "far wider experience of life " than Hazlitt: his take on the lower orders strikes me as far more sentimental than anything Hazlitt wrote. Cobbett, now - 'respect', as da yoof say...

I don't know, I think Dickens wrote more about about the actual work and lives of "the lower orders" than Hazlitt, whatever his sentimental view of them, and gave a better idea about what such lives were like.

As to living in London, I prefer to inhale air than diesel, and see rivers and woodlands than ugly buildings and traffic. The internet, other media and books keep me well enough informed and amused, and concerts, plays, films and operas are easily accessible at nearby locations. Leave London to the plutocrats, I say.

[vinteuil]

I don't know, I think Dickens wrote more about about the actual work and lives of "the lower orders" than Hazlitt, whatever his sentimental view of them, and gave a better idea about what such lives were like.

.

... do you think so? For me one of the serious weaknesses of Dickens is that he never really describes the real world of work - except his extreme (I wd say sentimentalized) take on crossing sweepers and his self image as sufferer in the blacking factory. Whereas Thackeray, Mrs Gaskell, Trollope get into the skin of all sorts of trades ( in the way that Balzac can do ) . But I wd be happy to be corrected.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... do you think so? For me one of the serious weaknesses of Dickens is that he never really describes the real world of work - except his extreme (I wd say sentimentalized) take on crossing sweepers and his self image as sufferer in the blacking factory. Whereas Thackeray, Mrs Gaskell, Trollope get into the skin of all sorts of trades ( in the way that Balzac can do ) . But I wd be happy to be corrected.

Well, there's Hard Times - but I think that even here Mrs Gaskell had a keener eye for the realities of mill-working life.

[Flosshilde]

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...-8535060.html#

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1226932/Calcutta-charms-Indias-eclectic-city.html

http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnis...rade-city.html

I don't know how many pages oif Google results you had to trawl through to get these results, but if you try 'second city of the empire' the first page produces almost exclusively Glasgow. This result is fairly conclusive - https://answers.yahoo.com/question/i...6033530AA1AbGz

[vinteuil]

... it's just that when I lived in Calcutta, the inhabitants regularly said that of old it was "the second city of the Empire".

I think Liverpool, Dublin, and Philadelphia (!) have also claimed this dubious title.

[Flosshilde]

What does strike me as someone who doesn't live in London but frequently works there is that people are always complaining about public transport which works (for most of the time) really well and is very cheap compared to other parts of the UK (when it exists).

People who live in London complain about everything; but when you suggest they move somewhere else ...

[MrGongGong]

People who live in London complain about everything; but when you suggest they move somewhere else ...

I'm often the first person to arrive when I have things in London which seems odd given that my journey is 150 miles.
The bus service in London is wonderful compared to the rest of the UK

[Beef Oven!]

I'm often the first person to arrive when I have things in London which seems odd given that my journey is 150 miles.
The bus service in London is wonderful compared to the rest of the UK

That's coz we're cool and laid-back. You guys get so excited about coming here, you can't wait!

[MrGongGong]

That's coz we're cool and laid-back. You guys get so excited about coming here, you can't wait!

I see your delusions continue