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London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades

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Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades

#21

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

thefounder wrote: post #5

Hard to see any signifiant difference.

This set doesn't show the very noticeable blocky developments further out in the suburbs.

The Wembley changes have been repeated across many areas in East and West London, with some - but not quite as much - North and South.

London used to be primarily Victorian. Now it's primarily Victorian with growing areas of rectangular glass-and-concrete modern in-fill.

This area used to look like this:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5167921,-0.2271653,3a,75y,...

Spin around by 180 and follow the road to see what's happening across London. With more on the way.

Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades

#22

Post by AlexMuir »

Almost everything you see is residential. And in the case of the new office blocks (the Canary Wharf shots), the developers are seeking consent for residential conversions. Playing SimCity and building only residential zones doesn't tend to work out great.

Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades

#23

Post by iiiieu »

jwmoz wrote: post #17
LilBytes wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was your reason for loathing living in London? Edit: reason I ask is because I assume it's costs, I can't imagine your apartment was cheap. I don't see much evidence that even SWE's can comfortably live there.

It was great in 2012 and comfortable for SWEs (am one). Now it is honestly too expensive, £8 a pint in pub near work, it makes going out less fun.

Yeah, who could ever afford a £8 ping on a SWE salary. /s

Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades

#24

Post by cassianoleal »

AlexMuir wrote: post #22

Almost everything you see is residential. And in the case of the new office blocks (the Canary Wharf shots), the developers are seeking consent for residential conversions. Playing SimCity and building only residential zones doesn't tend to work out great.

How much does SimCity take into account work-from-home?

Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades

#25

Post by hk__2 »

jwmoz wrote: post #17
LilBytes wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was your reason for loathing living in London? Edit: reason I ask is because I assume it's costs, I can't imagine your apartment was cheap. I don't see much evidence that even SWE's can comfortably live there.

It was great in 2012 and comfortable for SWEs (am one). Now it is honestly too expensive, £8 a pint in pub near work, it makes going out less fun.

> Now it is honestly too expensive, £8 a pint in pub near work, it makes going out less fun.

Aren’t the salaries higher as well? In Paris a pint is €7 on average (~£6) but according to Glassdoor the average SWE salary is only €53k/yr vs. £68k for London.

Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades

#26

Post by mytailorisrich »

NeoTar wrote: post #13
thefounder wrote: post #5

Hard to see any signifiant difference.

The real story is one of intensification. Before 2000-or-so there weren't many sky-scrapers in the City-of-London (i.e the central financial district), now it looks like there are upwards of twenty. Similarly in almost every photograph there is much less brown/grey space. Either empty spaces, or inner-city car-parks have been replaced by parks, or by new buildings. I think this is reflected in the population history…

It should be noted than London's population was 8.6 million in 1939 and decreased to less than 7 million in the 80s/90s before starting to grow again.

Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades

#27

Post by fauigerzigerk »

I see lots of new office buildings and sports facilities, so I was wondering what happened on the residential side. What I found is this dataset:

Total Number of Dwellings and Net Additional Dwellings, Borough https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/net-additional-dwellings-...

It shows 614,474 net new dwellings between 2001/02 and 2021/22. Unfortunately, they don't appear to collect data on floor space at all. So this is less informative than it could be.

The number of residents per dwelling has gone up from 2.4 to 2.5. between 2001 and 2020.

Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades

#28

Post by vladvasiliu »

iiiieu wrote: post #23
jwmoz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was great in 2012 and comfortable for SWEs (am one). Now it is honestly too expensive, £8 a pint in pub near work, it makes going out less fun.

Yeah, who could ever afford a £8 ping on a SWE salary. /s

I'm not a Londoner, I only visit occasionally, but I think this may be a psychological response to a big increase.

I used to like going out in London: "everything's so cheap!" Especially, getting a nice beer at a random pub would cost significantly less than a random basic lager in Paris.

But this year, I was shocked to see the price increase. It's now pricier than Paris, even though Paris prices have also edged up a bit.

And since my cash is Euros, I always compared the prices as converted to euros, so this accounted for the conversion rate variations.

Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades

#29

Post by hk__2 »

jacooper wrote: post #9
kypro wrote: post #4

Cool, but feels underwhelming in comparison to the growth of other cities over the past few decades. Shanghai, Dubai, etc..

Nothing beats Riyadh in growth over 10 years. The entire city changed.

Riyadh and Dubai are bad examples as they are in the middle of a desert.

Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades

#30

Post by jokethrowaway »

LilBytes wrote: post #15
mstade wrote: post #12

I lived in Canary Wharf ~2011-2012, on the 42nd floor and with a stunning view west over the city. The shard was being built at the time and I've got plenty of photos of dramatic sunsets, rays streaming through the glass and trusses. As much as I loathed living in London, I quite enjoyed the view.

What was your reason for loathing living in London? Edit: reason I ask is because I assume it's costs, I can't imagine your apartment was cheap. I don't see much evidence that even SWE's can comfortably live there.

It's not really about the cost.

I would say it's pollution, crime and lack of avenues for small kids.

I was living on a skyscraper and the amount of black dust I was removing from next to the windows was mind-blowing. I still remember moving 1hr out of London and feeling like I was breathing again. Not what I wanted for my kids.

The amount of stabbing and theft going on was pretty crazy. It was all around you. Some parks are ok and touristy, some parks are straight up dodgy and you run into drugged up, drunk people, (homeless?) people harassing you.

There are almost no kids around so not super easy to find friends for your kids. Nurseries are small and crowded because real estate is at a premium.

Again, moving out from the city fixed all the problems. Town life in the UK is actually pretty great. Sure you will miss on the main pros of London, events and networking.

I'd recommend finding a nice town commuting distance from London to reap the most benefits.

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