Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

londonist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 220 posts

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

#41

Post by okeuro49 »

hk__2 wrote: post #25
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.

> 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.

> Aren’t the salaries higher as well?

The killer is house and rental costs.

If you want a flat in central London you'll be paying half (or more?) of your £68k salary on rent after tax. In Canary Wharf you might not even be able to afford rent.

A £68k salary won't bring you close to being able to afford a mortgage, unless you have capital from other means e.g. inheritance.

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

#42

Post by dukeyukey »

ubercow13 wrote: post #36
iiiieu wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Check Indeed, junior SWE jobs in London are listed starting at ~£25k/yr. Yes, £8 is expensive for a pint of lager.

I'm sure you _can_ find salaries that low but it's not typical. I started on £30k 6 years ago, and that company was infamous for underpaying grads! Most other junior developers I knew (at other companies) were on ~£40k or so.

£8/pint is also way more expensive than normal. I was out in Shoreditch last night, paid £6.70 for a pint of Brewdog, and that was more than I'd usually pay.

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

#43

Post by noelwelsh »

pydry wrote: post #35
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.

That's the one kind of inflation which didn't bother me too much. I still go out just as much I just drink less. That's healthier. The property situation makes me far more angry. The UK construction and property industry completely lacks market discipline and quality regulations have been reduced (see: Grenfell where that literally killed people, but also the shocking build quality of most properties). Then there was…

Here's some data corroborating this:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bull...

As you can see, London rents are increasing at an accelerating rate.

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

#44

Post by fidotron »

wdfx wrote: post #33
jwmoz wrote: post #16

When I moved here the Gherkin was an iconic building in the skyline. Now I can rarely see it, surrounded by other generic skyscrapers. I find it really sad they obscured it from vision.

I have similar feeling about the LLoyds of London building, which is within the same few blocks. In the late '80s/early '90s it was iconic as a newly different building. Now it is practically lost between other huge (and IMO completely soulless) buildings. I've enjoyed looking at these photos, but it also kinda makes me sad that there is such a massive drive to increase density in the city. I think I may be at a time…

As another former Londoner reading this thread, I think the confusion is that we were told increasing density will increase the viability and availability of local services, but the opposite turns out to be true. The London of today has more per sq mile than twenty years ago in terms of floor space but in level of interesting activity it doesn't compare.

I will admit the Shard is cool, but you are absolutely right about Lloyd's. Those of us of a certain age consider anything designed by Richard Rogers to look like the future we aspired to.

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

#45

Post by iamacyborg »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #21
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…

Hah, love that you're showing White City, you've missed the gigantic residential development by Westfield and the big commercial White City Place that's continuing to go up.

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

#49

Post by bettercallsalad »

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.

London is actually surprisingly cheaper than many cities in US. You just have to find your place based on the budget. I lived in Ealing area (sure it’s far from many actions but lots of great ethnic food in far cheaper price than anywhere else) in a quite a spacious apartment and it was half as much as what I spent in both two cities I have lived in US. And the tube is excellent (compared to our public transport standard). I actually somewhat miss my time there. It was safe (again based on my standard in US) and I didn’t really need a car.

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

#50

Post by cm2187 »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #32
fauigerzigerk wrote: post #27

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…

Most of the new towers you see in the pictures are flats. For instance, around Wembley Stadium the vast majority are flats. Lots of (fancy) flats on the Isle of Dogs as well. It's mostly offices only in the City and Canary Wharf.

Even canary wharf. Most of the new sky scrappers are resi towers. Not many new office buildings.
Post reply on HN