Do you find London unsafe? - Page 4

Not saying you're wrong for feeling this way, but it's a bit sad as Fabric and Bagleys were both fantastic about 8 years ago. Perhaps the dubstep crowd is a little more sane?

Live in London, overall safe.

Live in a 'safe' part of London, St. John's Wood, but have still have experienced an attempted mugging, not far from my home (not violent and not successful).

Being shot is not something I foresee, but then again I don't use the busses.

Someone brought up a valid point, there are social housing estates in even the best areas, Mayfair, Chelsea, St. John's Wood, Kensington, etc. So you're probably as much at risk in the 'better areas' because the criminals know who is worth targeting. I could be wrong though, you do hear of more severe crime in Hackney, Haringey, Islington, Clapham, Brixton, Walthamstow, Shoreditch, Stockwell, or Dalston than Chiswick, Hampstead, Highgate, Belgravia, Knightsbridge, Maida Vale, or Richmond.

Yet, to say that crime is high in London is absurd, its one of the world's largest cities and there will be incidents.

Abbey Road!

East Side of St. John's Wood!

Quite a walk from Abbey Road.

I often tested my personal safety by wearing bow ties in deep South London; this included bus usage. I may have changed countries recently but I am still kicking. Despite the frequency of these news reports, they aren't necessarily conclusive of widespread crime - although I readily concur with Manton - but they are still unpleasant, which is how I sometimes see London these days I do know at least one person who was shot but the wound was non-threatening. Given his temperament, he would likely have been aggravating the situation in which he ultimately found himself in

While driving through downtown Richmond, VA on the major road last Saturday, I happened upon a near riot. Kids were fighting in the middle of said street with the police spraying people with pepper spray. Seconds later I heard 3 gun shots that couldn't have been more than a block from me. According to the paper no one was injured but I just doubt that sort of thing happens that much in other first world countries.

That being said the only time I was a victim of crime was in Spain when some guys tried to steal my dad's bag. I flattened one of them with a right hook.

Where have you been?

K

On UK crime stats, I can't claim to have followed them closely as Manton says he has, but I will say that changes to how crimes are recorded and reported have made figures appear to rise more dramatically than they have and barring a few categories of violent crime there has been a recent general decline in crime rates. There has however been a vast increase in interest in putting shocking figures in news stories and manipulating the figures to make political points. Not saying Manton is wrong, just that we are not suffering some kind of terrible crime wave.

On an anecdotal level I can only think of a single person I know in the UK who has had their house broken into, although I do no a few who have been (mildly, drunkenly) assaulted, but virtually everyone I know in urban areas in the states have been robbed at one time or another. My family has lived in the UK for most of our lives and never had any run ins with crime, within a few months of living in the US (Rye NY) our house was robbed.

As to the original question, as others have said there can be an air of menace in UK towns at night and there is a problem with violent drunk teenagers but if anything this problem is less in London than elsewhere. There are areas that you shouldn't really go, or go at night, and they are less clearly separated than they seem to be in the states but it has never been a problem for me. Having lived in or around London most of my life I have never had any real problem.

What? You must have an extremely unrepresentative group of acquaintances. To say that the majority of people in US urban areas have never been robbed would be an understatement. FWIW, in my travels between the two I've gotten the impression that the acuity level of crime in the UK is generally lower but harder to avoid. In the US, avoiding bad neighborhoods (which are generally places with absolutely no reason to even want to go there anyway) and not associating with shady folks goes quite far in insulating you from crime. In the UK crime seemed to be less violent but more random. When I see youtube vids of various chav ASBO-type harassment I only half jokingly wonder if the difference is attributable to the fact that they don't have to worry about dying in a hail of gunfire from fucking with the wrong person Goetz-style.

ok, only have been in London for slightly over a month so can't say much, but from my limited experience it seems safe, but a lot more loud drunk looking for trouble people during weekend night than I saw in NYC if you ask me.

The other thing, government sponspored housing seems to be better here in the sense of what crowd you might run into. Government sponspored housing in east harlem carry a lot more stigma in NYC than the government sponspored housing here.

I think in general it feels like it's easier to get harassed here than in NYC, but if something does happen consquence seems to be milder base on what I read.

if you want a safer city, go to Asia, at least Japan anyway. I felt pretty safe when I was in Taipei (lived in Taipei for 16 years 11 years ago) Hong Kong, Singapore as well.

As long as you steer clear of rowdy younger people who appear to have drank a lot, you will be fine.

Agreed, although the stats are compared to previous years so they're still useful for comparison.

Just as with any city ... not all parts are the same.

I certainly don't feel unsafe in South Kensington or Mayfair or Belgravia ... but even in these parts of town ... after a certain time in the evening I don't like to go out on the street alone. On those occasions when I must ... I take care to be aware of my surroundings.

Seriously, statistically, London is still very very safe.

I've lived there for a tiny bit and felt safe at all time, but I suppose it makes a difference when you're use to large cities and people in general.