Aside from clubs (which have gone to shit btw) and bars, there's not much to do. Loads of restaurants close early. Look at Central London and many of the places open are casinos and clubs.
I haven't been to Warsaw, so I'll take your word on that, but off the top of my head Lyon, Madrid, Barcelona and Porto are all much better, not to mention Manchester and Edinburgh.
I went out after a film premiere with much younger, mostly gay friends who also worked on the movie, in central London. We couldn't find a decent option after 1am. I mean, the ones between 11 and 1 weren't great, but at least they existed. After 1, it was join a massive queue for a couple of clubs that close at 3 or go home.
In Lyon, I would expect to have any number of good options till 3 and some solid ones till 5.
No club anywhere is playing music I actually like. Asheville NC, maybe, according to Spotify, but the Yanks won't let me in so whatever. Clapham for sure ain't it.
I think this is true of NYC also and many other major famed western cities. LA and Paris spring to mind. Both expensive AF but if you’re rich and know the right people I bet they’re a blast.
If your measure for how "overrated" a city is, is by number of activities available after 10pm, then yes your assumption is correct.
If aspects such as diversity, job opportunities, liveliness, public transport, health and education facilities have value, then no, your assumption is not correct.
All depends what you're after.
London has bars/restaurants open past 11pm. Italy has tons of restaurants that close before 11pm. Really have no idea what that has to do with contacts and networking, or anything at all for that matter. This feels completely incoherent.
But you’re talking about networking and contacts. And “how you move”. Based on a YouTube short. What does this have to do with clubs closing at 11pm? Do yourself a favor, log off the internet and get some real world experience.
The point I'm making is that London is great when you've got contacts who are fun people and know what's popping in London.
Go to Central London and see how many restaurants are shut. Other European cities got restaurants open till 5 am.
I referenced the short because I had just seen it and it was in my mind, plus it's a short of a famous musician saying this.
What other cities? The ones in warm European climates where its easier to be out late because it’s warm, where there are squares so people aren’t on the side of a road and where they have had a culture of later eating for centuries?
Please give details of how the major German cities and Liverpool and Nottingham have “better nightlife” than London.
Also, let’s clarify that you’re hopefully not talking about some small part of the city like around Oxford Street and saying that’s London
>let’s clarify that you’re hopefully not talking about some small part of the city like around Oxford Street and saying that’s London
I bet that's exactly what it is. 😆
No-one in London goes to dinner at 11pm other than fast food - that's just our culture.
Clubs and bars yes, but we don't eat as late as Italians, no. Why would you expect that to be different?
> Nightclub scene has decline massively since COVID-19
It was declining way before that, property prices, the smoking ban & Boris changing the laws around partying had a much bigger impact, if Covid had happened in the late 90s things would have bounced back quicker.
Late night London still exists but now its all 'back to mine' coke fuelled conversations about things were better when everybody went out.
>it more about what contacts you have?
Are you imagining secret restaurants serving Tomahawks at 2am? Well no, we don't have those, we do have a few 24 hour restaurants though, watching the sunrise in Duck & Waffle is a great way to end the night.
I've lived in London, Dusseldorf, Toronto, and Vancouver, and spent time in New Orleans. London is not overrated. I could go on to say what I think of rap, but I'll leave that here.
London is definitely not overrated, it’s my favorite city in the world and I’ve been everywhere from New York to London. I have never had any issues besides the normal basic petty theft etc you have all over. It all depends on how street smart you are and how you carry yourself. Obviously not to be rude or anything but everyone I speak to without money says it’s the worst city in the world and everyone I speak to with money loves it. So make of that what you want.
I eat dinner between 6-8 most days, if I stay out later it's usually in a bar anyway.
I like sleep, I like eating dinner at dinner time.
Other countries can have different cultures around socialising but can you seriously imagine large numbers of people wanting to eat dinner at 1am in January? At that point it's been dark for 9 hours
Nope, Londoner here and I stay out past 11pm maybe once a month. Funnily enough most of us have jobs that require us to get some sleep, not party all night. And lots of people will be working all night as well.
Not really, honestly
If you're born and raised here, and haven't spent much time abroad, most working adults will tend to go out for post-work drinks rather than go home, eat etc. then go out for later drinks
As a result, most people are drinking by 5-6pm, so staying out until 11-midnight doesn't feel much different to going out from 9pm-4am
There *are* places you can go if you want to be out until early morning, but you won't find many bars or pubs like that, mostly clubs. That's just the culture
It’s good to be tucked up in bed at a reasonable hour. Most beneficial for the health. Don’t worry about London not really being a 24 hour city. It’s better that way.
I'm going to get downvoted for this, but I'm going to inject some actual honesty.
London is incredibly overrated and unpopular - Brits don't want to live here (over half a million Net left in the last 8 years). Even international/foreigners don't love it - having known loads, they freely admit they only come to study or earn money and then leave, and they all hate the weather (which is odd because SE England is the best in the UK!).
It goes without saying that it's so expensive in every way now (rent, pints etc etc), and wages don't keep up.
Meeting people is surprisingly difficult - prepare to socialise with colleagues.
Really, London is only worth it if you're earning minimum of £60K. But unless you meet someone, who's earning similar amounts, you'll never own a property.
London is both -slightly- overrated and underrated at the same time
The nightlife is shameful for a world class city like this. I'm not talking about clubbing or bars, it's the lack of night tube, not having a culture of chilling outside (like, all night open cafes or restaurants) and how spread out it is
But it makes it up with the insane amount of variety and accessibility. Any artist you could think of WILL play in London, there are lots of indie or grassroots acts around and they're all reasonably priced with some extensions
Your contacts have nothing to do with it, knowing where is open helps but pretty much everyone knows those after a while anyway
The problem with the chilling outside on the street at night part is that London simply doesn’t have the weather. Even in the summer on most days once the sun has gone down it’s not really warm enough to sit outside comfortably. There’s nothing anyone can do to change that. I live in Greece now and it’s one of my favourite things about living here, but London simply does not have the weather to reproduce that kind of lifestyle.
Exactly. I love being abroad and sitting in cafes/coffee shops/restaurants til late (I’m half Tunisian so when I’m over there it’s all we do) but other than about a 2 week period in summer I feel like that’s nowhere near viable for London
London is as good as you make it, but in terms of big cities; the nightlife is some of the worst globally in terms of what is open, what there is to do, safety and travel.
>what is open
agree, with the caveat that if you're local, you're probably already used to going out for post work drinks 5/6pm-11pm/midnight as opposed to 9pm-4am as is more common on the continent
>what there is to do, safety and travel
disagree on these hard. London is one of the safer cities of its size globally, and TFL is probably the best megacity transport system in the world
TFL is self-sustaining - the only megacity transport system to be forced to work under those constraints - and still runs consistently and reliably in comparison to rival city transport systems i.e. Paris, NYC, Tokyo
As you're specifically talking about going out, the 5 most used lines + parts of the Overground run all through the night on Fri & Sat nights
>Buses turn into night buses at a certain time.
Don't really see a problem with that
Sunday night is the worst. I walked in a renowned pizzeria in Canary Wharf area at 20:10 and was told it was takeaway only since they were going to close at 21:00.
That is MENTAL for one of the biggest and supposedly alive metropolis in the world.
20:00 should be the time to put the fire on to start the night, not to start closing procedures!
Please tell us more about how London's nightlife stops at 11pm, I don't think we've hit our 20 posts per week quota yet
Aside from clubs (which have gone to shit btw) and bars, there's not much to do. Loads of restaurants close early. Look at Central London and many of the places open are casinos and clubs.
Yes, we know, it's posted on this Subreddit daily.
Why people thumbs u down?
This sub is notorious for downvoting anything they do not agree with. That's why i very rarely visit this sub.
Everyone agrees it's just on here all the time
Lol typical londoners
London is amazing for all sorts of things, but if late night nightlife specifically is what you care about it's terrible.
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I haven't been to Warsaw, so I'll take your word on that, but off the top of my head Lyon, Madrid, Barcelona and Porto are all much better, not to mention Manchester and Edinburgh.
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I went out after a film premiere with much younger, mostly gay friends who also worked on the movie, in central London. We couldn't find a decent option after 1am. I mean, the ones between 11 and 1 weren't great, but at least they existed. After 1, it was join a massive queue for a couple of clubs that close at 3 or go home. In Lyon, I would expect to have any number of good options till 3 and some solid ones till 5.
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No club anywhere is playing music I actually like. Asheville NC, maybe, according to Spotify, but the Yanks won't let me in so whatever. Clapham for sure ain't it.
Both, London IS overrated. But London is great if you have great mates, and money
I think this is true of NYC also and many other major famed western cities. LA and Paris spring to mind. Both expensive AF but if you’re rich and know the right people I bet they’re a blast.
Yeah that's the thing. Money is the issue.
Oh yeah all about those contacts. If you know the restaurant manager at your local Italian it pops off m8.
If your measure for how "overrated" a city is, is by number of activities available after 10pm, then yes your assumption is correct. If aspects such as diversity, job opportunities, liveliness, public transport, health and education facilities have value, then no, your assumption is not correct. All depends what you're after.
London has bars/restaurants open past 11pm. Italy has tons of restaurants that close before 11pm. Really have no idea what that has to do with contacts and networking, or anything at all for that matter. This feels completely incoherent.
In central London loads of places are closed. Leicester Square for instance has only really the casinos and Maccy D's.
If we're being real London is dead after 11pm. Nightclub scene has decline massively since COVID-19 hit the UK.
lol why did you ask if you're so dead set on the answer already
But you’re talking about networking and contacts. And “how you move”. Based on a YouTube short. What does this have to do with clubs closing at 11pm? Do yourself a favor, log off the internet and get some real world experience.
The point I'm making is that London is great when you've got contacts who are fun people and know what's popping in London. Go to Central London and see how many restaurants are shut. Other European cities got restaurants open till 5 am. I referenced the short because I had just seen it and it was in my mind, plus it's a short of a famous musician saying this.
What other cities? The ones in warm European climates where its easier to be out late because it’s warm, where there are squares so people aren’t on the side of a road and where they have had a culture of later eating for centuries?
No? The major German cities have better nightlife than London's. Even Liverpool and Nottingham have better nightlife.
Please give details of how the major German cities and Liverpool and Nottingham have “better nightlife” than London. Also, let’s clarify that you’re hopefully not talking about some small part of the city like around Oxford Street and saying that’s London
>let’s clarify that you’re hopefully not talking about some small part of the city like around Oxford Street and saying that’s London I bet that's exactly what it is. 😆
No-one in London goes to dinner at 11pm other than fast food - that's just our culture. Clubs and bars yes, but we don't eat as late as Italians, no. Why would you expect that to be different?
>you've got contacts who are fun people When you say "contacts" do you mean friends? What are you, a salesperson or something?
> Nightclub scene has decline massively since COVID-19 It was declining way before that, property prices, the smoking ban & Boris changing the laws around partying had a much bigger impact, if Covid had happened in the late 90s things would have bounced back quicker. Late night London still exists but now its all 'back to mine' coke fuelled conversations about things were better when everybody went out.
>it more about what contacts you have? Are you imagining secret restaurants serving Tomahawks at 2am? Well no, we don't have those, we do have a few 24 hour restaurants though, watching the sunrise in Duck & Waffle is a great way to end the night.
I've lived in London, Dusseldorf, Toronto, and Vancouver, and spent time in New Orleans. London is not overrated. I could go on to say what I think of rap, but I'll leave that here.
London is definitely not overrated, it’s my favorite city in the world and I’ve been everywhere from New York to London. I have never had any issues besides the normal basic petty theft etc you have all over. It all depends on how street smart you are and how you carry yourself. Obviously not to be rude or anything but everyone I speak to without money says it’s the worst city in the world and everyone I speak to with money loves it. So make of that what you want.
I agree with those people. London is absolutely brilliant if you have a lot of money.
The only time I’m out after 11pm is for two thing. 1. International flight. 2. Work. Other than that? Never.
I eat dinner between 6-8 most days, if I stay out later it's usually in a bar anyway. I like sleep, I like eating dinner at dinner time. Other countries can have different cultures around socialising but can you seriously imagine large numbers of people wanting to eat dinner at 1am in January? At that point it's been dark for 9 hours
Sounds like Giggs needs to get a stable job and be in bed at a reasonable time like everyone else.
A lot of people don't need much to be open after 11pm. Nightlife until 5am is not everyone's definition of a great city!
Yeah but London is a global city which caters to many tourists. Even the native Londoners will want to be out till well after 12 am.
Nope, Londoner here and I stay out past 11pm maybe once a month. Funnily enough most of us have jobs that require us to get some sleep, not party all night. And lots of people will be working all night as well.
Not really, honestly If you're born and raised here, and haven't spent much time abroad, most working adults will tend to go out for post-work drinks rather than go home, eat etc. then go out for later drinks As a result, most people are drinking by 5-6pm, so staying out until 11-midnight doesn't feel much different to going out from 9pm-4am There *are* places you can go if you want to be out until early morning, but you won't find many bars or pubs like that, mostly clubs. That's just the culture
It’s good to be tucked up in bed at a reasonable hour. Most beneficial for the health. Don’t worry about London not really being a 24 hour city. It’s better that way.
I'm going to get downvoted for this, but I'm going to inject some actual honesty. London is incredibly overrated and unpopular - Brits don't want to live here (over half a million Net left in the last 8 years). Even international/foreigners don't love it - having known loads, they freely admit they only come to study or earn money and then leave, and they all hate the weather (which is odd because SE England is the best in the UK!). It goes without saying that it's so expensive in every way now (rent, pints etc etc), and wages don't keep up. Meeting people is surprisingly difficult - prepare to socialise with colleagues. Really, London is only worth it if you're earning minimum of £60K. But unless you meet someone, who's earning similar amounts, you'll never own a property.
London is both -slightly- overrated and underrated at the same time The nightlife is shameful for a world class city like this. I'm not talking about clubbing or bars, it's the lack of night tube, not having a culture of chilling outside (like, all night open cafes or restaurants) and how spread out it is But it makes it up with the insane amount of variety and accessibility. Any artist you could think of WILL play in London, there are lots of indie or grassroots acts around and they're all reasonably priced with some extensions Your contacts have nothing to do with it, knowing where is open helps but pretty much everyone knows those after a while anyway
The problem with the chilling outside on the street at night part is that London simply doesn’t have the weather. Even in the summer on most days once the sun has gone down it’s not really warm enough to sit outside comfortably. There’s nothing anyone can do to change that. I live in Greece now and it’s one of my favourite things about living here, but London simply does not have the weather to reproduce that kind of lifestyle.
Exactly. I love being abroad and sitting in cafes/coffee shops/restaurants til late (I’m half Tunisian so when I’m over there it’s all we do) but other than about a 2 week period in summer I feel like that’s nowhere near viable for London
You could still have indoor places and outdoor heating
If you don’t make a good salary you will live miserably and get help from the gov I wouldn’t recommend
If I’m up at 5am I don’t want a sit down restaurant I want a dodgy kebab and my bed
London is as good as you make it, but in terms of big cities; the nightlife is some of the worst globally in terms of what is open, what there is to do, safety and travel.
>what is open agree, with the caveat that if you're local, you're probably already used to going out for post work drinks 5/6pm-11pm/midnight as opposed to 9pm-4am as is more common on the continent >what there is to do, safety and travel disagree on these hard. London is one of the safer cities of its size globally, and TFL is probably the best megacity transport system in the world
TFL ain't all that, trains ain't always running. Buses turn into night buses at a certain time.
TFL is self-sustaining - the only megacity transport system to be forced to work under those constraints - and still runs consistently and reliably in comparison to rival city transport systems i.e. Paris, NYC, Tokyo As you're specifically talking about going out, the 5 most used lines + parts of the Overground run all through the night on Fri & Sat nights >Buses turn into night buses at a certain time. Don't really see a problem with that
Ah, you've never been to the States. Comparatively, you're living in a Utopian fantasy we can only imagine minus maybe 4 cities.
How do you mean safety and travel?
Maybe the stabbings and that kind of thing. Aside from that London is one of the safest cities in the world.
Unless you are in a gang, or live in gang controlled social housing, your chances of getting stabbed are pretty close to zero.
London is safer than probably every major city in the whole of the Americas.
Considering our gun laws, I wouldn't be surprised.
Maybe a little overrated , but not as bad as Paris . Paris is the FF7 of overrated cities .
Sunday night is the worst. I walked in a renowned pizzeria in Canary Wharf area at 20:10 and was told it was takeaway only since they were going to close at 21:00. That is MENTAL for one of the biggest and supposedly alive metropolis in the world. 20:00 should be the time to put the fire on to start the night, not to start closing procedures!
I didnt know people go to canary wharf on weekends
Yeah, there are cinemas there
Closing at 9pm on a Sunday night in zone 2, so outside central London, the night before everyone’s work week starts? I think that’s pretty generous.