A rule that dates back to 1937 stipulates that the Cathedral of Sant Pau must be seen without obstacles from a dozen different points in the city. For property speculators, it is the best example of the damaging effect of over-regulation, preventing even more skyscrapers from being built in the City of London (even though many are half-empty since the pandemic, with the ‘ advancement of the WFH culture, work from home).
At the start of Sadiq Khan’s third term as mayor, the English capital has lost the effervescence that culminated in the 2012 Games, has become a kind of museum city and has become more serious (a bit like Barcelona), more interested in combating pollution and neighborhood noise than in stimulating nightlife (since 2020 they have closed three thousand pubs and restaurants, and one in four clubs). The price of food and taxis mean that many Londoners who used to go out now choose to stay at home and watch TV.
It has been said of London that it is not England (as Manhattan is not the United States or Paris is not France), that it is the only “global city” in the United Kingdom, or even that it is not a metropolis but a nation in itself With nine million inhabitants (almost half non-white), every language on the planet is spoken, it contributes 28% of the country’s total production and generates 18.5% of employment, with a great gravitational force .
But post-Brexit London is poorer and more dynamic than pre-Brexit. It generates 40,000 million euros less annually than before the exit from the single market. Numerous banking institutions and investment funds have moved to Amsterdam or New York, annual growth is a meager 0.2% (compared to 0.9% in Paris), many Europeans have packed their bags, money of the Russian oligarchs and their entourage have evaporated (Londongrad has moved on to a better life) and foreign investment has decreased. The lack of housing has made the cost enormous, there is more inequality and poverty, and almost 5,000 homeless people sleep on the streets. Crime, firearm and knife crime, burglaries and home invasions have increased with cuts to police forces. Families with children are exiled to the quieter suburbs.
Cultural and identity wars leave their mark, such as the changing of the names of streets and neighborhoods linked to colonialism, the weekly demonstrations denouncing the Gaza drama, or the cross accusations of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. Young people are angry with the rest of the country because they have cut the umbilical cord that connected them to Europe, but it remains inclusive, tolerant, diverse and open. The Trumpist right considers it, however, a new Sodom.
In power since 2016, Mayor Khan’s great desire has been to improve air quality, imposing a controversial toll of fifteen euros per day on old and more polluting vehicles, for which the City Council pays 150 million euros to the ‘year. He has created bike lanes, put electric buses and taxis into circulation, and promises that in ten years he will be swimming in the Thames.
That London is not what it was a decade ago, when it competed with New York to be the capital of the world, is evident in Oxford Street, full of ghost buildings, the skeletons of department stores. It’s a decline, but to a certain extent, because few cities in the world have the trump card of being a financial, artistic, technological and governmental center, with the added wildcard of the fact that English is spoken there.
