Is London a Dump, Or a beautiful City ?

Additional DetailsI live in London. I just want to see if i could get the over all look of what people thought of this City...

Martyn A	It used to be a beautiful city but has now turned into a dump along with the rest of the country.
Toni R	Ive never been to London, but its at the top of my list of places to visit.... i would like to think its a beautiful city
grasshopper	Smurf, it can be either, depending on your outlook !! If you fall over and get trodden on by 1000s of people,,yes, you would say its a dump But if you are into arts and night life, yes it would be beautiful. For me, I would prefer not to go anywhere near it !!
champagne	Its a beautiful city..Apart from the parts which are a dump.
CLIVE H	London is one of two world class beautiful cities. The other is our sister city of New York. No city, including London, is ever that easy to live in. However, London has a great deal to offer and people can live at any level they choose. The main purpose of a city like London is entertainment and business - yes, in that order. When my wife and me come out of Charing Cross station on an evening out, we know that the whole world is waiting to serve our needs. The restaurants and theatre-land is but a short walk away. Covent Garden and the West End are alive with light and people - all enjoying themselves. When we go to Oxford Street to do some shopping, the entire world and his dog pass us by. It is the world's greatest shopping street and is nearly 2000 years old - a Roman Road in fact. There are parts of London which are run down and rough around the edges. Things can only get better.
sparman20	One m ans dump is another mans heaven ,you decide!
Avondrow	It'll be a great place when it's finished!
Weatherman	Like all cities it's both There are some great areas, mainly in central london, and there are come complete dumps. All in all I rate it, in a way that AMericans should be able to relate to, well above New York, but behind Washington DC However, compare them to somewhere like Prague and almost all cities inthe world are dumps.
Howard O	I agree with the many people who say it's both.. it depends on where you are exactly. For instance, this weekend i was in Regents Park and took some really beautiful photographs, there's no way you could say it was a dump - no way on earth. However, i have had the misfortune of walking thru some not very nice areas of town, which can, quite honestly, be called dumps. I think if you just take central London you can get away with saying it's a beautiful city with its architecture (old and new) and green spaces. Take London as whole - particularly outside zone 1, and its a different story.
Jenny	Beautiful if you are the Queen and live in S.W.1 Dump if you are me and live in S.W.2
Alyosha	love it! it's so full of energy, its life is visible out on the streets, there are many versions of life being lived, and it goes on forever - I lived there for many years and never ran out of places to explore, new things to see and do. I would say very few other cities, (Paris and NY included), have this "endless" character For example, I live in Lisbon, which for a couple of centuries was considered to be one of the world's great cities. I would say London has about 20 different cities like Lisbon in it. Obviously if you're paying 200 quid a week to live in a shared flat that's falling apart and have to come in on the tube for an hour every day from Balham, your view might be different from mine ( I lived in Kentish Town and walked 15 minutes every day to work in Camden).
mina_lumina	Depends on which part your talking about... No matter where you are, if you keep looking up, it will always be beautiful...
Sally M	It's both! How can you not love it?
BIG D	Like the curate's egg - it is good in parts. As indeed is any city. My home for over 60 years and so much a part of my life that I cannot imagine life without it.. But such views must always be subjective. And the reflective nature of your question leaves me wondering..........have you visited?
jemima	What are you comparing London with. Maybe if you come from a pristine area, then you may view it that way. However, London is an extremely old city, and very compact, so don't expect newness. some areas are decrepid, but this is the wonder of the place. Look at Stone-Henge, it was hardly built yesterday. The reason tourists flock to the UK and Europe is the fact that treasures are still standing after centuries. Don't make comparisions with your own hometown, enjoy the difference.
Jock	Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. It's to big & nobody seems to have time for one another. Everybody is in a hurry all the time.
mimi.2592	its beautiful hw cn u not luv it
Kevan M	Depends what you class as London and a dump. For Myself it is a dump, but I live in the country. For an Urban city dweller it could be Heaven and My neck of the woods would be a dump. Also London is a very big area made up of smaller towns and districts all rolled into the Urban sprawl, as I have not seen all of it it is hard to judge fully, some places are nice, green parks and streets wide and sunny, towards the East End and the close suburbs, dark, smelly, dirty, with the occasional Oasis of green. So it is in the eye of the beholder and who lives there
MynameisShirl	Good Morning :) ... Well Manchester is a dump at times but i still LOVE it , It's my home and the home of the bestest football team in the world ! :) HeHE
Gerbil	Generally it's a dump. It has the occasional oasis of beauty, such as Regent's Park, but most of it is a shithole, exacerbated by 95% of the people. Make the most of this answer, whenever I answer a question about London unfavourably it gets deleted.
busterdomino	I agree with the Doctor Johnson statement, that if you are tired of London, you are tired of life. It does continually surprise with places like Lincolns Inn and the like. However, as a tourist place, I find it like a painted W**** who promises you every thing, charges you a lot and gives you nothing. It is such bad value for money.