LONDON THEN AND NOW…

In July 2014, I moved back to London after 22 years in Paris. I had already spent sometimes in London, first in the eighties when I was a student, then in the nineties as a professional. I had been dreaming of my return to this awesome city.  Life is always full of commitments which take you away from what you dream about.  I had therefore to wait and simply be happy with week-end breaks or short business trips to London…

My arrival at St Pancras on a bright, glorious day, was a good omen:  I was returning to the place I had always loved… and was looking forward to find out

how much it had changed. 22 years make a big difference and London in the nineties bears little comparison with London today.

At the beginning of the nineties, London was just renewing with optimism after the gloomy eighties which had witnessed many troubles and taken their toll on the great city. I remember that London was just starting to consider itself as a global, multicultural place even if it was not as cosmopolitan as it is today and expatriates were far less numerous.  As regards the aesthetics of London, I have kept mixed memories: beautiful, ancient, listed buildings facing modern, concrete, soul-destroying blocs.

22 years after, London has become a beautiful and dynamic city where nothing seems impossible, where energy is endlessly channelled in and out. Enriched with a continuously growing flow of expatriates from the entire world, London offers such a great heterogeneity. Thanks to the Eurostar – I had just arrived in England when the works started in 1988 – London has become so easy to reach for Europeans.

As for the visual changes, the great city has undergone - and is still undergoing - a vast refurbishment. Take Victoria Street, where I used to work in the nineties, for instance. This street which runs from Victoria Station to Broad Sanctuary at Westminster Abbey used to be a gloomy, dark place where people were just passing by… It has now become a futuristic place, made of tall, bright, glass towers with nice restaurants, cafes, shops and even a beautiful Victorian pub dating back to 1855,  and it is now an enjoyable area to walk around… a true illustration of what London has become…


Posted by Florence Tilkens. Florence is Social Media & Marketing Manager at FOCUS

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