Sold on London? Not So Fast -- New York Magazine

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Sold on London? Not So Fast.

Emily Bobrow polls her friends and colleagues on lovely old clichés about London that are no longer true, if they ever were.

People wear tweed: Fashion in London is either aggressively contemporary (asymmetrical hair, $250 denim) or super-uptight (posh suits, cuff links, square-toe Euro shoes).

The kiddies can recite Shakespeare: London has its own elementary-education woes.

The tastes are more sophisticated: Ugh. A walk down any “High Street” will prove otherwise.

All those cute red double-deckers and phone booths: The old Routemaster bus has mostly been retired (there are still double-decker buses, but not the old kind with a perch in back that riders can hop on and off from). Transit officials prefer superlong “Bendy Buses,” and phone booths are lined with postcards advertising sex services.

The police go unarmed: In fact, it’s now common to see cops carrying assault rifles.

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