Q&A: City caters to all
Last Updated: June 20, 2011
Why all the fuss about London? Isn't it just a gloomy place where the trains don't run and it rains all the time? The city is spending like crazy to prepare for next year's Olympic Games. This has led to the upgrading of many of the tube lines, although passengers continue to gripe. There is nothing the authorities can do about the weather.
Are the natives friendly? You will struggle to find a native. London is probably the most culturally diverse city in the world. According to newspaper reports, the Chinese are the latest nationality snapping up property. This should work wonders for house prices, not to mention making it easier to find a restaurant serving gobi Manchurian.
And the food? What do Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver all have in common? Yes, I know they're all irritating, but they live and cook in London. Everyone in Britain is a foodie these days, even the French.
Joseph Conrad, the Polish emigre who became a British merchant seaman and a master of English prose, called London "the biggest, and the greatest, town on Earth". That was at the beginning of the 20th century, when there were still sailing ships making their way up the Thames and it was the biggest port in the world.
London may no longer be the biggest city on the planet, but it may have a claim to still be one of the greatest on Earth, particularly in the summer months.
Paris by comparison is parochial, almost provincial, New York is stifling in the summer months and Tokyo has been rocked by the tsunami and growing fears of radiation from the nuclear meltdown.
London though, when the sun shines and the wind shakes the leaves of the plane trees, is a marvellous place to be.
Hardly surprising that so many people from the Gulf choose to spend the summer in Hyde Park or as close to it as they can afford.
It is the combination of good restaurants, art galleries, shops and sporting events that make London so great. According to a leading Abu Dhabi banker of my acquaintance, it is also these factors that make trying to hire a London-based banker so difficult.
"It is very hard to get them to leave London and come to Abu Dhabi," he says. "Their wives refuse to come with them."
This week the place to be seen and do business is Wimbledon, home of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, where the leading players will be battling to lift the coveted trophy.
No other tournament so cleverly blends business and sport. It is probably too late if you don't already have a ticket. Your best bet is to sweet talk an HSBC banker, for the bank provides one of the best corporate hospitality tents.
After the tennis there is horse racing from Goodwood - just a short train ride away in Sussex - and cricket at Lord's between England and India.
Top 5: Hotels in London
1 The Dorchester
1 Claridge's
1 The Berkeley
1 The Connaught
1 The Ritz
Somehow people find time to work in the City as well, although many of them will be glued to their televisions and betting on the results rather than keeping an eye on Dubai debt yields.
The Quote: You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford. Samuel Johnson
