Anyone else think London, Ont is a hidden city?

[HEyHEY]

Look at it, it's a nice city. But you NEVER hear about it. And it's a big city too. Easily big enough to support a CFL team. It's a little hidden metro-area

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Well, I've never managed to find it.

[HEyHEY]

2. badoom cha!

[Philostopher]

3. We'll be spending a night there in about a week and a half.

Mr. Nownow and I are doing our annual vacation this year touring the Ontario wine route, starting in Windsor and working our way across to Niagara. London's a nice little place, home of the University of Western Ontario I believe. It's just big enough to have some decent restaurants and clubs, and there's some college bars and clubs (if you're young enough to want to do that kind of thing; we're not), but not so big it's intimidating. Makes a nice long weekend from Ohio, we go up there every couple of years. Anything longer than a weekend would probably be a little boring, though.

[Donovanf]

4. Great Town!!

Man is London a great town. I have a bunch of friends at UWO and I visit them from time to time. Great downtown, great people and great parties. I have some crazy stories from there. Anyone gone to Jim Bob's?

[iverglas]

5. I grew up there

and left when I was 16. London is about the most boring city on the face of the earth.

It is also (tied with some small town in Alberta, in the last census) the whitest/angloest town in Canada. The traditional home of Ontario tories like Robarts -- and undercover Ontario tories like David Peterson (who married Shelley Matthews, daughter of one of the biggest Ontario tories of 'em all, a developer and long-time president and bag-man of the provincial party).

It's got all the cultural and social advantages, for the upper classes, of a small city with a big university supported by all the local tory money -- business school, law school, med school, and the benefits of hospital affiliation with the med school; London historically has some of the best neurosurgeons in the world, e.g.

Academia turned its gaze to working-class history a while ago, and UWO has some interesting collections in that respect. There are several books about the part of town I'm from, "East of Adelaide". A few years back I went to a reunion of the class I went to for grades 5-8, an advanced class located at a school in London North, the home of old money. I had to take 3 buses to get to school ever day; over half the class walked to school. There was an amazing correlation between family income and IQ in that city ... . Anyhow, at the reunion, one of my old friends was trying to persuade one of our former classmates, who had just got one of those rich-people's divorces in Toronto and was looking to move back to London and buy a house, to look in "Old South" where she lived (she'd married new money), the part of town where my mother grew up that is now gentrified and trendy. Ms. X looked at her, dumbfounded, and said "but, but, I'm from North!"

The class divide is alive and well in London. But one of us here lives in London, and maybe she'll give you a more up-to-date view. ;)

[TrogL]

6. You can't see it - too damn many trees

They don't call it the Forest City for nothing.

I lived in a tenth floor apartment and looking out over the city all you could see was other tall buildings and trees. Apparently there's no houses or streets.

Of course that was in the 70's so Dutch Elm disease may have gotten a lot of them.

[Maple]

7. I grew up there

and lived there for ten years as an adult as well. Still have family there.

About 350,000 people, and lots of trees.

The most millionaires in Canada, and yes, that counts Calgary as well.

Great place!

Theatre, parks, malls....

On edit: Great Mexican, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese etc restaurants too!