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By the way I’d define hyper-central quite narrowly, and place KX, Farringdon, Clerkenwell, Marylebone, Pimlico and the square mile outside it. Those are merely “central”

The actual City of London not in hyper-central London? Yes, if you take the point of view of the tourist. The places they might ideally want to stay and search on booking.com, before accepting they’ll need to be a small tube journey from the sites. Those extend only over a rectangle from roughly Marble Arch to Westminster Abbey to Covent Garden to Russell Square.

I think "hyper-central London" could be described as rectangle that contained Park Lane on its Westerly side, and Gower Street on its Easterly, with the Northern edge being Euston Road / Marylebone Road, and the Southern edge being The Mall / The Strand.

Anyone who disagrees with me is wrong.

I think your hyper central London is too far north and west. In reality there is nothing of interest north of Oxford Street except the place that is excluded by your placement of the easterly boundary - namely the British Museum. I think hyper central London should have Oxford Street as its northern boundary, with a northern redoubt taking in Bloomsbury and the British Museum. The eastern boundary is Southampton Row and Kingsway, to take in theatre land. I would extend it over Waterloo Bridge and along the South Bank as far as Tate Modern to the east (or at least the National Theatre) and Westminster Bridge to the west, then along Birdcage Walk to Victoria and then up to Park Lane. Hyper central London needs to include the Palace of Westminster, the British Museum and the London Eye.

Wait.

People like this comment?

There is no way Bloomsbury is Central London, while Marylebone and Fitzrovia are not. Bloombsbury is a desolate wasteland compared to those two places.

There is nothing in Marylebone. It's just houses for rich people. Fitzrovia has a couple of okay pubs, that's it.

Man, I must have imagined Baker Street and Marylebone High Street, both of which are 100x busier than Theobalds Road or Holborn.

If busier is the criterion for "hyper London" then what about the Mile End Road.

Hyper central London is defined as, overall, the most desirable place to live. Doesn't count if you have a lovely townhouse on Borough High Street.

BBC News - Scottish wingsuit flyer dies during Swiss Alps jump
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyepy2zz11o

Always feels like an activity that is a when not if.

Compared to base jumping and cave diving, it's actually pretty safe.

I am happy to give those two a miss as well....

A few years ago, being in the insurance business, I came across some stats on "death or serious injury per 1,000 incidences".

The things I took out of this were:

(1) My children will never be allowed to own motorcycles
(2) Skydiving is surprisingly safe
(3) Cave diving and base jumping are 10x more dangerous than wing suit flying, which is 100x more dangerous than a regular parachute jump
(4) Don't ever let your kids get into free climbing

Scuba diving is surprisingly dangerous. More fatalities than almost any sport I believe

It is.

Horse riding also has a surprisingly large number of serious injuries.

I don't find the latter surprising at all. You are racing along at speeds in excess of 30mph on a beast without brakes or a steering wheel. What do you think is going to happen?

I meet some pretty but vacuous girl?

BBC News - Scottish wingsuit flyer dies during Swiss Alps jump
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyepy2zz11o

Always feels like an activity that is a when not if.

Compared to base jumping and cave diving, it's actually pretty safe.

I am happy to give those two a miss as well....

A few years ago, being in the insurance business, I came across some stats on "death or serious injury per 1,000 incidences".

The things I took out of this were:

(1) My children will never be allowed to own motorcycles
(2) Skydiving is surprisingly safe
(3) Cave diving and base jumping are 10x more dangerous than wing suit flying, which is 100x more dangerous than a regular parachute jump
(4) Don't ever let your kids get into free climbing

At Stoke Mandeville Spinal Injuries Unit top 3 customers are:

1. Motorcycles
2. Horses
3. Swimming pools/shallow beaches.

BBC News - Scottish wingsuit flyer dies during Swiss Alps jump
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyepy2zz11o

Always feels like an activity that is a when not if.

Compared to base jumping and cave diving, it's actually pretty safe.

I am happy to give those two a miss as well....

A few years ago, being in the insurance business, I came across some stats on "death or serious injury per 1,000 incidences".

The things I took out of this were:

(1) My children will never be allowed to own motorcycles
(2) Skydiving is surprisingly safe
(3) Cave diving and base jumping are 10x more dangerous than wing suit flying, which is 100x more dangerous than a regular parachute jump
(4) Don't ever let your kids get into free climbing

Scuba diving is surprisingly dangerous. More fatalities than almost any sport I believe

It is.

Horse riding also has a surprisingly large number of serious injuries.

I don't find the latter surprising at all. You are racing along at speeds in excess of 30mph, several feet in the air with no safety belt on a beast without brakes or a steering wheel. What do you think is going to happen?

London might be paradise to you southern softies, but get out of your bubble and head up the M1 and you'll find a different world.
Loughborough. Got the university and not much else . Any bit of land/ empty building finds itself turned into student accommodation or bulldozed for student accommodation.
The Carillion Shopping Centre has been the focal point of the Town Centre as long as I can remember. It's currently empty, shops having had all their tenancies terminated so the owners can knock it down and build an eight floor student accommodation block, right slap bang in the middle of the town. There's a planning wrangle currently going on.
The massive Cineworld has closed and the restaurants and bars that were destined to open in the adjoining development never really happened- fully half the units have been empty since it was completed. Very few shops survive in the town longer than 6 months, unless it's fast food, Turkish barber or nail bar. Even the charity shops are moving out.
We have no idea what a museum or art gallery is. Still, the empty shops do give the homeless some doorways to sleep in.

Tell me about it. Somebody took the little city I grew up in and loved and replaced it with a sweaty turd. Norwich is dying on its arse. There's no Thursday night late shopping anymore, the two shopping centres are deserted and full of nonsense shops and phone screen repair shacks. The nightlife is non existent or violent.
There's a big Primark and last year a massive Poundland opened. Grim. The last remaining treasures- the market and the lanes will no doubt get flattened soon enough.

Based on that I wonder how much correlation there is between "prefer/hate internet shopping" and "my area is getting better/worse to live".

I suspect that the evisceration of local government over the last half century has rather more to do with the decline of provincial towns and cities.

To national government, they're essentially invisible outside of a couple of weeks round the general election.
And 90% of what financial resources they do have is spent on things mandated by Whitehall.

@haynesdeborah
Has the UK ever seemed so irrelevant in an international crisis? Genuine question...
The government isn't even able to say publicly if it is for or against the US strikes on Iran Defence minister @LukePollard dodged the question despite being asked 4 times by @WilfredFrost

Q: Is our government pleased or disappointed that the US took this action (to attack Iran)?
A: It is not for me to comment on the particular US action

There's no shame in a small nation with little geopolitical power being irrelevant in an international crisis. The usual boring criticism is that the UK hasn't adjusted to its irrelevance on the world stage. Interesting to find this time it is a commentator who hasn't adjusted to the change.

I agree and disagree. It's one thing to acknowledge that our foreign policy makes very little difference. It is quite another to ban ourselves from having one.