Taking a pounding

London isn't as safe or as luxe as it used to be. Top restaurants are feeling the pinch. But a few places, old and new, are thriving. It's time for a new definition of Posh Spice

- VIR SANGHVI

Almost everyone you speak to will tell you that the London of today is not the same as the London of ten years ago.

What that means depends mostly on who it is you are speaking to.

If you speak to what might be described as the global rich, then most of them are in the process of leaving the city. They moved to London only because it was a nice place to live and the British government offered them great deals on income tax under what was known as the Non Doms scheme. Those tax rules have changed, and the rich would rather make their homes elsewhere.

I don’t think they are a great loss. There is no particular pride in being known as a city that welcomes oligarchs and Eurotrash, and London is better off without them. But a subculture of expensive restaurants and fancy shops had developed around the expat rich, and nearly all of these places are in trouble.

More worrying is the rise in crime. Everyone has heard stories about people being mugged in the heart of Mayfair, been warned not to wear expensive watches or jewellery, and to watch out for phone snatchers. But now, the criminals are even more brazen. This time, I heard about a top restaurant, where a man with a backpack and a knife walked in and calmly put some of the restaurant’s most expensive wines into his bag before wandering off. The restaurant called the police; they took a week to respond.