The Royal Cost of London Life
Each day, thousands of Londoners shuffle through the Underground on their route to and from work, hoping that their hustle and bustle will be worth enough to pay their monthly rent. In the center of the city sits a gleaming, gilded palace containing 775 rooms. Buckingham Palace, a defining feature of London’s landscape, is just one of three royal residences in England the monarchy chooses to call home. The juxtaposition of these two existences is one of the most interesting topics that I continue to encounter during my time in London.
A common joke in London is that just taking a breath costs a pound in this city. However, the problem with London’s obscene cost of living is very real. It has become nearly impossible to reside here without living paycheck to paycheck. Even folks who have lived here for decades are being pushed out of the city due to rising costs of rent. The average monthly rent was £2,500 back in April of 2023, and only continues to rise, according to The Guardian.
While the nearly insurmountable cost of living only continues to rise, the opulent, cosmopolitan image of the city stays within its architecture and monuments. Hundreds are experiencing homelessness along the grand high streets that define London. A station close to my student housing accommodation, Great Portland Street, is perpetually lined with damp tents and blankets. Walking by the wall of this station for the past three months, this collection of makeshift shelter and warmth has grown further and further down the wall each time. Where the mossy greenery on London's architectural triumphs spreads its fingers, this array of livelihoods on the streets stretches below it.
Studying abroad was an immensely expensive venture that I saved many paychecks to fund. Affording the rent for the student accommodation alone was seemingly impossible, not including affording daily living costs. Living here permanently is unimaginable to me and is becoming an impossible dream for many residents, even those who called London home for generations.
Even still, the Royal Family lives comfortably in their palaces, which are scattered throughout and around the London area. The British monarchy’s long and complex history expands all over the globe. The institution served, and still serves, as a constitutional monarchy for hundreds of years, and the utility of its existence is becoming less and less clear.
Today, the monarchy remains for ceremonial purposes and to serve as a figurehead for Britain. This perpetuity of the monarchy into today is puzzling and frustrating, especially for those who can barely afford to keep their lives in the city. Because of this, the idea of abolishing the institution entirely has been floating around Britain and, as of April 2023, support for the royal family is at a “historic low”. Similar to many issues within the United States, there appears to be a generational divide between those who support conserving the monarchy versus those who support abolishing it. Many young Britons fail to see the logic behind retaining such an institution, whereas many older folks can’t imagine a world without it.
However, before abolishing such an institution, many argue that reparations must be made for the immense damage it has caused. The monarchy has been found to have had several links to the global trade of enslaved peoples, an action of which the repercussions can never be fully repaired. The continuation of the monarchy into 2024 only emphasizes the power this institution retains to enact reparative measures of some kind. This past September, several Caribbean nations joined forces to draft a formal letter requesting reparations from the newly crowned King Charles III. As of January 2024, no such reparations have been made.
The cultural identity of London, and Great Britain in its entirety, was very much shaped by the existence of the monarchy. It is clear that the institutional foundations that built what we know as Great Britain are still holding on today. Britain is not alone in this, as the U.S. also continues to cling to ancient artifacts from our much shorter past. Although we may not have a royal family, we certainly hold onto legislation that protects generational wealth and the accumulation of immense amounts of capital. And, much like the streets of London, the streets of most major U.S. cities are crowded with people struggling to survive. Projecting an image of wealth and opulence is much more attractive than facing the reality of a growing cost of living crisis.