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Movies that portray a ridiculously unrealistic London.
Notting Hill is the obvious one for me. That market scene and the travel bookshop feel like they exist in a London where nobody gets wet or has to deal with a packed tube at 5pm. Also, a lot of the Guy Ritchie crime films make the East End look like a theme park version of itself with too much cobblestone and not enough Greggs
The V for Vendetta version of London is a wild one. They turned Westminster into a police state but kept the tube stations looking exactly the same, which is funny. Also the way they show the Old Bailey in that film is pure fantasy, like it's some ancient gothic fortress instead of a working court. The whole thing feels like someone who visited London once and then described it to a set designer from memory.
That "Museum of Great Britain" in Black Panther is a prime example. Also, a lot of the Bond films, especially the earlier ones, have this weirdly generic, almost stage-set London feel to them. It's like they built a London on a soundstage somewhere, rather than actually filming in the real city. Think of those iconic shots of London landmarks...often they just look...off. Slightly too clean, too perfect, somehow.
What are some innovative ways to anonymously compare rental prices in a city?
SpareRoom's "rooms wanted" ads are underrated for this. people post what they're currently paying alongside what they want next, so you can scrape a rough sense of going rates by postcode without anyone knowing you looked. it skews young and flatshare heavy tho, so not much use if you're after 2-beds in zone 2.
Another one is just the depozit or tenancy deposit scheme data. not public-facing, but your council's housing officer can tell you median rents from deposit registrations if you email them under FOI. takes weeks, but its proper anon and nobody clocks u.
Rightmove and Zoopla only show asking rents, which are often 10 to 15 percent above what a place actually goes for, so they're a poor benchmark. The trick I've used is the ONS Price Index of Private Rents, which breaks things down to borough level and is genuinely anonymous since it's aggregate data, no listing or account needed. For something more granular, the London Renters Union runs a rent reporting tool where you submit what you're paying with your postcode and it maps it against others nearby, though the coverage is patchy outside the inner boroughs.
the openrent "rent check" thing is decent for zones 3-4 where the unions tool barely reaches. also worth checking the london.gov.uk planning portal for new build applications, they list "affordable" and market rent figures per unit in the viability assessments, which is basically the developer telling the council what they expect to charge. bit of a faff to dig through but its public, anonymous & nobody knows ur looking
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