[Dante Hicks]

I've seen various random violent incidents while living London, although I've not kept any kind of list. Nothing more severe than the odd beating (albeit people being beaten into a bloody mess). It's almost always alcohol fuelled nonsense though (oh how I giggle that E and weed are illegal when seeing someone's head being bashed into the ground outside a pub</henry>).

I've been near the scene of various shootings, etc - but usually hours afterwards - fortunately never witnessing it.

I think London is very safe overall, but I don't think it's particularly meaningful to talk about "toughest towns" - especially in large cities. Is someone who lives in Esher near Kingston-Upon-Thames living in the same urban space as someone in Hackney, Peckham, etc? Even on a single "bad" estate it's usually only 3-4 families on it are actually violent (if that).

And anyway, apparently the "worse" places to live these days are outside urban centres. Because police forces in the large conurbations can focus resources a lot better than in smaller towns. And if you're going to go do "crime", do you want to try and rob somewhere where even the off-licences and chicken shops have bullet proof glass, or do you want to go to some piss ant town where the bank security is an old bloke called Cyril?