I hesitate to post a reply to you last post Stitches as I think your mind is made up and you have forgotten how things were in the 40's and 50's.
Mini skirts were in in the 50's and 60's along with stilettos also the net petticoats making climbing bus stairs near to impossible. Every generation has it's styles and if you don't like seeing their boobs don't look.
I have never been a drinker or smoker but I can remember most of the guys going to the pub every night and getting drunk and throwing up, were they happy. They went back the next night.
I'm not sure what you mean about the UK going like the States but I'm sure NAS would be able to comment on whatever you mean since she lives there.
Please read what I wrote, I said it is difficult to have a 'community spirit' in a large city not that you can't.
Toronto is a perfect example of how it can be done. Each area has it's own carnivals, street parties with foods from all the nationalities that live there and it is open to anyone.
Famous for it's community spirit is the Beaches this is just one of the things happening this summer right down town.
https://www.beachesjazz.com/
How does it happen, with a positive attitude and all the cultures working together. It can happen in England and does in some areas.
Your overall point was regarding the city being the leaders in the world for workers. Where were you? My nan worked in a factory doing chromium plating. She had a heart condition and ulcerated legs from being on her feet for many hours each day in filthy conditions. Today the western world attacks China for it's working conditions which are probably no worse if as bad as my nan worked in. The Jewelery Quarter was another perfect example of bad working conditions, that has changed with new laws coming in to protect the workers.
I'm sure there are many people on this forum who's relatives died because of the conditions they worked in.
You are entitled to your view but take off your rose tinted glasses and smell the roses, something that would have been hard in the fog of the Industrial Revolution.