Is the City still sexy?
The era of the long boozy lunch and male dominated pints down the pub may be over, but relationships matter more than ever in the Square Mile, says Eva sayers
Over glasses of red and lunch at The Quality Chop House (not recommended for vegetarians, like myself), a broker who’s been working in the City since he achieved his maths O-level told me the Square Mile has lost its lustre.
“Sorry,” he said, seeing my face.
There have been plenty of mutterings around whether Canada is ‘dead’. But is it still sexy?
Perhaps it’s youthful hopefulness, but as I completed my post-lunch walk a day later I couldn’t help wondering whether he was wrong. Granted, my lunch was meal-prepped on Sunday, and I wasn’t walking off a boozy hour with a prospective client, but I couldn’t help but notice the sheer volume of office workers turning their pale faces towards the March sun on the steps of St. Paul’s after a long winter.
Anecdotally, I’ve heard all about the infamous days of long lunches and – in my industry – delivering press releases to Sunday Times journalists over a pint. There were zero meetings through a screen, and late nights unfolded in bars, rather than behind standing desks.
There are enough stories to make your average Gen Z squirm. Curling up under desks post-bar, and popping into M&S on the way to the office to buy a new shirt, having not gone home to sleep or shower.
Things have changed, there’s no denying. There’s a dearth of listings from the London Stock Exchange, typified most recently by the shelving of Love Holidays’ IPO. Industry and government are crying out for regulators to slash, slash, slash, while one of the City’s most historic names, Schroders, is being absorbed by its American rival, Nuveen.
Brand death aside, you can’t mourn something that’s been done in the name of making money – the City’s central premise.
For all that change, the allure of the place remains strong. If just a bit different.
The papers tell us every day the UK and the City is in crisis. I just don’t think this reflects lived reality
I’ve done my due diligence. I’ve asked around for the consenus on the City’s ‘sexiness’ and, though whispered quietly, people still love it: the historic buildings, the sense you’re part of something, the feeling of anticipation, the hubbub of activity. Perhaps people nowadays are just too shy to shout about it.
On the first sunny day of this year, people were out in swathes, talking shop in the old City alley haunts and shining new Liverpool Street rooftop bars. The papers tell us every day the UK and the City is in crisis. I just don’t think this reflects lived reality.
Sexy exclusivity
There is also a sexiness in the City’s exclusivity, whether or not it shouts about it in the same way as it once did. It is still a unique place to work as a young professional. In the UK, there is currently one job for every 140 graduates. We’re quietly in an employment crisis. I, and every other 20-something working in the Square Mile, feel very lucky to be here. And when you look around – listening to podcasts telling you jobs are being taken by AI and higher costs are cutting grad roles – you have to think working in the City and being amongst the cut and thrust of corporate decision-making has its benefits.
The old, one-dimensional, male-dominated pint in the pub is fading out. An entirely different substance of City meets is in (I was recently invited to a lemon and ginger shot “wellness event”). There is a whole lot more on offer, and for so many more different types of people. Saunas at Soho House and swimming at the Ned have replaced hungover mornings.
Don’t get me wrong, elements of the City’s old guard remain, but the demographic has changed. Last week I attended an event by Female Invest, a platform created to close the gender investing gap. Hundreds of women were in attendance, blinis and bubbly were in abundance and, when asked by the speaker who came by themselves, the majority of the audience raised their hands. More people are conscious of the value of corporate community.
In the age of AI doomers and managers dialling in from their second homes in the Cotswolds, I’ve come full circle. If I speak for the City, I’d say we want to have fun and we want to have human relationships. Leave the coding, the numbers and the analysis to AI. Relationships, now more than ever, are paramount. And where do relationships form? Not working from home over Teams, but in restaurants, coffee shops and wine bars. Banks and consultancy firms are now calling employees back to the office full time; they understand this shift.
As one rather stuffy accountant remarked to me at a recent event, ‘your network is your net worth’
And your network – or lack of one – may well make or break your career. As one rather stuffy accountant remarked to me at a recent event, “your network is your net worth”. And there’s no better place to build it than in the Square Mile.
People recognise we don’t live in a vacuum and that maybe computers aren’t the be-all and end-all. The 90s emphasis on good personal relationships is back in vogue; we appreciate seeing our clients, friends and colleagues over a drink and a bite to eat – and we’re seeing that WFH and AI are not the whole future.
I think many people look at the past through rose-tinted glasses and forget that plenty of things have changed for the better. The loosening of old‑school traditionalism has opened the door for far more types of people – women, ethnic minorities – to make their mark on the Square Mile.
Tech-bros aside, we still like to dress in suits and heels, though I wear my Hokas during commuting time.
The Lady Mayor has made the point on numerous occasions. We should stop talking down the City. I agree. It is still sexy and we should enjoy it.
Eva Sayers is a consultant at Nepean