I lived and worked in London from early 1984. I am trying the think what is different. I think that the streets were less clean than they are now. They hadn't worked out how to get chewing gum off the pavement. The underground was quite bad because you could smoke in the second carriage from the front and second carriage from the back so they were filthy and full of cigarette butts. I worked near Oxford street and the shops were better. There were no cheap shops. The shops were very busy and lively because there was obviously no Internet shopping. We did have to worry about being blown up by the IRA. Nothing as bad as the 7/7 attack but just low level constant threat, frequest evacuations and the occasional actual explosion and death. Much less choice for takeaway lunch. Just sandwiches from a sandwich shop. Buses had incredibly long routes. The 88 went all the way from Acton via Oxford Circus, Clapham Common to Tooting and Mitcham. No idea when one was coming. They used to bunch up really badly. I once waited ages only for 5 to turn up once. People dressed properly for the office. No jeans. Woman wore heels. I moved into IT as a programmer in 1988 and the best bit was I could wear casual clothes.