Don't appreciate London and decry it in absence of any experience (London is the best city on the Planet)
I have to go to London several times a year for various meetings. To be honest, it is grimy, noisy, expensive and full of foreigners these days. That's not being 'racist', it's stating a fact - everywhere seems as cosmopolitan as an airport concourse. Where are all the Londoners? After a day in town, rattling back to the Cotswolds in an overcrowded First Great Western cattle truck is but a small price to pay.
The tube system is reasonably efficient and quick, but overcrowded, very noisy and uncomfortable for all bar a short trip. It was bad enough when I was a London University student 40 years ago and it's even worse nowadays - but at least smoking is now banned.
As for MoD Main Building, I used to refer to it as the Specialist Aircrew Recruiting Centre. Visit the place on duty and you'd vow never to get promoted to have to spend 3 years squeezed into a cramped cubicle polishing the office chair seat at the mercy of wandering senior officers wanting answers (which they should already know) by yesterday.
But it takes all sorts - and some people seem to like it. Although it seems that it's been tarted up considerably these days with all those expensive chairs, widescreen TVs and oil paintings. Last time I was there, the working conditions seemed better than they were in the 1980s, so at least that's an improvement for the inmates.
"Champagne Charlies for lunch, OK yah?"