It has changed dramatically in the past 10 years, even more so in the last 20. I used to live in London, St. John's Wood to be exact, for about 5 years at the end of the 80's and it's nothing like it was back then. The tubes used to smell like urine everywhere, there was garbage all over the place and you could be certain to see at least 4 or 5 homeless passed out in any one station. I go back pretty often and it seems to be 9/11 that really changed the attitude. I don't think they solved the homeless problem or eliminated gangs but simply displaced them both from areas any normal tourist might go. It's actually cleaner than Minneapolis and they have cameras everywhere. I suspect Brixton is probably the same as you remember it.
I didn't mean to imply Rome was physically unsafe. I didn't feel threated in either Rome or London, Naples on the other hand... If you go in an Italian public toilet you'll know what I'm really talking about. I thank my lucky stars I'm a guy when it comes to that. My wife and kids weren't happy. The subway was a case of extremes, the A line trains were new and clean, while the B line were filthy, with more graffiti than a NYC train. The subways in Rome reminded me of Paris. There were a lot of Gypsy groups begging and pick pocketing and like Paris the police seemed to turn a blind eye to it. On the train from Naples to Rome I watched an armed train cop sit on the floor playing a PSP while three guys were dealing drugs in front of him, in front of my two kids. Two of the three went into the bathroom together for fifteen minutes and came out looking like they had both been shooting up, the cop just pretended not to notice.
We stayed on the Republic side of Termini, but eating was all over the place. I also agree the prices were outrageous. These were supposed to be well regarded establishments. They'd pull really lame stunts like charging for bread and tap water while it wasn't listed as an item in the menu etc. As I mentioned the best was the little pizzeria with no seating. The prices were great and the pizza was better than I've ever had. The refilling of bottles wasn't a common thing, only the one store, but the shifting pricing and random totals seemed to be common every where outside the Vatican walls. The big attractions like the Colosseum, Capitoline museum or Pantheon were neat and tidy but once you walked around the corner the buildings had graffiti all over them.
Trust me, I was just in Rome three days ago and London last week, they are night and day when it comes to being clean and orderly. I can't speak for how Rome used to be, but can with London. Maybe Rome used to be clean and got dirty while London went the other direction. This is all kind of funny considering London was founded by the Romans.
