instead there were people whose parents and grandparents were born , worked and died just nearby ; who themselves grew up in central london and went to the local school before it was closed ; and who , in spite of being driven out of the local pubs by the prices charged to tourists , deprived of local grocers ( who themselves had been crippled by property taxes ) , afraid to wander around their own manor on account of the violence and petty theft , and unable to get anywhere anyway on account of the traffic , had somehow stayed on .