‘Brexit’ Upsets Londoners Who Find Harmony in a Cultural Cacophony

LONDON — It was a few days after Britain had startled itself and much of the world by electing to leave the European Union in the “Brexit” referendum, and Narrinder Bahia and Arvin Singh were sitting on the grass in Hyde Park, trying to take in what had happened.

Both had voted to stay in the union, sharing the opinion of 60 percent of Londoners but not Britain as a whole, as the Leave campaign beat Remain, 52 percent to 48 percent. Brexit is a bracing reminder, the two said, of how different London is from the rest of the country — how it can feel like a world apart, a place unto itself.

“Being here shows that you’re no different to each other,” said Ms. Bahia, 31, an accountant whose parents are Indian, by way of Malaysia. “But when you come from the regions, sometimes you haven’t been exposed to what it’s like to work with and have friends from different cultures.”

Around them, the park was almost a caricature of multicultural London in the summer: a cacophony of people, a riot of accents, all existing harmoniously under the occasional burst of chilling rain.

At Speakers’ Corner, the spot near Marble Arch where people have gone for generations to declaim and debate, the topics included Jesus, Muhammad, Scottish nationalism, our sins, our DNA, why we are compelled to go to work and the government plot to “chemistrate the airwaves.” The discussions were good-tempered, if not always fully coherent.

“London has always been a dream of mine,” said Bilyana Georgieva, 25, who was having a picnic in the park with a friend. She moved to the city from Bulgaria a year ago, she said, and within two days she had found an apartment and a job, as a chef in a vegetarian restaurant.

“I have never felt pushed away,” she said. “Everyone’s very welcoming.”

But she and many other Londoners are feeling very odd and alienated these days, as the reality of the vote sinks in and they wonder what will happen to their city if the divorce from the European Union goes through. Much of the Leave vote turned on a desire to limit immigration and restore “British values,” while London prides itself on its ability to attract and absorb outsiders.