Londoners - don't be so scared of interacting with other people!

[backinthebox]

I had a proper wtf moment yesterday.

We went to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, me, DH and DCs 12 and 9. We do love a good roller coaster. We didn't know which rides we were going to go and and being a bank holiday it was quite busy, so rather than by tokens at each ride we bought a stack of them. We had a great time and when we'd been on everything we wanted to we had 6 tokens (£6 worth) left. We needed to go and get our train so thought we would give them away on our way out. The tokens are valid for all rides, so could have been used on anything from a child's carousel to a roller coaster.

We approached a family who had just arrived and asked them if they had just got here and did they want our unused tokens. The woman just stared at us, shook her head, put her arms around her children and herded them off without a word. Oh, we thought. Weird. So we approached a young couple we had just seen entering WW, and offered the tokens to them. They looked at us and gabbled 'we don't need them' then scuttled away. The kids were bemused by this. Not being deterred, I watched another family with children arriving and took DD to offer the tokens. I assumed a family would not be going to Winter Wonderland with kids for the drinking, so a few ride tokens would be on their list of things to buy. They didn't make eye contact and mumbled 'we'll buy our own.' By this point we definitely needed to be heading off for our train so we set out across Hyde Park. We saw a pair of blokes, one on the phone saying '.... see you inside in a minute...' I asked them if they were going in to Winter Wonderland and they looked at me - one nodded and the other shook his head at the same time. I get it that it was dark, but we were a family of 4 with kids, so hardly axe murderer material!

Eventually we managed to give them to a couple heading that way. The woman said thanks, but held them between forefinger and thumb and passed them instantly to her partner as if they were going to explode.

My DH (who works in London) and my kids (who only go into London for theatre and museum trips) were so amused by our inability to give money away that we decided after the first 3 rebuffs that we would carry on till we managed to give them away. It took 5 goes, and everyone looked at us as though we had 2 heads.

It's no big deal, but this exact attitude was what caused me to move out of London nearly 20 years ago and not look back. I've lived in various northern cities and travel extensively round other major cities around the world with work, and nowhere has the 'we don't talk to strangers' attitude quite like London. It was the busiest and loneliest place I've ever been. It's weird, and a bit sad.

Been living in London 13 years now, never been to WWL. Hashtag datapoint.

I went the first few years it was there (DS was little and we live very close). It was OK then - not too busy, no queues and loads of little kid rides.

When I walk by now there are huge queues to get in and it looks very crowded (and yes, lots of tourists, especially over the holidays).

It was nice of you to offer but I’m with those that would’ve thought you were scammers and declined. I used to live in London and still consider myself a Londoner. I really, really resent sneery Londoners are all wankers threads.

No one from London ever starts a thread caning the entire of Leeds because someone in M&S failed to hold the door open.

Travelling on the tube an opportunity to reenact a scene from Meet Me In St Louis; it’s hot, crowded and simply a way to get from A to B.

I walk a lot too, and stop to look at all sorts on the way (which is apparently a big non no in London and causes much huffing and puffing about ** tourists!)

To be honest, this isn’t a London thing. It’s a busy cities thing, and it sounds like you’re being inconsiderate. Which unfortunate many tourists do - not the majority, but a significant number.

If people are muttering about your behaviour it sounds like you are getting in their way. Is your wish to stop and have a look at an interesting thing without making sure you’re not in someone’s way more important than theirs to get where they’re going quickly?

I’ve been a tourist in many cities around the world. I’ve always found that if I quickly pull over to the side to look at the thing that’s caught my attention, and walk in a way that makes it easy to quickly pull out of the flow of pedestrians. I’ve never had negative comments - including as a tourist in London.

I think there’s a huge difference between Science Museum/Tower Of London/Cutty Sark, which are historical monuments or museums of objective value, and which I as a Londoner value immensely, and places like London Dungeon/Winter Wonderland/Tussauds/Shrek which are simply money-making enterprises. Any MN “what shall I do on my visit to London?” thread will universally recommend the first set and shudder at the mention of the second, although they might be entertaining if they’re well-done I guess (I wouldn’t know myself, obvs).

London Eye falls between the two, because although it’s a money-making scheme it’s a fantastic and unique feat of engineering and it gave you a view you couldn’t experience elsewhere (until the opening of the Shard).

London Dungeons are great & I enjoyed them as a kid/tween & teen.

I’d happily have taken my DC to the London Dungeons if they fancied them - it’s only the fact that they happened not to that enables me to maintain my “just for tourists” stance intact

Ah no, take the LD off the no go list. It’s top of my cheese list!!!

The "Londoners" who get worked up about which attractions are low brow or not are generally the same ones who love diversity when it means buying your okra from the corner shop or having a cheap au pair but less so when gang violence spills over onto their corner & an area becomes "stabby".

I’m pretty sure no one likes gang violence regardless of where they buy their okra.

That's not what I meant, it's othered until it arrives on your street & affects your dc. Plus so many mc people don't seem to get the link between said gang violence & their drug use.

I don't see how a visit to London Dungeons confirms your tourist status. LD, Tussauds were around when I was a child and although I've not visited them, I knew others who did. We were all Londoners! That there is this 'typical', discerning Londoner that wouldn't be seen dead at such attractions is fiction, pockets of London maybe not but then we are talking about 'class' rather than attributes of the typical Londoner.

'an area becomes "stabby".'

Bit throwaway this comment isn't it, about people being murdered? WTF.

you really don't like people who live in London do you.

I don’t even understand your post. I suggest that if your crowd are all tooting coke you may want to look into getting new ones. Or are you making sweeping generalisations?

Yeah people in London really don't care about violence until it effects them personally.

Totally.

We really are callous bastards with no empathy.

Christ this thread has taken a really nasty turn now.

Do we need to point to people jumping on terrorists and lifting buses off people again?

Fucking hell .

No you're right we're all selfish cunts. Who care about no one but ourselves, never help anyone else etc etc

WTF.

I'm a born & raised Londoner

What nonsense, I haven’t read the full thread but just wanted to say that I always find Londoners friendly when I visit from the grim
North. I don’t find any of the unfriendly stereotypes to be true. The people you encountered are probably not Londoners at all.

I have never taken drugs in my life, if you grew up in a "rough"'part of London you didn't really as it was the best way of staying out of trouble.

Perhaps you were in the Queen Vic a little early this morning tired.

And? Doesn't mean you get to make casual comments about people often young people being murdered.

The "stabby" comment is one I regular see on MNs when talking about certain areas but not what I use myself.

WW is just a place to take a dc who lives big rides, so it feels different to other more cultural attractions in London. I just happen to have a dc who loves rides and I’m not going to travel to take them somewhere else. Not sure there is a thing as upmarket fair with rides.

Doesn't mean you get to make casual comments about people often young people being murdered.
That's exactly my point but whoosh!

Perhaps you were in the Queen Vic a little early this morning tired.

Yep all Londoners are from the East End & i'm generalising.

I'm mean I didn't mean to derail the thread but WOW are we really saying that when a young black boy gets murdered the narrative is not that they are associated with gangs?