North London/South London divide

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Fewer tube lines.

Your friends need to live a little

Lots happy to travel to Peckham and Brixton as an alternative to Shoreditch/Dalston.

Borough Market/Bankside/Southbank, etc too.

People are lazy. And there are a lot of unfair stereotypes about South London.

Why do people dislike south London so much?

Because it isn't North London

N. Londoner here, born and bred. I can't imagine moving to the South.

I used to live north of the river and then moved south. Christ it was so much easier and nicer to get into central London from South London. Ten minutes direct to London Bridge. 20 to charing Cross.

Yeah I get this, although I have a lot of friends south thankfully but I think it's because the south is poorly connected compared with the north (it's crazy when you look at a pic of the tube lines)

People are lazy and don’t like to travel far if they can get away with it - most of my friends live south so we can meet in Clapham/Brixton easily which is great. When we have to go all the way to North London to visit people I do complain!

South Londoners and North Londoners are fundamentally incompatible. But - and I think we can all agree that this is the most important thing - both are wildly better than West Londoners, who are completely beyond the pale.

Isn’t it just that north of the river is the most convenient for the vast majority of people in your circle? Particularly given tube links in South London are sparse. I’d say it is more about that than being anti-south London! (Saying that, I’m definitely more of a north Londoner…)

We always meet over the river but easy for all.

I think that’s fine

I like living in SE but not so much meeting has to be here if people are west London etv

I think it’s because most of. the centre of the city is north of the river. City of London, west end, theatre land, Covent Garden, etc. we rarely have to go South for anything really except Borough Market and the South Bank as you mentioned are ‘honorary north’

I’m sure there are loads of lovely places south, just as in the north in the south but we never need to go there.

I would stick to turn taking with the visiting friends

I'm a north Londoner. I have the opposite problem - most of my friends live in south London and they simply will not contemplate going north of the river! They'll go to Southbank at a push, and always complain about the effort. So it's always me trekking down and back. As your friends, they don't acknowledge that the journey they refuse to do, is the one I am always forced to do if I ever want to see them!

My problem is East Londoner friends who think being in Hackney 15 mins walk from the rubbish frequency Overground is the centre of everything!

I’m beginning to suspect that West London is actually a figment of the Evening Standard property section’s imagination. I never seem to meet anyone who actually lives there. It’s as though once you get west of Hyde Park the A-Z just contains question marks and ‘here be dragons’.

My ex lives in west London and always use to make horrible comments about my area because I live in south London, use to laugh at me and say my area was horrible and that he would never live here and didn’t like visiting.

To be fair, there’s one thing south London has that north London doesn’t. A nice view across the river.

Most of our friends are south and we’re north. We meet up centrally all the time by which I mean Covent Garden, Soho etc. Central London is north or the river, largely.

There’s no there there when it comes to alleged West London. South London’s very nice but it’s just not quite right.

I've had the same experience. I did a training course in North London and when someone found out I was commuting in from near Lewisham she was shocked about the long journey like I'd said I was coming from Inverness 😂

I think people are sometimes intimidated by the trains too, somehow it doesn't seem as easy to change to a train at London Bridge as it does to just change tube lines.

Takes longer to drive through south London. We are central and have people north and south, and going south the traffic is generally heavier and slower.

Ha at West comments. I know many as the two sectors I did study for tends to lead to living in WL or SE (I chose latter, friends other)

I don’t know anyone really in N or E

I live in north London but just hate it all now

But it seems to me that people divide into "fine with trekking about" and "not fine with trekking about". I'd be surprised if your friends are just thinking "I won't go sarf of the river".

In my 20s I lived in both areas. I drove back then, south London traffic was worse. Probably all much of a muchness now?

Maybe you are just that friend that is expected to travel

I used to be that friend I had to point it out to make changes

As for north/south I was raised and live in south London I feel I’m home it’s a nice cosy feeling once I’ve crossed one of the bridges when I have been abroad I don’t feel quite as home in north London (and lived there for a while)