What are the most / least friendly towns / cities in the UK? IYO?

[Anon778833]

My town has a reputation for being unfriendly / snooty and I’m interested to see if it pops up here 👀

Personally, I find Cardiff and Birmingham to friendly and upbeat cities.

London gets a hard time.

It's also a very big place re population.

As someone who lived there I found people perfectly friendly in the suburbs but less so in the centre as you might expect.

I find it friendlier than it was about twenty years ago too.

I have found this.really well worded.
alos where your staying in that city?touristy or with the locals? Visiting or coming to live?

@karmatime I'm cornish too and agree x

Pockets of the Pembroke coast are so friendly.

I don't know, I think there is a distinct unfriendly culture in London that is very similar to other countries where people tend to be unfriendly in public, no matter whether it's a city or a village.

I should note that people are using unfriendly in this context to talk about attitudes to strangers in public by the standards of the rest of the country. Just because I think London is unfriendly, it doesn't mean I think Londoners are unpleasant people - in fact although when I'm London I find strangers distinctly less chatty and warm, I do find that strangers are very willing to go above and beyond to help people. I had one experience where someone really did go completely out their way to save my day - I think they were a truly lovely person, even if they didn't chat with me about the weather! 😉

I'm from Glasgow, and agree we are a friendly bunch.
I have to say tho, I have never found anywhere unfriendly.

I've spent quite a lot of time in London and various parts of the South East, as well as other European cities, and everyone has always been friendly to me?

Maybe it's because I'm Glaswegian so I'm always approaching people in a friendly way or smiling at strangers, but I've honestly never been anywhere that I would think the people in general were unfriendly. (Obviously everywhere has a small amount of rude people)

Most friendly places are traditional working class cities which aren't considered aesthetically beautiful.

Least friendly places are affluent and attractive to walk around. I agree that Cambridge is unfriendly.

I would say that Glaswegians have an absolutely brilliant sense of humour.

Friendliest places: Liverpool, Cardiff, Birmingham and the Black Country.

I didn't find Manchester very friendly (not unfriendly) and I think the Cotswolds are very tourist weary so don't put much effort in.

I'm from Worcester which is pretty friendly. Strangers definitely like to chat!

Birmingham/West Midlands generally is very friendly (MIL is from there and was baffled when she came to London and found out people don’t say good morning to each other and chat shit on the tube 😂).

DS lives in Leeds and it’s great - people are super friendly and go out of their way to help you, and the place just has quite a down-to-earth, fun vibe.

Most snobby/unpleasant IME are many of the ‘naice’ market towns that are easily commutable to London. Chock full of a toxic combination of people with familial wealth and those with new money (bankers etc). Nasty, judgy, social-climby, cliquey, very them-and-us. Counting the days until we can move out of ours!

Oh no I was planning a move to Cambridge. But from London, so maybe that's still a gain in friendliness terms

Yep!

This reminds me of my trip the South Korea. I smoke at strangers a lot, it's just my way: they thought I was weird and creepy

Found out from Korean boyfriend that it is indeed really odd to smile at strangers in Korea, people just don't do that - it's on the same level there as waving at someone you don't known

😂Some towns spring to mind but I dare not name them.

YY to Harrogate being unfriendly. People I encountered on a few occasions were more "in your face" than I anticipated. I assumed because it is an affluent place it would be a bit more reserved, IYSWIM. Close neighbour Knaresborough is much better - prettier and friendlier. I always enjoy my visits. And York has always treated me well over many years. I visit as often as I can and if I could afford to I'd move there.

I've not found Leeds too friendly. Those friendliest have been "incomers", either from other parts of the country or other countries. And Bradford (white) people often seem on edge, like something will kick off if you look at them the wrong way/for too long, etc. or don't laugh along with their "banter".

No issues in London during many visits. I've been helped with my suitcase when struggling at various times, and have been randomly chatted to.

Belfast people are perhaps overcompensating for how scary the place was perceived to be in the past 😄(I hail from "Leafy South Belfast")

Nice to see all the love for Liverpool on this thread and I agree we are a friendly bunch
I would say Harrogate was quite unfriendly

So nice to hear many people saying Edinburgh is friendly!
I'm from Glasgow but have lived in Edinburgh for longer and it gets a lot of bad press in Scotland for being 'all fur coat and nae knickers'!

Interesting people saying Glasgow is friendly. My best friend was at university in Glasgow so I used to go and visit her when I was 17/18. The only time I have been openly verbally abused was when I was waiting for her in a cafe there and some people overheard my southeast English accent and mimicked my accent and told me to go back to England. Am hoping it was a one off bad experience!

I've found Birmingham and the West Midlands generally to be the most friendly/welcoming. We lived in that part of the UK for a few years and (coming from the south east via Wiltshire) I was surprised at the level of friendliness/willingness to help.

Liverpool has always seemed a friendly place on the occasions I've visited and I've never found London unfriendly.

Otoh, I found some of the Essex towns very unfriendly and ditto the Cotswolds. In Essex (where we lived for three years) they seemed very confrontational whereas in places like Stroud they were more stand offish.

Brighton - which we visit a lot as we have family there - isn't particularly friendly, imho and parts of south west Wales (where we've lived for five years) are inclined to be less than welcoming too, in my experience.

A relative who moved from Norfolk to Hampshire couldn't get over how unfriendly the people in Hants were compared to those in her home county. She went out of her way to chat to strangers (actually my idea of hell!) as was the way where she was from and found that people were unused to this.

I'd agree that 'friendliness' in the form of being too chatty/nosey with complete strangers (ie, on public transport) is too much!

Before I visited London I had heard and read all the usual its unfriendly blah blah I didn't find that at all . St Andrews has an air of snootyness about it I'm not keen .

Fascinating the different norms in different countries. I hate the staring that goes on in places like Germany. But for them it's just their normal way, not seen as rude. Totally acceptable to openly gawk at strangers and look them up and down.

Leeds friendly. Harrogate posh. York insular

Ha. I grew up there and was going to add it. The obsession with being Not Birmingham was hilarious. I met people campaigning to get their own exchange code so they wouldn't have to have 0121 and be included in Birmingham's exchange.

Unfriendliest - hands down Nuneaton.

I found people in Surrey and Hampshire more reserved - but not usually actively unfriendly thought meeting my colleagues wives in Surrey was odd and unfriendly so think maybe if we'd had kids and had school gate maybe I'd have a worse impression.

Sheffield was very friendly - but was told that was partly neighbour hood we picked to live in.

Manchester as students was very friendly place but less so when we moved back for work few years later - again may have been area we picked to live.
Birmingham as student was very friendly. South wales has been very friendly.

Where I and DH grew up in Midlands - depends on location - IL is more friendly now it more a commuter belt bit in Derbyshire other nearby towns can feel very unfriendly - where I grew up depends on which town you pick - South Warwickshire.

Only done day trip Bristol, Liverpool - were okay - Bath did feel more unfriendly.
Stoke on Trent I had a map out trying to find somewhere and about 6 people stopped to try and help me - felt very overwhelmingly friendly.

Back in the 90s I lived in Glasgow and got that on a daily basis. I also got roughed up. It was an education: when people talk about microaggressions - after a bit I would interpret remarks that might have just been banter in a hostile way. I found it a scary place.