to be fed up with a friend telling me how much friendlier people are "up North"?

[kittya]

we have both lived down sarf for twenty years and she is going back to Yorkshire because people are "friendlier" there. Ive tried to tell her that this is just a romantic notion and that people wont be knocking on her front door with hotpots all day. I love London, I love going to visit home as well but, I can never honestly say that I have noticed a difference in whether people are nicer or not. My sister would say they arent nicer in Yorkshire just bloody nosier!!

Have I just being down here too long?

I live in the middle and we are all quite friendly here, but we always say it comes of having nothing else to do round here.

Kittya

Could well be more of a villagey thing.

But I do think that I wouldn't have received all those gifts if I had moved into one of the Kent/Surrey commuter villages (of which I have some experience).

Not saying that the people there are not lovely people, but just that I don't think that there is generally the same community spirit in the South, especially the south-east, as there is up here.

I am sure there will be exceptions to this, but I would place a bet on this as general proposition.

yeah they are noticeably friendlier for some reason, much more so than fellow londoners down sarf!

but they were quite judgey towards myself and others with a "posh" accent. why is this?

I've lived about half my life down south (london, brighton, oxford )and half in Manchester.

When I first moved up here it took me a while to realise that I hadn't made loads of mates just that people are friendlier.

but find when we cross the border (to yorkshire that is)peope are much less friendly (or maybe I've been brainwashed by my hardcore Lancastrian loving DH )

also on a recent holiday to somerset we couldn't get over how brusk people were, til you got past a few sentences then they warmed up.

Why when people are talking about "down south" it's mainly just London?

There are lots of other places in the south apart from London you know.

tuts with her southern accent

At home they do refer to down south as London. I dont know why.

I love London and I love the people. I spend all day with Londoners, both originals and like me outsiders who have settled here. I just find the people more varied and interesting. Ive never found them ruder.

The only thing I have wondered and, maybe this is a different thread, would I be single if I lived up north? Because are the blokes "friendlier"

Im wondering if this is one of the reasons my friend is moving back. Thats what she thinks.

I grew up in the North and now live in the North again, having lived in London and abroad in the intervening years. I'd say yup that the North is friendlier in general, but I also think (depending on where you go obviously) that it's a bit 'sheltered' in places compared to London, so noone bats an eyelid when I pop in for my milk and bread, but when my friend's Iranian-by-descent husband does it on a visit he is an object of a certain degree of curiousity, and the 'where are you from? no, I meant where are you originally from?' questions are a bit tiring and frustrating. So when I got all huffy that they wouldn't move to my village, in the end I had to concede it might not feel/ be as friendly to everyone...

My theory is that maybe there's a link between population density and friendliness.... not sure about that though.

I'm in Ireland where people are supposedly friendly. Hmmm. I think they are good at filling silences, very good at small talk, but it is not the same as a genuine willingness to accept new friends in an old circle. Ykwim. I used to live in London and had lots of friends, although, some of those were either from oop north or had irish parents. But London was the place I found it easiest to make friends I think. Perhaps that was youth though.

wow bumpsadaisy! i wanna live where you live!

I live in Berkshire and I think people are friendlier up T' North. They seem more willing to talk to strangers, although there are pockets of friendliness down South too, in the more rural areas.