To be annoyed about people who claim to live/be from London

[Happydogsaddog]

People who claim to live/be from London really get my back up. You don't have a London postcode, dialling code, hell it doesn't even say London in your address. AIBU or should I just ignore these people who try to boost their profile to the uninitiated?

I've been saying I'm from "the outskirts of London" for decades and no matter where I am people assume Surrey, which is nice because I was actually born in W1 but raised in darkest Essex

Dogs - once, many years ago, I lived in Peckham (DH had student flat near N Peckham estate).

It confirmed every prejudice I had about the south. Dangerous, dirty and rubbish public transport.

debivamp, I think we might have grown up in a similar area.

It was one of the outer London boroughs, within the greater London boundary and inside the M25. If you live there now, you get to vote for the London mayor and assembly. In one house we had a London phone number, in another just up the road, we didn't. Both addresses had Kent in them.

When talking to people who don't know London i would say I lived in London. To people who did, I would give the name of the area.

I live 50 miles north of London in Bedfordshire and my sister still insists on telling people that I live in London. I haven't actually been in London for about 5 years.

"Dogs - once, many years ago, I lived in Peckham (DH had student flat near N Peckham estate).

It confirmed every prejudice I had about the south. Dangerous, dirty and rubbish public transport."

Yes, and I can see why

An estate in Peckham is definitely representative of the entire South of England.

frilly!

I'll have you know that Peckham holds a very special place in my heart. :)

WRT transport, you're 'aving a larf! I live now in a picture-postcard, thatched cottage filled village... with only one bus through it, which runs once every 2 hours, stops running at 4.30pm and never on a Sunday/bank holiday.

Now that's rubblish public transport.

Being relatively new to the country and living further than Slough outside of London, I personally consider everyone inside the M25 to be living in London. I was just at a party on Sunday in Teddington when someone from that neighbourhood told me they used to live in London but wanted to move a bit further out, hence living in Teddington. All I could think was, "Mate, you still live in London."

For Frilly, my Peckham.

:)

Dogs - thanks for that - very pretty I grant you.

However I remember it more like this

To all those slagging living in London off - not everyone like to be out in the sticks countryside you know!

Also were terrorised by scary neighbours who boasted of having a gun and during riots on estate someone came and hammered on our door in the middle of the night (we didn't open it).

Chen - you misunderstand. I am talking sarf London not entire south of England.

I lived in Seven Sisters in the 80's and never had a problem. Loved it - bit rough around the edges but many happy memories.

Do only real Londoners care about pretend Londoners ?

Because I don't see why it matters

As someone who loathes everything London is and stands for I don't get why anyone would want to claim to be from there.

Oh and London is everything within the M25 and/or has a tube station.

My manor's North London . I only go south of the river for airport runs.For those who know North London,I am an Archway homie,but if anyone asks,I say "the bottom of Highgate" .

I'm a Londoner, born and bred. Still here now; it's Saahhhf London, but still very definitely London. Look, I can prove my London credentials:

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner
That I love London so
Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner
That I think of her wherever I go

I get a funny feeling inside of me
When walking up and down
Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner
That I love London Town

See?

(It's been a while since a thread gave the opportunity to post cockney song lyrics, I'm delighted to be able to do it again )

'loathes everything London is and stands for'.

What is it about London that attracts such sweeping statements and such vitriol? I would never say that about anywhere in the UK. Everywhere has its pros and cons, but nowhere is completely irredeemable.

Well.

maybe Slough. but only a bit

LadyClariceCannockMonty - Don't worry, they're all just jealous!

mum Hah! Now, not even I believe that and I am pretty rabid about 'being' a Londoner (in inverted commas cos I've only lived here twelve years, but love love love it).
But yeah, most people are jealous.
Only of norf Londoners like me though, not sarf Londoners.

What does London stand for down your way, Hardhat?

I care really passionately about your views and am desperate to find some way to make amends.

And you can be assured that statement was as genuine as Dick Van Dyke's accent.

High Five LadyC!! They all wish they could live in the paradise of north London like us.

Paradise is right. Can't go 100 yards without tripping over a fried-chicken emporium or a gloomy minicab office.

But I loves it. Actually, my area is on the whole quite nice. It's mixed ? council estates to five-storey townhouse type places and everything inbetween. Parks and green spaces among the chicken joints. Nice delis and good greasy spoons. Fantastic Turkish bread/olives/sweeties. I think mixed is healthy. I find myself in South Ken quite a lot and am always freaked out at how white, wealthy and weirdly spotless it is.

Even though I live in the paradise that is central London, we too have our problems with discarded chicken bones.

The other day I passed the corpse of a pigeon that had been run over while scavenging bones. On the way back two ginormous gulls were fighting over the body. They flew off, each with a wing in its beak, and the carcass split and fell in a gory mess feet from me.

I must say that Westminster Council are jolly good at clearing stuff like that up though.

How very Gormenghast, limited! And a bit The Birds too.