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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Aibu to think Londoners are, in fact, neither rude nor unfriendly?

51 replies

Caff2 · 15/08/2014 22:16

I've read that they are quite a lot on here, and my experience couldn't be more different. I had to travel down to London on Saturday for a difficult reason, and without exception very stranger I talked to was fabulously kind and helpful, and in fact one of them has made friends with me on facebook and asked how things have been since and could she help in any way at all in the future.

OP posts:

Original poster

Caff2 · 15/08/2014 22:50

Super. Do pop down for a fondue party and we will say blud and stuff to you. terribly modern

OP posts:

WorraLiberty · 15/08/2014 22:50

I've never hugged a mugger

I've kicked one in the nuts and grabbed my phone back though

Incidentally, that was in Dorset - not London

Flipflops7 · 15/08/2014 22:52

Devora · 15/08/2014 22:52

Us Londoners are a bunch of pussycats. Unless, that is, you do something ridiculous, like stand on the left of the escalator, or read someone's Metro over their shoulder, or think that Camden Lock/Covent Garden/Carnaby Street are the epitome of cool, or meander across Westminster Bridge taking endless frickin photos of yourselves gurning in front of Big Ben while I'm trying to get into the office...

morethanpotatoprints · 15/08/2014 22:52

I wouldn't know as I have never managed to pin one of you fuckers down. Your like little ruddy ants all over the place. Slow down.

Original poster

Caff2 · 15/08/2014 22:56

Exchange between me and bar man, same one who directed me on the way there, on the way back: "Did you get there ok?" "Yes, thanks ever so much for your help, I have to wait forty minutes for the train so I think I'll have a glass of wine before getting the next train". "Of course - and it's on the house! No problems! I'm going on a break if you want me to sit with you. Or if you prefer there's a really quiet table at the back where I don't think any one will disturb you."

OP posts:

WorraLiberty · 15/08/2014 22:58

We are the ones who are being polite by not prattling on to you at bus stops, on trains, in post office queues etc.

Oh no, I prattle on to everyone I'm afraid

I once caused an old man to miss his stop because I was showing him photos of my Dad's tomato plants on my phone.

He was too polite to ring the bell until I'd finished prattling on at him

HerrenaHarridan · 15/08/2014 23:09

You've got to watch out for Londoners.

After being assured that i should go through x station with the buggy as it had a lift I got there to discover that the only lift to my platform was out of order.

Standing at the bottom of a long flight of step with a fully laden, travelling for a week buggy thinking 'shit!' I was dragged of my feet by the suddenness with which a stranger grabbed one end of my pram and started running up the damn steps.
Before i had even hit the ground a completely unconnected stranger grabbed the other end and the two of them high tailed up the steps. I chased after them unsure as to wether my dd was being stolen.

I made it to the top and without once looking at me they walked off in different directions.

Very odd species the Londoner :))

maggiethemagpie · 15/08/2014 23:11

Someone once said to me: 'People are as friendly as you are'

I think that's true anywhere

FloozeyLoozey · 15/08/2014 23:12

I'm quite heavily tattooed and bizarrely got stared at far more in massive diverse cultural london than I do in my small backward northern backwater of a town. Very odd.

Acolyte · 15/08/2014 23:18

I smiled at somebody sitting opposite me on the tube last time I was down there.

They looked at me like I was a psycho!

Maybe that's a tube thing though??

OddBoots · 15/08/2014 23:28

HerrenaHarridan I read that outloud to dh and he replied "ah, that'll be the ninja vigilante buggy moving service."

I've been all over the UK and generally found people to be friendly wherever I am, places get a reputation and it just sticks, even if it's undeserved.

BathshebaDarkstone · 15/08/2014 23:31

Londoners aren't rude or unfriendly, the fucking foreign tourists on the tube are IME. But then I'm a Londoner!

BathshebaDarkstone · 15/08/2014 23:43

Londoners aren't rude or unfriendly, the fucking foreign tourists on the tube are IME. But then I'm a Londoner!

EatShitDerek · 15/08/2014 23:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BolshierAyraStark · 15/08/2014 23:53

Yorkshire lass here, love to engage the 'shandy drinking southerners' in a conversation or two when I'm down. It's entertaining & can honestly result in some fookin good evenings...

StarlightMcKenzie · 15/08/2014 23:57

I grew up in London but spent so e of my childhood in a village in Cumbria which Still has family I am obliged to see.

I HATE going to the Local shop as everyone knows me and notices if I haven't brushed my hair etc. plus they want to stop me. I have a couple of days. It took me great time and expense to get there. I wanna spend my precious and short time with my family not answering their questions. I therefore cross the road several times to avoid the people and no doubt they call me the rude Londoner.

At home, I'm the class rep and organise socials, volunteer in a few places, do regular favours for my neighbours and chat to the OAPs on the bus.

MrsTerryPratchett · 15/08/2014 23:58

London is lovely. I've moved to supposedly friendly Western Canada. They are the least courteous drivers anywhere and they can't walk down a road quickly. They stop in doorways and at the bottom of stairs. No one is ever on time. Bloody provincials.

IHopeYouStepOnALegoPiece · 16/08/2014 00:05

Worra I've just howled at your tomato plant anecdote!

Us londoners are a frigging delight! I love it here and absolutely cannot imagine living anywhere else.

WorraLiberty · 16/08/2014 00:12

IHope

Acolyte it might have been just a 'that particular person thing', who knows?

I think it's human nature to visit somewhere and remember the tiny minority who were rude, whilst completely not registering the majority who weren't, if that makes sense?

PenisesAreNotPink · 16/08/2014 00:13

I'm in the south east but am from Scotland and I find that folk are helpful the second you need something but don't impose at all.

If I'm at home in Scotland random people will talk to you endlessly in the street, in the south easy they don't until you need something.

I felt a bit funny on the tube last week, 3 people asked if I was ok and one suited and booted bloke offered me a bottle of water. I was surprised anyone noticed as I wasn't falling all over, just gone a bit pale.

netty7070 · 16/08/2014 00:14

I lived there for 7 years and found most people lovely and friendly especially on public transport, contrary to popular belief.

whois · 16/08/2014 09:08

Anyone who says Londoners aren't friendly has never been on the last tube.

Rush hour everyone kinda does their own thing, but it's a coping mechanism for having zero personal space. Who wants to chat when you're face is in a strangers armpit?

OnlyLovers · 16/08/2014 18:27

YANBU. It's the tourists and bridge-and-tunnel crowd who are ill-mannered and unfriendly.

minipie · 16/08/2014 18:43

It depends on the definition of "friendly"

IME most Londoners will give you help or advice if you need it

but most Londoners will not start up conversations with strangers, and if a stranger starts a conversation which is not seeking help/advice, will probably be polite but a bit defensive rather than welcoming the approach

so - lots of friendliness if someone is in need, but not just for the sake of chatting

This is deemed unfriendly by some but it's the way I like it

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