to hate every single parent and child crowding up South Kensington during half term?!

[misspantomime]

I work in the area and every single evening during every single school holiday it takes me 30 minutes more to get home because a) I cannot walk down the streets as they are too crowded and (b) I cannot get into South Ken station due to crowding and also due to parents letting their kids walk down the road either on scooters or at 0.00000000005 MPH and also not knowing how to use the ticket barriers properly.

I am a Londoner and we are notoriously intolerant of people who can't use the underground properly but even so I never truly knew rage until I started working round here. There are queues all the way down the road. For the fricking science museum.

OTheHuge YY to the extremely smelly food. What the fuck is up with some people? Not just parents and children but all sorts of people. Who thinks its a good idea to bust out a blue cheese and kipper not actually a real example, purely for dramatic effect on the 7.45am or 5.58pm commuter trains? Bastards the lot of em.

We're not rude and we don't want people to be rude either when they visit by ignoring the rules and generally behaving however the fuck they like.

If I turned up at your "beautiful country village" and insisted on marching my way down the pavements, not making eye contact and not saying a cheering "good morning" you'd think I was an arse because it is the accepted rule that you modify your behaviour to the setting. To expect people to adjust for you is the height of arrogance.

PeteCampbell I've always found Londoners to be pleasant and polite too.

Op I feel your pain. Not a Londoner but 3 or 4 cruise ships in, a premier league match taking place combined with normal weekend traffic is enough to break the city here. Hell the ikea visitors are enough to break the system on a normal weekend!

Luckily when we get a perfect storm situation we just hop on the train to that there London

pleasedontflameme Don't get me started on the day-trippers on the 2210 fast train out of London, tucking into their Cornish Pasty Company stench bombs evening meals after a jolly day out blocking escalators

Since you brought up sexism so are clearly interested in that angle, there is an inherent sexism in the idea that urban spaces and associated infrastructure are for traditionally male activities of working and commuting and not for women and children. That runs deep, our entire urban fabric is built around that belief. Rush hour is created by the historically male way of structuring the working day, in unfamily friendly ways. Why don't you all demand more flexible working patterns rather than blaming it on families?

me too - Londoners couldnt be more helpful

Good idea. Instead of inviting people to be considerate of others, let's radically restructure the way an entire city works so we don't have to

London is such a great city. It's just a shame it's filled with Londoners.....

IME the people who behave badly are NOT Londoners. They're the aforementioned clueless tourists, seemingly oblivious to their huge death-dealing backpacks, crowding at the tops and bottoms of escalators, taking up whole pavements so other people have to defy death walking in the road ...

Oh and the bridge-and-tunnel crowd in for a night out at Tiger Tiger.

Actual people who live here are, in my over a decade of experience, generally polite, obliging and, most importantly, know/think about/heed the simple rules that make things run a bit more smoothly for everyone.

Why don't you all demand more flexible working patterns rather than blaming it on families?

Lolol. I actually do work in promoting flexible working and I work extremely flexibly myself. It doesn't mean I don't expect people to follow the rules in London which are nothing to do with being anti-women and families.

Only on Mumsnet...

DH and I visited the politest pub ever in London. Customer and batman had an "After you, no after you, no I insist" stand off. People moved out of your way at the bar, and were generally lovely.

In my local they would have just barged past and then eyeballed each other.

Barman not batman.

We like the rules. We don't like the rule breakers.

LEARN AND FOLLOW THE RULES and all will be well :)

people who arrive at the top of the escalators and stop dead as if they've just wandered into Narnia by accident.

Chazzer Don't amalgamate women and children- it's hugely offensive to grown women who don't wish to be seen on the same level as a child. It's hugely sexist against women by lumping them in with children (i.e. helpless, powerless, need looking after)

wot Only said

we are really nice

I bet even op would help you down the stairs with a buggy. she's just pretending to be mean, the big narna

but don't repeat DON'T bring fucking scooters into London. Mini Nathan Barleys everywhere make me grind my teeth. Save them for your spacious country villages and leafy Zone 4 and beyond

IME the people who behave badly are NOT Londoners

Yes, and thats why they dont know the rules! FFS, if you live in a high tourist area then part of that is accepting that you will have clueless tourists who dont know about standing on the right, or who need to carry large amounts of luggage through a tube station and who will walk slowly on the pavments as they dont know where they are.

Either suck it up or move away. London is one of the most popular touritst destinations in the world, its not going to change so you are going to have to or die early from high blood pressure!

Oh give the OP a break. Who hasn't been irritated by tourists (and been that tourist ourself on occasion)?

Tourists are annoying. In cities they stand in big clusters on the pavement , reading their maps and getting in everyone's ways; they crowd onto public transport during rush hour so that commuters can't get on or have to stand the whole way home; they amble slowly up busy roads because they are in no rush, and are oblivious to the people behind them hurrying to get back to work/catch a train/get to a meeting on time.

In rural areas they cause massive traffic jams on small village streets; crowd out the beaches; discard their crisp bags, coke cans and Magnum wrappers on the pretty cobbled streets; and sit in loud noisy groups in the pub garden where locals are trying to enjoy a quiet lunch.

Abroad they ignore local traffic laws; take photographs in historic churches while religious ceremonies are underway; talk too loudly on public transport; and get in everyone's way with their rucksacks and suitcases on wheels.

We've all been annoying PITA tourists.

I'd probably disagree with you there, Only. In the main, the people who behave badly are actually people who WORK in London, but don't actually live there. A tourist is surely allowed to be 'clueless', as they are, after all, a tourist, and are completely unaware of their surroundings and any unwritten 'rules' of the city. A native of the City is often far more tolerant and helpful towards visitors, but the Workers are a breed of their own. They don't live there, but KNOW the rules of the ticket barriers and escalators, complain when the streets are clogged with other people (that means any other person who might get in their way), who might impede their journey to and from work, and who want to get home at the end of the day, but Bugger it, there is a clueless visitor in the way.

tiggy

Pete That was a great story until you let us know it wasn't actually batman

This post is hillarious.

On a practical note, it is far easier to get off at green park and get the bus if you have a pushchair.

I carried a buggy down a steep flight of stairs the other day. I would even have offered before the woman asked if I hadn't been head down trying to get an email done before getting on the underground. Then at the bottom I checked where she needed to go and then carried the buggy down another flight of stairs and it was a fecking tank I even made small talk about the baby.

I do live in "leafy zone 4" though so I don't know what that makes me. I've lived in zone 1 as well and commute to the business district.

Still means I want to kill you if you ignore the signs and stand on the left while wearing a back pack bigger than me.

Love the idea of an uber polite Batman propping up the bar in a London boozer.