Londoners on the tube are not...

[blaeberry]

Living up to their stereotype. We are visiting London with our three primary aged kids travelling round by tube. Every tube train we have been on so far (over a dozen) we have had people offering us their seats, saying 'hello', helping us with directions, standing back to let my kids sit down. It might be obvious we are visitors but other than that there is nothing special about us. I thought Londoners on the tube were meant to be a grumpy lot but turns out they are nearly all very friendly.

We are! Every time I got on with my babies I always got help and when pregnant I was always offered a seat. Even had an elderly woman help me get on the bus once!

When I travel to London for work I find the tube hellish filled with grumpy, sharp elbowed, impatient people.

When we go as a family the tube is filled with lots if lovely smiley people offering my DV their seats and politely letting them on and off.

maybe it's just me they don't like

Just don't go in commuting time! You'll have people barging past, giving you filthy looks, generally tutting and acting like you shouldn't be there. Not everyone but enough to make a point.
Out of commuting times is fine. Lots of friendly lovely people.

^^DV DC

I think the 'Grumpy Londoners on tube' myth has been disproved time and again, by Mumsnetters recounting their experiences.

Of course you get grumpy people (not all of them Londoners) everywhere, but by and large my experience has been mostly positive over the years.

It's the same with buses here in London. Due to my work, I have to travel on 20 buses per week and mostly find everyone helpful and supportive of other travellers.

But I suppose it's human nature to remember the 1 or 2 twats, and forget the 100 or so nice/normal people.

When I went to London with DD when she was a baby and a toddler, every person was lovely. And, such a cross section of people helped us. Young/old, Black/white, suits/bums hanging out of trousers, wo/men.

Thanks to all the poor buggers who helped me get the bloody pram up and down stairs.

I always remember one time travelling from London to Manchester with 2 heavy suitases and a bag. I had to change 3 times on the underground and at every station someone would offer to help with my bags, one kind soul ended up carrying one up about 3 flights of stairs as an escalator was out of order. Once I got to Mahcester, no one helped at all. Not one person batted an eyelid at me struggling away. So much for Notherners being more friendly/polite! (And I am a Northerner before the North/South debate starts!)

I was always offered a seat when pregnant and the time I was not the bus driver told a guy to stand up he ignored him others on the bus turned on him it was a little embarrassing someone else gave me their seat

And when travelling with ds people have always been nice helped me with pram on stairs given up seats pointed out to others to be careful of the little boy

Moved out of the way politely when my mum a Nana shouted out please move people please be careful my grandson is trying to get on the train

I remember once at Baker Street station, a young foreign woman standing at the foot of the stairs, said something to my DH that neither of us quite understood.

He automatically grabbed the bottom of her buggy and she walked backwards up the stairs, smiling and thanking him.

As we stood on the platform, we noticed her struggling back down again alone.

That's when we twigged she was just asking for directions, and not for help to get up the steps

I love these threads, makes me proud.
I hope you are all having a great time.

Worra that is the thing about stereotypes... The only grumpy person we have come across so far was a man in a visitor centre. A guide at the Tower was so so very pleased to be able to help us that we barely got away .

If its not rush hour then I find people on the tube/buses/etc are often wonderful. If there's an incident I find they also tend to be. In general rush hour though it tends to be everyone for themselves!

Same applies to lifts in office buildings though...

Yes us Londoners are lovely, mostly!

But it would be super helpful if people could respect the specific fast-walking, move-out-the-way quickly thing we have going on, and try and move wazzocky young children out of the way quickly at commuting times if possible :)

I do think rush-hours are pretty hellish. Have done them!

My story is a reverse: We don't live in London, although I was born there and visit often. A (London) cousin came up to visit and we took a bus into our city centre, and as we got off it, DH and I both automatically threw a "thank you" over our shoulders to the driver.

Cousin laughed til he almost wet himself and said "in London, we NEVER thank the bus driver". My aunt has perfect manners and did not bring him up to be so.

Need a like button for this! As pps have said, rush hour always a bit every person for themselves. Around that, people are lovely. Why wouldn't we help? Loads of us were once that person staring, utterly confounded by the tube map.

cousin laughed til he almost wet himself and said "in London, we NEVER thank the bus driver".

That's because we get off the bus ar the middle doors, not the front. On the rare occasions I get off the front I always say thank you

How rude this little scamp is

Yes they are.

Thankfully they are living up to the loveable, chirpy salt of the earth, blitz spirit, knees up muvver brown cockney stereotype.

Your cousin is wrong in a way Fatmomma

A lot of people do say, "Thank you driver", but they tend to be of an older generation or just people who aren't travelling during the rush hour.

On my first morning bus (8am rush hour) no-one thanks the driver because tbh, they can't see them in the crowds.

My second morning bus (9.30am and quiet) lots of people (mostly older) thank the driver.

My first afternoon bus (2.30pm and quiet) again people thank the driver.

Second afternoon bus (4pm and very busy) no-one thanks the driver because again, the bus is too packed to even see them

But mostly the thought is there

I always thank the bus driver through whatever exit. They probably don't hear me, but i thank them. No wonder the locals think I'm nuts.

I've lived in London nearly 20 years and I'm still picked out as 'not being from round here'

I was brought up in Saaf Laandon and we always mumbled a quick 'cheers' to the driver. Has that died?

My mum, who died nearly two years ago aged 90, used the Tube every weekend to come and stay with me until about two months before she died.

She'd pass through the madness that is Oxford Circus on a Saturday and no one failed to give her a seat or carry her wheely case up the steps.

When I dropped her off at my local station the staff would let me see her down onto the train. They offered to call through to the interchange for someone to meet and escort her onto the next line but I'd never have dared insult her.

I also saw people look very disappointed when they offered help and she said sweetly: 'Thanks love, but I can manage.'

If you saw my mum or anyone like her, I'd like to say thanks.

We're all right, you know

I always say thanks to the bus driver and to any staff who happens to be standing near the ticket barriers. Why not?

I have to say too, that when people moan about the stereotypical 'rude Londoner' on the tube, how do they know who is a 'Londoner' and who isn't?

Whenever I travel on the tube, there is a massively diverse mix of regular travellers...Londoners/Eastern Europeans/Africans/People from all over the place really.

And in my experience, 99% of travellers are lovely and look out for each other.

But it would be super helpful if people could respect the specific fast-walking, move-out-the-way quickly thing we have going on, and try and move wazzocky young children out of the way quickly at commuting times if possible

Yep, this - in some of the stations it gets very busy very quickly, like in rush hour in London Bridge, when there's delays on the trains I've seen them close the station within about 5 minutes because of the overcrowding. The whole thing only works because of the fast flow through it.
Maybe the City firms could do what they used to do in the shipyards in Glasgow and let all the slow workers out first (according to Billy Connoly, dunno if it's an urban myth).