To think people are generally happier in the South of England than the North?

[TigerPath]

I've lived most of my life in the North... major cities like Manchester and Leeds, pretty Lake District towns and villages, Harrogate, York, a small town in the Dales etc... I've moved around a lot.

A few months ago we moved to the South Coast. I've noticed the people here seem so happy! They are friendly and smiley. They ask me if I need directions when I look lost, without me even approaching! They bend over backwards to help and just seem so content and positive. This includes nursery managers, Tesco staff, estate agents, taxi drivers, waitresses in pubs etc.

It's much sunnier here, in fact so bright I feel disorientated at times. The town is full of flowering trees and bushes and blossom- every street looks like a beautiful park! So maybe it's the climate. I'm used to rain and drizzle and cloud.

What do others think?

[DailyMaui]

I come from Scotland but haven't lived there since I was ten when we moved to London. It always used to hit me how much friendlier people were when I went back "home" to see my grandparents. In fact, where we lived in London, people were downright unfriendly to us and we were told on many occasions to go back home. I do think that has changed now and London is so cosmopolitan that that kind of open abuse to northerners is rarely seen.

I live in a small town in the south east and it is very friendly and my favourite place I've lived. People here are just lovely, honest.

London can be really different from one place to the next - it is made up of so many areas, that you can walk for ten minutes and have a totally new experience. For what it's worth I've lived in Ladbroke Grove, Wapping, Kew, Shoreditch, Elephant & Castle, Southwark near Tower Bridge, Green Lanes... All areas of London with their own charms and negatives. With the exception of my childhood experience, the unfriendliest place, for me, was Kew: which was the greenest and prettiest but which had some of the most snobby and downright rude people I've ever met.

I think London commuters are really unfriendly and I have to deal with them daily - that can knock any sunny disposition. But then dealing with the shitty train service down here can turn you into a snarling beast!

[FutureGadgetsLab]

Do people really notice a difference in personality between north and south? I have found there are lovely people and right cunts from every corner of the UK.

True but I do notice cultural differences between northerners and southerners.

[parmalilac]

I'm a northerner, lived in the north, south, and Scotland, and find northerners are definitely the friendliest overall. It would be unusual to go to a shop or wait for a bus or whatever, without some friendly chat from random strangers. Lovely, and I miss it, not the same in Scotland either.

[OneFlewOverTheDodosNest]

No, sorry MissHoolies - I refuse to believe there's anything green or natural within the M25.

Ah the joys of having cousins from different regions - I remember meeting up with my Cornish cousins and spending most of the afternoon debating who spoke "normal" and who had a weird accent.

[PartyShitter]

Can I ask where OP lives? Not an exact address for stalking purposes, of course.

I've lived in a few northern cities and have family in Surrey & kent. It's a mixed bag wherever you are and whichever particular place you visit, for example Liverpool has never been anything but incredibly warm and friendly to me but when I visited a small pub in Manchester it felt incredibly hostile and a group of chaps actually said 'go back to where you came from' (which is the north west, actually).
When I visit family in the south it does feel like a holiday. The weather is most definitely better, Kent has a much better microclimate than anywhere up north. The people are as equally a mixed bag as up north though and I think the more touristy areas tend to have friendlier ppl than if, for example, you visited a local pub in a town where you might feel like a bit of an outsider.

[MissHooliesCardigan]

OneFlew When the DCs' cousins visited from Wales, they were genuinely shocked that we have trees and grass and birds in London.

[OneFlewOverTheDodosNest]

Stereotypes run deep with the North/South thing - my sister came to visit Yorkshire and was genuinely shocked to see countryside. "Where are all the factories?" she asked, "I didn't realise it was so green" She'd also packed heavy winter wear for the middle of summer because she'd expected it to be at least 10 degrees colder. She'd only travelled 150 miles but apparently had expected to visit a 1960s mining town in deep snow.

[LarrytheCucumber]

We lived there for seven months! I am happy to accept that we were just unlucky, but we couldn't wait to move.

[Shirkingfromhome]

Maybe you caught them on one of their miserable days Larry?

[x2boys]

i,m in the northwest bolton to be precise the weather has been lovely of late lifes ok here i,m not unhappy neither do i make sweeping generalisations.

[limitedperiodonly]

Did you tip him Highsteaks?

[limitedperiodonly]

I have made literally thousands of journeys on public transport and can count on the fingers of one hand the occasions when I've seen a pregnant woman or an elderly person not be offered a seat.

MissHooliesCardigan people used to leap up to offer my 90 year old mum a seat on the tube and were visibly disappointed if she said she was only going a few stops and it was easier to stand. Other passengers would then create a protective cordon around her in case she got jostled

[LarrytheCucumber]

Most miserable people I have met was when we lived in Birmingham.

[Highsteaks]

Do people really notice a difference in personality between north and south? I have found there are lovely people and right cunts from every corner of the UK.

However, I remember going up to Liverpool for a party and getting in a taxi. The driver kept going on and on about how horrible southerners are and how he always find them much more aggressive and miserable than northerners (and especially Scousers of course). He kept going on and on about it and getting more and more goady obviously in the hope.of getting a rise out of us and proving his point. We of course maintained our characteristic Southern dignity

I know he is just one bloke, but whaddadick.

[Yukduck]

I will let you know in a few years when dh and I retire. We can't wait to tour the UK discovering all the places we have longed to see from one end of the country to the other and stay in B&B's. The warmth and welcome of the locals is a big part of how much you enjoy the areas.

We live on the South coast. People are very friendly if you have a dog or small children but you only ever get to exchange information on the dogs or babies in the brief conversations!

Northerners have a reputation of being warm and friendly and we are looking forward to finding out!

[Dolly80]

AgathaF that's really tickled me. I can envisage all the Midlanders with a rota "what day is it? Are we happy or miserable today"

[Northumberlandlass]

The North is awful. We are really miserable, the sun never shines, we don't have any landmarks or anything of historical interest. Culturally, it is a barren wasteland & heavens, all those factories with no desolate beaches or rolling hills. I'm amazed that Northumberland has been voted the best place to raise families & for holidays in UK. What were they thinking?

[AgathaF]

What about people from the Midlands? Happy 3 days a week, miserable for 4? Sort of decent weather, but not as many fruit trees?

[Abraid2]

My eldest, southern born, loves living in a historic city in Yorkshire. People talk to him, offer him taxi shares when they're waiting for buses late at night. I'm not sure he'll want to come home, tbh.

Mind you, some experience living in the north of Scotland made it clear to me that I need to be in the south for the better weather, even though the over-crowding is driving me mad.

[BadLad]

Its about eight hours after the latest "shoes on or off" thread, so it's on schedule.

[Shirkingfromhome]

Excellent, another north / south divide thread. Was starting to panic, it's been at least a week since the last one.

Everything is brighter, people are happier? Must be all that gold bouncing off the pavements.

[BadLad]

I have found cheerful people and miserygutses in the south and the north.

I personally was much happier living in the south.

[MissHooliesCardigan]

Oh how original- another thread slagging off all us rude, stuck up unhelpful Londoners. I totally agree that visiting somewhere is completely different to living there. Commuters packed into a tube in rush hour are 'in a zone' and are unlikely to strike up conversations with strangers. Outside of that situation, Londoners are as friendly as anywhere else.
London is basically a series of villages with their own very distinct character- Stamford Hill is completely different to Whitechapel, Hampstead is completely different to Peckham. Within their own little parts of the capital, people are generally friendly to each other and there is definitely a sense of community. There is a park really near my son's school and, in the summer, it becomes a kind of communal garden where half the kids and parents decant after school. This park is on a massive hill with views of the London Eye, Houses of Parliament, the Shard etc and a group of locals organised a summer solstice party there last year complete with barbecues, picnics and an outdoor cinema screen. Those sort of impromptu things happen all the time.
I don't think the south is unfriendly - it just doesn't have the 'In your face' friendliness which, as an introvert, I find a bit much sometimes.
I have made literally thousands of journeys on public transport and can count on the fingers of one hand the occasions when I've seen a pregnant woman or an elderly person not be offered a seat.

[Dolly80]

I agree with the PP's who've said it's probably the people you meet/their personalities not the place they're from that determines happiness. I've travelled North and South and met happy people and miserable people all over. For example, I'm a Londoner and I'm happy!

That said, I travelled from London to Leicester one weekend, whilst pregnant and with a 4 year old in tow. I found people on the tube very unhelpful/unfriendly and was indignant that my fellow Londoners would be so grumpy on a Saturday... until I realised nearly everyone in the carriage had maps/cameras/tourist paraphernalia. Lesson learned - the person you meet in London (or anywhere) might not actually be from there

[BeStrongAndCourageous]

I think it depends on the area. I'm from the north east, and have lived in the north west, the south west and London, before settling in a naice part of the Home Counties.

Most people where I am now are ok, but with a largish subset of miserable, snooty types with a misplaced superiority complex. Geordies general are friendly and cheerful, but a lot get aggressive when drunk.

Londoners, OTOH, may not be the most open and chatty lot, but I was never once left unaided in London when I needed it. Whether I was lost, drunk, injured - or one occasion all three - people always helped out, and I made the best friends of my life in London. I think, especially when you're young, there's a sense that "we're all in it together" and have to look out for each other, because most of us aren't "from there" and have all had those "oh shit, what now?" moments at some point.

I found New Yorkers friendly in a similar tbh.