To be annoyed by people who claim they live in a different area due to snobbery reasons?

[Rosehip10]

Why do people do this? Are they so insecure they have to pretend they are somewhere else?

I know much of this rubbish comes from estate agents, but some people seem to take it to heart......

Two classic examples from people I know.....

1.) "I live in North West Hampstead" (They live in Cricklewood)

2.) "I'm on Farnham Borders" (They live in Aldershot)

Ridiculous.

This has always amused me, I grew up in Slough and so I'd see it a lot, people either wanted to pretend they were really in Windsor, or they were really in London. I knew someone who would just insist they lived in "Royal Berkshire" (emphasis on the "Royal")

There's even a train station South Wimbledon which isn't in Wimbledon, it's in Merton (less well regarded, to put it kindly).

Ha it's a running joke with friends and family that I do this.

Bought first home, ex council. On edge (2 min drive) from the lovely area where I grew up/ family live.

Instead of saying I live in insert council estate name, I say I live in 'upper insert name of nice area I grew up in.' So for example 'upper Wilmslow'

There is no such place as 'upper insert name of nice area I grew up in' it's just a joke because I don't really love living on a council estate where crime rates are high and neighbours are shouty.

Yea lots of people living in Peckham say they live in Dulwich 😆. It’s hilarious.

These are so funny, a lady I used to work with kept going on about “the village” she lived in or Blackheath. She lived in Eltham! Countless of Peckham people saying they live in Dulwich and yea to the “telegraph hill lot too. Oh and my personal favourite “Bellenden Village” Nope, it’s still Peckham 😬

Wimbledon has mysteriously got a lot bigger since I used to live there.

Friend claims she lives in Sutton Coldfield.

It's Erdington.

Same friend only wears designer clothes etc... all off the back of a lorry,

I live in Catford and I've been guilty of sayjng Forest Hill (and even "south of Greenwich") but it's more because a lot of people have no idea where Catford is.
I'm proud of my Catfordness.

@Redrunbluerun

People do this with the Cotswold all the time! If the cotswolds stretches as far as estate agents said it would be about 4 times the size!!!

MIL does this. She lives in an attractive village in North Oxfordshire yet insists it's in the Cotswolds which officially starts five miles away

Yeah I have a friend who lives in SE15 but the other end of his road borders Dulwich. He won't have it that he lives in Peckham.

Apparently much of Brockley is "Brockley Village" now😂
trés posh

An old boyfriend swore he lived in Chigwell, Essex.
He did not.
He lived in Hainault.

Calling Clapham Junction Clapham - it's not it's Battersea! So many shops and places get this wrong. If your post code is SW11 it's Battersea.

If people didn't look down on where others live, no one would have to lie.

I also noticed lots of made up mini villages in London. Including
'Affectionately known as The Triangle'
'High Fulham' (the bit between posh Parsons Green, not Munster Road but want to avoid Hammersmith Flyover or North End Rd)
Sought-after Little India area of Battersea

I hate it, it's so pointless.

I guess it is triggered by nasty remarks and reactions though. Some people aren't afraid to convey their disdain for what they perceive to be even marginally "less naice'" areas.

I lived literally a stones throw from my friends house in my old village. In a house I loved for so many reasons. But it was a horrifically snobbish village and mums at baby group would introduce themselves then ask where you lived before deciding whether or not you were worthy of their friendship ,(my friend was, I wasn't , based on the arbitrary dividing line of disused railway tracks that bisect the village). It was utterly ridiculous. Many would then come crawling back trying to make friends with me when they found out who I mixed with /what my job was. But they had shown their true colours by then!

I can vaguely understand on holiday where someone may not know your area well so near Manchester/St Alban's/Edinburgh will suffice. But in the local area with people who live near you is daft.

I remember as a teen meeting a girl at a residential summer camp. Initially she said West Hampstead, then Totteridge then finally admitted it was actually Barnet EN5. Nothing wrong with Barnet but it's not West Hampstead or Totteridge!

Someone at work said she lived in X Road in Belsize Park. Me, a local, "that's in Kilburn isn't it?". Death glare. Didn't speak to me again in the subsequent 2 years we worked together.

Off topic, but thought the brothers were from Burnage (now renamed as East Didsbury) in another forced Estate Agency Gentrification.

Haha yes! Burnage! Seems to have been completely swallowed up by ‘East Didsbury’ and ‘Heaton Mersey’!

@glasshalfsomething I always thought East Didsbury was a different/distinct area (albeit adjacent) to Burnage

Yes! East Didsbury is the small area near the big Tesco (where the train station is).

I've just realised I do the reverse of this. When I tell people the district I live in (massive bit of a city, includes many naice houses) I always follow up their "ooh, lovely" with no, the shit bit

I think it's to set their expectations so they aren't disappointed to see that we live in an 1920s ex council house that has seen better days adjacent to an A road, not a Victorian terrace by the common.

@Bagelsandbrie

My step mother (who I can’t stand) is dreadful for this. She lives in New Addington in Croydon which - if anyone knows the area- is rough as shit. (I come from the area myself so feel justified saying that!) and she insists all post is addressed to her at “Addington Village” which I’m not even sure exists anymore or ever did and certainly isn’t her listed address!

I come from New Addington, and people were giving their address as simply "Addington" on job applications etc as long ago as the 60s, to avoid being discriminated against in job applications etc.

Now, if you say you live in "Addington", ie Addington village, people just assume you mean New Addington anyway.

People who say they live in a village when they just live in a suburb of a huge conurbation.

I live in a village with fields surrounding it, and roads with no street lights once you leave the village. We have one pub, one shop, a church, a school and a railway station.

@ChristmasCreamCrackers

This is the 'actually' syndrome isn't it?

Do you live in Brighton? No, Hove actually!

Do you live in Liverpool? No, the Wirral actually!

Do you live in Eastleigh? No, Chandlers Ford actually!

The Wirral and Liverpool are completely different places though....there's a massive stretch of water separating them! Different postcodes. The only thing that is the same is that they are part of Merseyside.

[quote Werk]@MrsBennetsnerves Nick Ferrari does this - says on his radio show that he lives in Blackheath... definitely SE13 though (and I don't see the shame in saying so - some of SE13 is lovely).[/quote]
Yes! I’ve been to his house and while it is big and lovely it’s certainly not Blackheath. It’s a stones throw from Lewisham shopping centre.

Oohh. I think I do this. My postcode, and the other end of the road are in a famous suburb of Birmingham. So to Brummies, I tell them where I actually live, to anyone outside I say the famous place. But it’s so they have an idea of geography, not showing off.