Why do people think Londoners are rude?

[beejeez]

I'm obviously biased as I'm originally from London, but why do people think Londoners are rude?

I was there a few days ago and it was so great to be back. I find true Londoners so friendly (OK, maybe not when commuting in and out of work, but definitely the rest of the time).

If you talk to them then they are really friendly back!

@Fraine trollopes impeding people's progress made me laugh

Not rude, just not as friendly as from eg Newcastle, my hometown. Possibly to do with the pace of life. God forbid you make eye contact with someone on the Tube! I do find Londoners quite impatient, maybe it’s due to so many tourists, who even I find annoying. Bless them, it’s not their fault, they don’t know where they’re going, they might not have great English, they stop all the time, wander slowly and get in the way. In Newcastle, full on conversations just happen, sometimes there’s no choice, some Geordies don’t seem to care if you’re not really into a major conversation (ime, as a Geordie!)

This is my favourite story of Londoners.
I had just moved to Clapham, aged 20 and was from a small town and very nervous.

I was waiting on the tube station platform mid-day and made the mistake of making eye contact with a nutty woman who was shouting about how no-one loved her.
She came right up to me and shouted "What do you think you're laughing at" and shook her fist in my face.

I didn't know what to do or say so I just stayed silent, rooted to the spot (from fear) and didn't take my eyes off her.

She kept shouting at me until from far down the platform came a man's voice in a South London accent, shouting "Jump! Jump!"

That was enough to take her attention away from me and she immediately begain a verbal tirade at this man. "Oh, I bet you'd like that wouldn't you.."

He just kept shouting "Jump" and she kept shouting various insults back at him. It was clear she had no intention of jumping BTW.

Anyway I stopped shaking after a while and eventually the train came. I don't know who that man was (I didn't even see him) but I have never felt so grateful for the kindness of strangers.

Me too 😂

I’ve collapsed while commuting in London three times over the years. Completely ignored by everyone, each time I had to slowly recover on my own then hobble away. That wouldn’t happen outside London.

I’m originally from London and politeness is different there. In my rural village it’s polite to nod or say hi when you pass a stranger in the street. In London it’s rude to interrupt a stranger’s thoughts like that.

I wouldn’t agree thet most Londoners are friendly, no.

I find this so frustrating. It is so so rude to criticise where someone else lives to their face. I have met so many people over the years who have asked me how I could ever live in London and that it's an unfit place to raise children (I grew up in London!). I have never, ever said anything similar to anyone about their hometown.
Not talking to people on public transport is not rude, it's just necessary to get from A to B with a million others. But I can assure you I'm just as nice and friendly as anyone else and so are my family!

I have lived in many mega cities across the world. Hong Kong, Tokyo, Mumbai, several others. London is the absolute best. It's a great place to raise my DC: diverse, exciting, tolerant...

No one says hi hello to strangers in other mega cities either.

Very few people are annoyed at tourists for not knowing where they are going or for being lost, more a case of getting irritated at some of the stupid behaviours on show. When I am in a new city using an unfamiliar public transport system for the first time I thought it would be common sense to not just stop at the bottom of a rush hour escalator or after passing a ticket barrier so I can look at a travel guide, feel the need to take a large group selfies that block the walkways, try to squeeze onto a packed carriage without taking my massive rucksack off first, ignore the obvious on show travel conventions (like standing on one side of the escalator, letting people off the train first), ignoring obvious queues and marching to the front of a bus stop or ticket machine, leaving bags right next to the sliding doors for people to trip over etc. Not exactly rocket science

Londoners are not "rude." Londoners are millions of people - some "rude" some not. Like anywhere else - obviously. You can't possibly talk to everyone on the tube fgs. You would go demented.

Imagine in a busy London street - "hello nice day isn't it." You'd be saying it a million times a day. I don't know why people come on and say things like, "Well I live in t' Yorkshire moors and when I'm out with t' dog in t' village I say hello t' passers by...." As if this is the same thing!

As for people from places like Liverpool who set great store by all this "ooh, we talk to everyone on the buses up ere, yes we do, we're such a lark we are.." Well have you ever thought this is potentially a different type of rudeness if you can't respect someone else's space on a bus and feel the need to waffle on about some inane chit chat just because "look we're all such a hoot, us up here." In my experience, these "such a hoot / friendly" people tend to talk at you, not to you. It can be quite uncomfortable if it's a needy person, not to mention threatening if it's certain men.

I live in London in Zone 2. We have a WhatsApp on our road and you can post anything and you will have maybe six immediate replies offering help. It's a strong community. Nobody was born here so there's none of this yokel local parochial nonsense you get it some supposedly "friendly" villages. Everyone is lovely, but with the manners to know when to give people space.

Ok well if you say so it's definitely right

@namechangeforthisoneeee are you accusing her of lying?

@girlmom21 no no I'm actually not. Probably didn't word it right, sorry, My comment was however, meant to imply that if she's had a couple of people being dicks to her that means obviously that the millions in London are all rude. Because we are all the same and she's met every Londoner, obvs

To be fair if she's had that experience 3 different times during her commute you can see why she has the opinion she does.

It'd be like if you went to Leeds and got mugged 3 times.

@girlmom21 I would personally see it as bad luck as my mind is open to the fact there's so many people there who are not muggers. But I'm glass if half full like that :-)

Agree with you about Newcastle. IME, I find people are way friendlier to me in London than in Newcastle when I’m on my own. I prefer taking the train to Edinburgh instead.

I know, it's such a double standard! I get rude comments about London all the time when I go to the bit of the Midlands where I grew up. It is always from people who've never been, or who've been on a coach trip to a West End show, or have crossed London while travelling somewhere so their entire experience of it is Kings Cross at 5pm on a Thursday or something.
By contrast, I know full well how shit (IMO) my old village and area is, but I wouldn't be so rude as to make derogatory comments about it or ask people aghast how on earth they can live there.

I guess it is a case of several people here who have literally decades of everyday commuting experience on the London public transport network who have witnessed all sorts of incidents over the years and how the public respond to them finding it hard tally that with the above anecdotes. Also, as alluded to already it is a bit daft to be projecting a bad experience onto the wider population as a whole. I have had a few random people in Leeds 'start on me' in the pub for no other reason then hearing my accent when ordering a drink. The actions of those dickheads were far outweighed by the positive interactions I have had during all my other visits to Yorkshire. i.e. there are twats everywhere you go.

London commuting:

One evening rush hour when I was heavily pregnant with twins and not long before I went on maternity leave, I was walking towards the bus stop when I fell over - I don't think I'd tripped or anything, just unexpectedly unbalanced on my feet. In shock, I just sat on the kerb and burst into tears. Instantly, half a dozen people rushed over from the bus stop to help: asking if I was OK, offering water and tissues, helping me up and to the bench, checking whether I needed to ring anyone. When the bus pulled up, they all hustled me on to the bus first and the driver made sure I was safely seated before pulling away.

I have been in London twice, work related. I found the people to be unfriendly, rather than rude. I was lost & asked someone passing by if they could help me & he looked at me with disgust and walked off 😳 I then ordered some food from the chip shop & even the people working there were quite stone faced. I think it's what you're used to where you live, in my town people are all generally friendly and will try to help you, hold doors open etc. I didn't see any of that in London.

"I have been to London twice..."

Amazing.

@Thefoxsays sadly because it can be a common tactic for beggars or distraction pick pockets to approach you in the street asking for "help".

Off the top of my head we have a number of regulars doing that locally and on our train line:

The guy who asks for money to go to the hospital following a bike accident (he really outs in the effort as well he dresses up in lycra and carries a bike).

The woman who knocks door to door asking for £1 for her electricity meter because her daughter "is on dialysis".

Numerous p[people asking for money for the bus or train.

The lost tourist wanting directions with a map is also a common distraction theft method.

It makes you fairly suspicious and yes rude.

I think they are quite rude. Not on an individual level necessarily, but culturally. No smiles, no small talk in shops, lots of pushing and huffing on transport. Lots of huffing generally. It's probably the same in most big cities though. Everyone is too busy and too important to be friendly ;)

🤣🤣

Where do you get important from?

Just trying to imagine a tube platform with everybody beaming like Cheshire cats, making eye context with everyone and trying to make small talk about the weather or whatever to anyone within 5 metres.

The while place would grind to a halt with this "friendliness."

Not only that, it would be actually scary.