Friend giving safety tips for London?

[breezeofqinter]

Maybe I sound horrible but me and a friend are visiting our mutual friend in London tomorrow, she’s lived there for maybe a year.

Shes just text us to give us safety tips. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve been to London, I even work from the London office occasionally.

I know she means well but aibu to find it a bit patronising?

@breezeofqinter

I can't imagine offering someone coming to London safety tips.

What were her tips. OP?

Obviously these are the things she worries about

"You don't need to worry, I have been to London before 😉!" if you want to say something.

She is a Country born and bred person, so I did see fit to warn her as she’s very trusting.( Or was!)

I was amazed she had the nous to grab the child- I don’t think I would have dared!
😂

Maybe she has forgotten how often you have been in London. Maybe your other friend is less familiar and she sent the info to both of you. Maybe she has had recent guests who requested/were grateful for her tips so now she sends them to all prospective guests. Maybe she thinks you have a carefree attitude to risk and she worries about you. Maybe she's just a worrier.

Depends on the tips really. If they’re super local (e.g - don’t walk through the square outside Woolwich station ) yabu.

if it’s more like “be aware of pickpockets on the tube” than YANBU.

I live here and can’t think of any safety tips I’d give specific to London that aren’t standard city street sense tips.

can anyone think of one?

LOL. I've got a friend who lives in London and does this sort of thing. I think people who live in London sometimes think they own it a bit. Just tolerate it, or gently take the mick.

as everyone has said, it depends on the advice
If it's time and location specific 'Hey guys there has been a spate of muggings on the [line you are going to take] with people using [specific tactic] over the last week so just be extra careful,' then fair enough.

If it's 'Don't forget to stand on the right and don't leave your bags unattended/remember to look both ways before crossing the road,' then yeah it's a bit weird.

I'd be tempted to either leave it or give a jokey 'okay mum,' reply initially and see how she is when you actually get there.

If she carries on giving the whole 'Native Londoner' spiel you can cut it down quite easily by out-patronising her 'X I know you've only lived in London for a year but this is all really basic stuff,' or playing her at her own game by telling her something really obvious "X did you know you can pay for the tube with your contactless card?" Then when she says 'Um, yeah, of course, everyone knows that?' you can reply with 'Oh, okay, it's just you kept telling us all this really obvious stuff so I assumed you weren't very confident/hadn't gone out and about much yet.' Or just the straightforward 'X I'm not sure why you're telling us this as if we've never left the shire before?'

She's being ridiculous

Haha my sister does the same, because you know, us still living in the provinces. The fact that I'm older and had been to London as well as many other capitals globally whilst she was still in nappies seems to pass her by.

I consider myself pretty streetwise and have lived in London for nearly 2 decades and still travel in several times month for work. Despite this is failed to notice the phone muggers on their bikes when I visited the area around St James's Palace. It's a newer phenomenon and I would have appreciated a warning. My colleague just told me after we has passed them.

My fella, and I went on holiday to London. We visited all the tourist spots, and a day after leaving for home. All the area's we visited had being bombed even the toilets. So it put us off staying there in future to be honest. But we did visit another time, and my fella needed the loo so I stood waiting for him. I noticed a sign saying about a murder at the pub/restaurant . Then my fella told me he got told off because he never noticed the chalk on the floor in the men's.

I came into London last week and was in St James palace. I actually didn't realise the phone muggings were that blatant /endnof aisle on tube etc. Most people I saw had their phones out.

So yes I perhaps could do with your friends tips!!!

Er, when was that? The 80's?!

The OP is being quite cagey about answering the question about what advice her friend gave but my mind immediately went to phone snatchers too!

Ive lived in London for ten years and remind people visiting me to be careful about having their phone out on the street bc of phone snatchers. We have a fb group for people living in our block and if our neighbours see it happen on the street where we live they normally post on Facebook just giving people a heads up that it’s happening. Maybe the friend is just being kind!

Adding to this I have my sensors out all the time when walking in London and generally, (uptight) and did not in the slightest take notice of these boys circling the area on bicycles in such a casual and unassuming way.

No!
All Cities all over the world can be dodgy for muggings.

And then you woke up…

Quite..

Is this when people have their phone out in their hand?

having my phone snatched would be absolutely terrible - somebody who could unlock it could access pretty much everything. I'm always up for safety tips!

I'm very intrigued to know what the safety tips were that she was giving you.

I never keep a phone in my back pocket. I prefer to keep my cash, and phone in a bum bag. I don't use bags these days unless in a group. I saw a stream where a woman keeps a old phone so if it gets stolen in public it won't matter.

Of course it's incredibly patronising. I find people who've moved to London or lived in London like to give unsolicited London advise, commonly tube advise.

It's like just because dont live in London you could never have visited it or any big city. As if you hadn't considered pickpockets exist or can't navigate a train