UK-born Londoners, are your friends mostly British or mixed?

[Comfortable8520]

Random curiosity question for those who were born in the UK, and currently live in London.

How mixed are your friendship groups in terms of background or where people originally come from?

I've lived here for 17 years and recently noticed that many of my close friends are also from abroad. I'm wondering whether others find their social circles naturally end up quite international, or not really. Would be interesting to hear people's experiences.

By friendship I mean people you genuinely consider close friends, those you would meet outside work or structured settings, stay in touch with, invite to your home, rely on for support, etc., rather than just friendly colleagues or casual social contacts.

You are unreasonable = I'm British born and have plenty of close friends from all over the world.

You are NOT unreasonable= I'm British born and most of my close friends are from here.

My circle is a real mixture, some Brits but also Indian, German, Australian, French, Syrian, Polish and Jamaican.

I am not British born but most of my friends and former partners are/were Brits so even on that basis I am going to assume that friendship groups in London are pretty mixed.

As I've got older it's become less international as people have left London for other areas of the UK or to return to their / their partner's home countries when they have kids.

I'm not in London but I'm British and have friends who were born all over the place.

I’ve recently left but lived in London for 2 decades. Generally in the child rearing years we mostly had international friends because it was a similar lifestyle, friends were family, everyone chipped in with kids and favours and making lives easier.
Generally my London born friends had a majority London born friendship group, mostly because they had those bonds from school, or via family and those people were more rooted in the area for them.

Real mixture- American, Canadian. South African, French, Spanish, Georgian, Russian, Danish, Norwegian, Australian, New Zealand and many more

That's interesting. Are you in central London? Where did you meet all these international friends and how do you prefer spending time together?

Very much mixed.

And those friends of mine who are also British born usually have parents from elsewhere.

Which country you are from? I also had a UK-born partner in the past, that's not the same as friendship though...

Which part of the country/city?

My friends I’ve made in London are a complete mix of nationalities (mostly people I’ve met through work) but I am still close to uni and school friends who are almost all British so overall majority is still British.

Sorry not sure I am following... Your London born friends had London born friends but your group of friends was mixed? Why did you have such a different experience?

I'm in North London and most of our friends are from the school gate (a few years ago now!) some of the nationalities I mention are married to each other. For example our Syrian friend is married to our German friend. Socialising is the usual middle aged stuff; restaurants, theatre, pub, cinema and art galleries. We've had some fun bring and share dinners, with guests bringing a dish from their country or region.

Ah that's interesting! Do you know why that is? We're your parents born outside the UK too?

Thank you for sharing. Do you feel these 2 groups of friends have the same meaning for you? All of my former work "friendships" faded once I or them moved jobs.

British born and have lived in London 30 years. Most of my very close friends bar one are British but the wider social circles I have moved in have been very international: Americans, Irish, Brazilians, Portuguese, French have figured quite high on my social group over the years.

I’m sorry to pick at this particular scab again but I’m afraid Brexit didn’t do much for this. A lot of people from Europe reasonably concluded that they are less welcome here than they were and shipped out. Cost of living crisis and economic chaos have further accelerated this. I still love London and may never leave it but its a much harder place to live than 20 years ago.

UK born Londoner. Of my close friends, 3 are English, 1 is Irish. Wider circle of acquaintances, most are British, Irish or Aussie. At work, it’s much more mixed with a number of other Europeans.

My friends and acquaintances were all met via a sports team, because I chose not to maintain my school relationships and I went to uni outside of London, and none of my uni friends moved to London post uni.

Midlands

I lived in London as someone not from London and my friendship group was mixed with a majority non-uk born people.
London born Londoners have largely London born friendship groups in my experience.

Born and live in London. Friends are mainly British

Friendship group is very mixed many have at least one parent who was not born in the UK (including myself) or are second generation from immigrant parents

Northern Europe. Not sure why it matters.
I did not suggest partners were the same as friends. Hence me saying "most of my friends AND former partners"

Come to think of it, I only have one close friend who is not British-born.

Sounds fun! I wonder if it's slightly different in different areas in London or in my particular area. I am in SW and noticed that most school parents stick with their own nationalities - Brits with Brits, Chinese with Chinese, Eastern European with Eastern European etc... You literally can see how these different groups walk separately after the drop off.

British born. A Londoner all my life. I’m very old lol. I would say my childhood friends were all mostly British born London kids. As were my teenage friends. As I got married and moved into different social groups…school mums, after school club mums…..and then as my career progressed and I moved again into different work scenarios, my groups became very mixed from all over the world. Over the years my neighbours have changed from being born and bred Londoners to a diverse mix of people and cultures. in my experience a lot of true Londoners have moved out

I’m a London born 2nd gen immigrant. The vast majority of my friends are born here but 2nd gen immigrants. This is likely because I grew up in a very diverse area & I went to Catholic schools. I didn’t actually become friends with someone with British born parents until uni.
The area I live in has undergone extreme gentrification and the demographic of where I grew up is now very different, at my dcs school I am still drawn to 1st & 2nd gen immigrants.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Is there a parcular reason why most of your close friends were born here? It aligns with my experience, as I also feel that I am a part of a "wider circle" but never close enough with British-born guys. At the same time, I have plenty of European close friends...

I am in SW London