To hate being from Essex sometimes?!

[PixiNanny]

I move around a lot and meet a hell of a lot of people. Therefore it undoubtably comes to the "So, where are you from?" bit. I'm honest about being from Essex and will admit it happily. However on occasion (a quite regular occasion...) I will get the "Ooh... Essex then? You're an Essex Bird?" I grudgingly repeat myself only to get "Well, you don't speak like one. Do you act like one? winkwink" No, I don't. "Oh. ... Is that because you're a Mum already?" Do you see a child with me? No.

I hate it. Yes I know that Essex has a stereotype and that in quite a few cases that it is true, however I am not included in those cases! Wherever I go I have to put up with it, why should I lie about where I'm from to avoid the stereotypes?!

Maybe it's just stereotypes in general. I'm a bisexual, Middle Eastern, Essex girl. Therefore I must be a nymphomaniac, indecisive terrorist who sleeps around and has two kids at the age of twenty

True, Baz is not all bad. Depeche Mode are from Basildon. I rest my case m'lud.

Thought that South Woodford and Romford are still Essex although they are both part of a "London Borough".

Another Dagenham girl here. moved away long a go but still home!!
I loved SECRETS!! late 80's
Try telling my mum Dagenham is in London, she would be most upset.. she says they were considered posh moving from Stepney to Dagenham in the 40's.

Hello Florence2511, I left in 1993! I was supposed to go to Bristol University but then changed my mind at the last minute and headed off to Nottingham University instead. I wish that I hadn't bothered now as I infinitely prefer Bristol!

I love Bristol but Colchester schools are far more alluring! My husband is an ex Bristol Grammar boy and doesn't quite get what everyone else is complaining about when they talk about the schools here!

JollyPirate are you still in Bas? I am, grew up in Lee Chapel North. It was fab in the 70's, quite idyllic really.

Out all day playing on our bikes, you could ride for ages without having to cross a road. Rounders games with the neighbours in the summer evenings. Nice school, piano lessons, majorettes, dancing, I loved my childhood in some respects.

Moved to Kingswood later which isn't bad at all, I'm now on the outskirts of Laindon.

I didn't go to secondary or out at night here as a teenager though, it was the Pink Toothbrush in Rayleigh!

Attila, my best mate's brother used to hang around with Depeche Mode. Dave Gahan broke his Mum's garden gnome and got a massive bollocking for it

Jolly, which estate did you grow up on....?? I'm a Craylands girl myself (oh joy )

boundary I taught in Whitmore which serves Craylands. Great school

I travel south into Harlow 4 or 5 times a week and can't recall a sign indicating Welcome to Harlow or, coming back, Welcome to Herts. Am I half asleep?

The electrical thing - you're not thinking of the Chelmsford sign that mentions it's the home of radio are you?

That was to sb6699 btw

Jollypirate: Lol! I consider Claccers to be just as bad as the worst in Essex these days tbh!

I think being a stonesthrow from Jaywick has been detrimental to poor old Clacton. I commonly get from the older gens "Oh! That's so lovely! I used to go there as a child/take my children!" All I can do is nod and smile in that situation

I know people in the Sixth form now and they aren't as pleased as you! Though when I was looking at going there (I got snagged by the Colne! Stupid school!) it looked really good. Only gripes I had about it was that they wouldn't take me on for history as I hadn't done a GCSE in it, and neither would the Colne but that was due to a schedule clash!

Oh! Please tell me: is it true that Clacton Pier had a killer whale at some point? My Mum and her brothers keep telling me that it did (and penguins!)! I hear that Butlins was awesome too, my Mum worked for them (but didn't live in) so we're constantly comparing stories of the worst things that holiday camp staff get up too

Ah boundry - I grew up on Five Links estate (aka Alcatraz). Even better - I am living on the estate at the moment LOL, it's fine and very quiet (apart from the car which wa torched out the back a week ago and which is STILL there).

The council are offering me Craylands though which I might take seeing as they are all coming down over there.

JP I'm in a new build not far from the Somercotes shop. Come and have a cuppa

Hahhh! Knew there must be an MNer somewhere here. I am in Elizabeth Way.

Hi benfmsmum - yes it was the Kings and it seems so obvious now but I just couldn't think of it! I also remember it as being a huge place but no doubt if I went back now it would be a lot smaller. Funny how your memory distorts things.

niftyfifty - glad I could be of help!! Not sure that I actually ever went there - well not that I remember now anyway!!

I'm sure that Essex County Council would love for the residents of Romford, Dagenham and South Woodford to pay their Council Tax to them.

However Greater London would be more than a bit annoyed if they did.

Their connection with Essex ended over 40 years ago, which in a way is kind of a shame, it felt like they had lost some of their history.

Even the Royal Mail no longer recognise the Essex part, go to their address find and enter a Romford Post Code. It will come back with no mention of Essex.

However Essex did better than Middlesex, that ceased to exist at all in the same revisions that moved those places out of Essex.

I'm going to be a Essex girl again! Found a flat in Westcliff, should be moving next weekend, all being well...

Ahh now i have it the other way as my dp is from Essex (well born in walthamstow then moved out into essex as a child) and all his family take the piss as im from Norfolk. Although my accent is a mix as my mum and her family are londoners to the core even after decades in the sticks. We spent last weekend in Canvey with my sil &bil and i was surprised how dp's accent has changed from living up here, he sounds really essex here yet when we were there he sounded completely different.

I'm from the North-West but living in Ilford for the last 20 years and I love Essex - gorgeous countryside, friendly people, even the nightclubs were fun when I was of an age to want to go to them... (ah, The Penthouse (or Room at the Top as everyone called it then), The Villa (now Faces), Charlie Chans at Walthamstow Dogs, Flamingo Road, TOTS, Papillon, Dukes, Hollywoods, Secrets....)

Whoever posted about clubbing in Seven Kings would either have been going to Kings (now a car park) or The Shannon Centre (still going!) and your apre-club burger would have been from Jakes, which is also still going strong, fighting off the competition from kebab and chicken shops - Jakes' Gutbuster, anyone? (DH, a Woodford Bridge boy, introduced me to Jakes early on in our relationship - it should have been a warning...)

Fruitbeard - I loved Charlie Chans, also what was the name of the disco in the pub (can't remember the name) nr Newbury Park & the hospital right on the crossroads.
Cor... had my first proper car park snog & fumble there with a boy called Gary from Ilford!

Anon - was that the Avenue? Massive great pile of a place? It's still there...

no it was an old pub, had a boring pub name, green man?? or similar pub name?? But mid 80's it was the palce to be seen... well at 15 we thought it was the place.
The avenue, sounds familiar but can't remember going there, did go to Ilford Palais, loads of time spent at Secrets & Holywoods.
Also went through a phase of drinking in the pubs in Barking.

Also when i was older (20's lol) used to go to Palms!

Essex haters are ignorant. Ignore them.

My DH said he'd never seen better girls when travelling east on the Central Line to see me.

Anonandlike it - I remember that pub but am far too old to remember the name.

I loved Charlie Chan's, not so much the Villa, and never set foot in Flamingo Road.

I liked that bar by South Woodford station and the one at the bottom of Hermon Hill but forget the names.

I wondered why the plaster Venuses were chained to the walls in Lautrec's in Chadwell Heath until I witnessed my first full-on pub fight.

And I never went to 'Chains' in Barking but I suspect very much it was called Cheynes. Anyone confirm?

Whereabouts is the flat anaethema, maybe we can meet for coffee you can't be more than 20 min walk from me