Rudeness

[Melasmapatch]

I apologise if this offends anyone…but as a non- English native (well I am English but I have spent most of my life overseas!) can someone please explain to me why people in London- particularly English people- are so unfriendly? Particularly the women (to other women).
I just popped out to put my bins out and the next door neighbour walked by me twice- twice- without so much as a smile. I smiled and said hello to blankness.
It has been like this since we moved in! The day we arrived she popped her head out to clean her son’s football boots and ignored us completely! Her husband on the other hand actually said hello.
I find the same unfriendliness and coldness in most English people in London- school gates, kids parties, you name it. The only friendly people I find tend to be the ones who have lived overseas themselves for periods and are perhaps more used to putting themselves out there.
Just want to understand how we became so unfriendly, or is it just me?! And again apologies if this offends anyone, but it baffles me as it makes life so much more dismal and grey than it needs to be.

London is particularly bad for this. It's pretty standard. The rest of England to varying degrees I'd say. But then, my Czech friend asked me why English people smile all the time when they talk to people so I guess it's a sliding scale!

Your neighbour might be reserved. Please don’t take offence, you don’t seem to have done anything wrong.

Londoners are notoriously unapproachable and often won’t engage, I think it’s because a stranger trying to strike up a conversation is deemed to be a distraction technique rather than friendly gestures

Oh do we really have to paint the whole of London’s female population the same? Of course not all 4+million women who live in the capital are the same (just like anywhere). Some people are friendly, some are not. It’s just like people who categorise people by their star sign. It’s rubbish.
I've lived in London all my adult life (40 years) in various different parts and of course some people aren’t that nice. But many are.

I don't agree, but then I'm reserved myself, I'm friendly with my neighbours but not in the popping round for a cuppa sort of way. We would help each other out in a crisis. London people are fine.

London is a particularly transient place, people arriving and leaving every day. That doesn't help with building relationships.

I see it as well, as someone from the sticks who has to commute occasionally. I go from a place where people say good morning if I'm out weeding the front garden when they walk past, to people who will walk through you without batting an eye.

But I know from my colleagues that there are in fact lots of lovely friendly people there, you sometimes just need the common ground and a bit of time to break down the outer shell. It never stops me being my normal self when dealing with staff and other people I interact with on a one-time-only basis either.