# Are you ex South, living up North?



## Butcher_3rd_Son (Oct 14, 2015)

Hi all,

I would love to have your thoughts on this if you lived for a long period in either the North or South and then moved to the North or South.

I am 36 and have lived in the South my whole life (29 years London and 7 years Dorset). In London it didn't feel very unsociable and hard to make friends, but in the Bournemouth area of Dorset I have struggled to.

In your opinion, is it true that people are more friendly up North? If yes, how noticeable is it? Or is it just a myth?

Would love to hear your stories? 

Thanks for reading.


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## weltweit (Oct 14, 2015)

I grew up in the rural south then studied for 3 years in Yorkshire. Us students were a little insulated from normal Yorkshire folk though but it was fine.

As to whether Northerners were more friendly than Southerners I am not sure. It is my experience that the smaller the town, or better the countryside the more friendly people are. I don't find people so friendly in big cities.


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## friendofdorothy (Oct 14, 2015)

Butcher_3rd_Son said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I would love to have your thoughts on this if you lived for a long period in either the North or South and then moved to the North or South.
> 
> ...


I left Lancashire as a 20 something year old, over 30 years ago to live in London.

Depends where up north. In north west I wouldn't say it's more friendly - more chatty yes. People say good morning to strangers, they talk in bus queues, on trains, in shops and they call you _love_, _ducks_ or _flower_. 

Not necessarily more friendly but definitely more nosey - people may ask your entire life story. They also loved a fight at the week-end, and would pick on anyone who 'stood- out'. Obviously the smaller the place the more 'small town mentality' you get.


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## contadino (Oct 14, 2015)

People are the same all over. Some friendly, others not so. Some welcoming, others more insular. It doesn't matter which country, county, town, parish or street - there's usually the same mix.


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## catinthehat (Oct 14, 2015)

Born in Dorset, moved to Somerset  Then once I left home London, followed by Belfast, back to London, then Essex (the zig zag north to south years) then Leeds, Nottingham, Scotland ...creeping ever northward.  Now Reykjavik. Greenland seems inevitable as I just keep going north and the more north I am, the more I like it.  But as others have said - people are people. My north addiction is partly fueled by the fact that the further north you go the fewer of them there are.


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## mauvais (Oct 14, 2015)

Sometimes the differences are fairly apparent.

Go for a walk in the Peak District and then another in the South Downs, say. See how many people say hello to you, or how friendly they are if you say it. Not every time, but a definite pattern.


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## moomoo (Oct 14, 2015)

I'm a southerner living in the Midlands. It's alright but I don't understand what anyone says, including my own children. :-/


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## SpookyFrank (Oct 15, 2015)

Apart from London and the home counties, pretty much everywhere in the UK is quite nice really. Where I grew up in Devon has more in common with, for example, Derbyshire than with somewhere like Surrey. I feel at home in Derbyshire, whereas Surrey makes me want to kill myself and/or everyone nearby.


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## Favelado (Oct 15, 2015)

contadino said:


> People are the same all over. Some friendly, others not so. Some welcoming, others more insular. It doesn't matter which country, county, town, parish or street - there's usually the same mix.



This is completely untrue. The difference between people generally in some of the places I've lived in has been massive. Cariocas and Londoners might as well be from different planets.


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## xenon (Oct 15, 2015)

People aren't unfriendly in London.  They in the main just don't have time to talk about your trivial bullshit how's the weather et cetera. Fuck off.  Nearly 19,000,000 people living within the M25 no one wants to stop and chat and stuff. Get over it. Go and live in a village if that's what you want.  However, if you take the time to go to your local amenities the pub cafe and stuff you can strike up a conversation people will recognise you and say hello  have a pint with you and so on.  If you are expecting deep and meaningfuls on the tube, bus in the street. Don't be so delusional.


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## Favelado (Oct 15, 2015)

xenon said:


> People aren't unfriendly in London.  They in the main just don't have time to talk about your trivial bullshit how's the weather et cetera. Fuck off.  Nearly 19,000,000 people living within the M25 no one wants to stop and chat and stuff. Get over it. Go and live in a village if that's what you want.  However, if you take the time to go to your local amenities the pub cafe and stuff you can strike up a conversation people will recognise you and say hello  have a pint with you and so on.  If you are expecting deep and meaningfuls on the tube, bus in the street. Don't be so delusional.



Fucking bullshit. There big cities around the world with massive populations where people are nice and friendly. It's not about the weather and stuff, it's about not having a shit attitude and maybe just saying something in a nice way.

Londoners are cunts. Stop pretending they're not. Get over it.


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## xenon (Oct 16, 2015)

Favelado said:


> Fucking bullshit. There big cities around the world with massive populations where people are nice and friendly. It's not about the weather and stuff, it's about not having a shit attitude and maybe just saying something in a nice way.
> 
> Londoners are cunts. Stop pretending they're not. Get over it.





Favelado said:


> Fucking bullshit. There big cities around the world with massive populations where people are nice and friendly. It's not about the weather and stuff, it's about not having a shit attitude and maybe just saying something in a nice way.
> 
> Londoners are cunts. Stop pretending they're not. Get over it.


 Don't live in London then you fucking hippy.  Of course they're all cunts all X millions of them. Oh dear.


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## xenon (Oct 16, 2015)

Not to say cities don't have differing characteristics.  There are loads of goodcities in Britain. The world even. I haven't been to as many as I would like. But this idea that Londoners are inherently unfriendly. It's a misunderstanding.


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## Favelado (Oct 16, 2015)

I don't live in London and I'm not a hippy. It's a scale. Don't need to be a hippy not to be a surly, mardy-faced cunt. Glad I did leave London. People are better in the other big cities I've lived in.

This is a London-based website so there's loads of excuse making for what a shower of cunts you are, but a facts a fact. Don't pretend it isn't unfriendly. You'd have to be deluded to believe that. Or you've never really lived anywhere else.

Great culture, great place to find a job but dealing with Londoners - fucking hell. Awful.


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## Favelado (Oct 16, 2015)

xenon. btw sure I could handle a beer with you! Nothing personal!


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## teuchter (Oct 16, 2015)

mauvais said:


> Sometimes the differences are fairly apparent.
> 
> Go for a walk in the Peak District and then another in the South Downs, say. See how many people say hello to you, or how friendly they are if you say it. Not every time, but a definite pattern.


Funny you should say that as I think there is a noticeable difference even between the North Downs and South Downs. More hellos in the latter.


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## cyberfairy (Oct 16, 2015)

I used my young baby as a test to see how friendly people were in different areas. Lancashire- stopped every ten seconds by someone wanting a look and a chat, Scotland every five seconds, Tiverton, Devon, several times, Bath- not once.


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## kabbes (Oct 16, 2015)

SpookyFrank said:


> Apart from London and the home counties, pretty much everywhere in the UK is quite nice really. Where I grew up in Devon has more in common with, for example, Derbyshire than with somewhere like Surrey. I feel at home in Derbyshire, whereas Surrey makes me want to kill myself and/or everyone nearby.


I live in rural Surrey and it's incredibly friendly.  People are as nice here as anywhere else.  You can't go 100 yards without a chat in this village.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Oct 16, 2015)

London = Shit.
Everywhere else = Not shit.

This covers the basics.


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## Roadkill (Oct 17, 2015)

I do find most northern cities a lot friendlier than London, in that the pace of life is a bit less rushed and people are a little more willing to exchange pleasantries and small talk.  It's much more common to strike up a conversation at a bus stop than it is in London, certainly.  It's not really a north-south, though, though: I'd say the same of Exeter.


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## stuff_it (Oct 24, 2015)

London is better, shame about the rent.


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## friedaweed (Oct 25, 2015)

Wow it's like Oasis v's Blur all over again


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## Belushi (Oct 25, 2015)

I was south for 18 years and now been north of the water for the past 3.  Still getting used to their ways tbh.


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## DotCommunist (Oct 25, 2015)

friedaweed said:


> Wow it's like Oasis v's Blur all over again


and the answer is still pulp/kettering


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## friedaweed (Oct 25, 2015)

DotCommunist said:


> and the answer is still pulp/kettering


I think you'll find that HMHB are still the top dogs


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## mauvais (Jan 25, 2016)

xenon said:


> People aren't unfriendly in London.  They in the main just don't have time to talk about your trivial bullshit how's the weather et cetera. Fuck off.  Nearly 19,000,000 people living within the M25 no one wants to stop and chat and stuff. Get over it. Go and live in a village if that's what you want.  However, if you take the time to go to your local amenities the pub cafe and stuff you can strike up a conversation people will recognise you and say hello  have a pint with you and so on.  If you are expecting deep and meaningfuls on the tube, bus in the street. Don't be so delusional.



I missed this at the time, but sorry, sorry in the way that Londoners are sorry, it's enormous sweaty balls.

If you were forced to personally deal with 19 million grumpy people from the Inside the M25 Complaints Club every day, fine, here's a free pass to being a big dog's cunt, but you're just not, are you. And not enough time? Get to fucking fuck. Yes because Londoners are all rushing about saving the world whereas everyone in the reeeeegions is just idly counting down the cans of Skol until they can pass out on a bench or fall into a threshing machine at the CBI's expense. Fuck's sake.

And I do live in a village. I don't have or in fact want deep interactions with the still mostly random people I meet. I do want them to be functioning humans though, you know, polite, civil, god forbid happy. It's still all cursory, 'ooh, rainy out there isn't it' shite, but if they could somehow pull out their pocket watches and summon up the time to be a normal fucking person, that'd be grand. And amazingly my wish has been granted. Incredible! 

Jesus fucking christ, what is wrong with Londoners. Fuck me, even the Parisians can do it well, and they have to contend with mime artists, the smell of piss and real life dogs in their fucking handbags.


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## teuchter (Jan 25, 2016)

It's not about Londoners having less time overall to be courteous to people they pass in the street but the fact that that time, daily, has to be divided by 19 million rather than 10.

Not 19 million literally. But I grew up in a small village and now live in London and can state without doubt that the number of people encountered on, say, a trip to the shop in those two places differs by an order of magnitude at least.

Plus lets not forget that most Londoners get around their city on foot or in vehicles which they share with their fellow citizens rather than tearing around the lanes in their personal sealed metal boxes mowing down anyone who happens to be in their way in the process.


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## Roadkill (Jan 25, 2016)

teuchter said:


> It's not about Londoners having less time overall to be courteous to people they pass in the street but the fact that that time, daily, has to be divided by 19 million rather than 10.
> 
> Not 19 million literally. But I grew up in a small village and now live in London and can state without doubt that the number of people encountered on, say, a trip to the shop in those two places differs by an order of magnitude at least.
> 
> Plus lets not forget that most Londoners get around their city on foot or in vehicles which they share with their fellow citizens rather than tearing around the lanes in their personal sealed metal boxes mowing down anyone who happens to be in their way in the process.



You have heard of Birmingham, haven't you?


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## teuchter (Jan 25, 2016)

Roadkill said:


> You have heard of Birmingham, haven't you?


Last time I was there it appeared to be neither London nor a village.


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## Roadkill (Jan 25, 2016)

teuchter said:


> Last time I was there it appeared to be neither London nor a village.



Exactly.  Glad we cleared that one up.


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## Favelado (Jan 25, 2016)

teuchter said:


> It's not about Londoners having less time overall to be courteous to people they pass in the street but the fact that that time, daily, has to be divided by 19 million rather than 10.
> 
> Not 19 million literally. But I grew up in a small village and now live in London and can state without doubt that the number of people encountered on, say, a trip to the shop in those two places differs by an order of magnitude at least.
> 
> Plus lets not forget that most Londoners get around their city on foot or in vehicles which they share with their fellow citizens rather than tearing around the lanes in their personal sealed metal boxes mowing down anyone who happens to be in their way in the process.



I've lived in a city of 7 million where people were friendly. Bangkok is friendly too (for example). There are plenty of cities as big and as busy as London where people aren't cold and rude.


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## mauvais (Jan 25, 2016)

teuchter said:


> It's not about Londoners having less time overall to be courteous to people they pass in the street but the fact that that time, daily, has to be divided by 19 million rather than 10.
> 
> Not 19 million literally. But I grew up in a small village and now live in London and can state without doubt that the number of people encountered on, say, a trip to the shop in those two places differs by an order of magnitude at least.


This is, at its heart, a load of shite, though, isn't it.

The number of in any way meaningful interactions that you choose or are required to have, every day, is negligible compared to the population, wherever you are. Buying something from a shop and having to deal with the cashier is an interaction, but merely casting eyes on someone else in a street is not. And for the most part you have direct or indirect control over that number. You can live in a capital city as an almost total hermit if you try (or just don't speak the language). I've done it.

What is it that you people are you doing with your fucked up London days anyway that involves you endlessly bumping into people like some human pinball instead of just being asleep, eating, browsing the internet on company time, eating some more, drunk or asleep again?

And amazingly, even in a town/village of 6,000, _we still have shops_. I know! Some benevolent philanthropist, probably hailing from London, has kindly granted us country bumpkins a 86,000 ft² Sainsburys, and better still, it's full of people, who I assume must be bussed in extras. And they get in your way and clog up the bread section and they don't give way at the end of aisles as per the Road Traffic Act 1988 which I'm sure must apply to trolleys and they have no situational awareness whatsoever and who really cares about any of this save to write about it on the internet some other day?

Yeah alright we don't have an overcrowded rail system, except the one that's clogged up taking grumpy people to grumpy London, and I can see that it's probably not an ideal start to the day being jammed into someone else's armpit. Especially if they're the angry silent type. But the idea that people are proportionately burdened by the number of fellow citizens is a crock. You _choose _whether to be fiercely burdened by the pain of it all and you choose whether you retreat into your shell with some unnecessary siege mentality or not.

I lived in Paris - supposedly a higher population density, FWIW - and random people would say 'bonjour' to me walking down the street as soon as I left the building, like it was fucking twenty four hour Mary Poppins. _The fucking French_, FFS! Good lord.

I'd rather get run down by a friendly Range Rover than live like that.


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## teuchter (Jan 25, 2016)

But what about Birmingham mauvais ? Where does it fit in to all this?


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## mauvais (Jan 25, 2016)

teuchter said:


> But what about Birmingham mauvais ? Where does it fit in to all this?


It's a city in the Midlands in between Coventry & Wolverhampton </nielsen>


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## teuchter (Jan 26, 2016)

.


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## IC3D (Jan 26, 2016)

There is a community of people born in London that are really nice, its the incomers from the country that fuck it up.


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## skyscraper101 (Jan 26, 2016)

teuchter said:


> View attachment 82659
> 
> .



Good luck with that.


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## sazzlelawson (Feb 28, 2016)

Having made the move a few years ago, to the horror of my friends and family. I would agree that northerners tend to be more friendly, if you're paying £700 rent for a box room per month I'd think you'd be quite pissed. I relocated to Media City several years ago and transferred from a Tokyo sized bedroom to a 3 bedroom house in Chorlton with my dog. I'd say this can make a person very happy.


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## Shirl (Feb 28, 2016)

Welcome to urban sazzlelawson  from a northerner.


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## starfish2000 (Mar 1, 2016)

I'm about to sell up & move to Nottingham. I sort of feel people in the Midlands are more warmer & friendlier at first glance. But I've met some great people living down south to be fair.


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## Barry43210 (Mar 1, 2016)

contadino said:


> People are the same all over. Some friendly, others not so. Some welcoming, others more insular. It doesn't matter which country, county, town, parish or street - there's usually the same mix.



This sounds ideal. But in my own experience I have not found this to be the case.


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## Barry43210 (Mar 1, 2016)

Barry43210 said:


> This sounds ideal. But in my own experience I have not found this to be the case.



...has anybody else found this to be the case ?

At all ?


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## starfish2000 (Mar 1, 2016)

Yeah, I live near Maidenhead & commute into work via there. Some of the fuckers lack basic manners, in a way that you wouldn't see in the Midlands. It does seem more money/status orientated as a whole.


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## hash tag (Nov 26, 2016)

Butcher_3rd_Son said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I would love to have your thoughts on this if you lived for a long period in either the North or South and then moved to the North or South.
> 
> ...



Always a Londoner me and never have an issue chatting to people anywhere.
Bournemourth is noted for it's wrinklies I believe, together with it's uni, so no surprises down there.
Are people friendly up North? I know you cannot judge anything on a single incident but just seems apt for now (maybe its a Mac's thing)
Man punched student and called her a 'f*****g southerner'


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## boohoo (Nov 26, 2016)

I lived in Liverpool for two years - loved the place. Found the people either loved you or hated you. I also learned never go into a chippy and ask for a chip butty. 
The southerner bit came up quite a lot.


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## mauvais (Nov 26, 2016)

hash tag said:


> Always a Londoner me and never have an issue chatting to people anywhere.
> Bournemourth is noted for it's wrinklies I believe, together with it's uni, so no surprises down there.
> Are people friendly up North? I know you cannot judge anything on a single incident but just seems apt for now (maybe its a Mac's thing)
> Man punched student and called her a 'f*****g southerner'


Saw this the other day. Grim, but also 3am, so at least somebody in this tale was probably extremely drunk. Doesn't excuse it but it does mean it's not the sort of thing that happens randomly all the time.

I've been back in Manchester - from the south coast - for six months now and everyone is definitely friendlier. Very different set of people though so not necessarily a direct comparison.


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## tommers (Nov 26, 2016)

hash tag said:


> Always a Londoner me and never have an issue chatting to people anywhere.
> Bournemourth is noted for it's wrinklies I believe, together with it's uni, so no surprises down there.
> Are people friendly up North? I know you cannot judge anything on a single incident but just seems apt for now (maybe its a Mac's thing)
> Man punched student and called her a 'f*****g southerner'


As soon as I saw the headline I thought "bet that's in Manchester."


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## boohoo (Nov 26, 2016)

mauvais said:


> Saw this the other day. Grim, but also 3am, so at least somebody in this tale was probably extremely drunk. Doesn't excuse it but it does mean it's not the sort of thing that happens randomly all the time.
> 
> I've been back in Manchester - from the south coast - for six months now and everyone is definitely friendlier. Very different set of people though so not necessarily a direct comparison.



when I lived in Liverpool back in the 90s, I was waiting for a taxi and a guy behind me grabbed my bum and I asked him not too. Nicely because he was drunk. He did it again and when I ask him to stop he told me to fuck off back down south (he also said the same thing to my scouse friend)  All rather shit really.


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## Tom A (Dec 5, 2016)

Born and raised in Plymouth till I was 18, and ended up in Manchester via North Staffordshire and Lancaster. Enjoying life there, can't imagine myself anywhere else, not in the UK at least.


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## Dovydaitis (Dec 14, 2016)

Born in a rough bit of the West Midlands, escaped to Yorkshire at 18. Left Yorkshire 10 years later for love  and moved to Oxfordshire. Desperately want to move back to Yorkshire


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## Cid (Dec 17, 2016)

Dovydaitis said:


> Born in a rough bit of the West Midlands, escaped to Yorkshire at 18. Left Yorkshire 10 years later for love  and moved to Oxfordshire. Desperately want to move back to Yorkshire



Do it.


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## lau1981 (Apr 24, 2017)

I lived in Kent, various towns, for almost all my life and worked in London from age 16. I moved to York in 2012 for my boyf and when we broke up in 2015 I had to decide whether to go back to Kent where my family and friends were or stay in York. I ended up staying in York and the reason is despite missing my loved ones dearly, I really like living in York. It's a much better quality of life for me. People are friendlier in my opinion and there isn't the roughness that there was where I was living before. In York I feel safe walking my dog at 3am which I would never have done where I was living before. I do miss London though and enjoy it all the more when I do go down south to visit.

Everyone's different and this is just my opinion.


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