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Snobbiest places in the UK

(280 Posts)
Mollygo Sun 16-May-21 12:02:44

I noticed a thread in Mumsnet asking this question. What do GNs think?

RosieandherMaw Wed 23-Jul-25 21:07:27

MawBe

What do you define as “snobbiest” ?
Most expensive?
Most exclusive?
Most desirable?
I have to admit I find words like snobby usually say more about the person using it than what is being described.
So not you OP, blame MN!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again!

Esmay Wed 23-Jul-25 21:11:37

Definitely Tunbridge Wells - you have to live in the right part or you aren't acceptable.

valdavi Wed 23-Jul-25 21:11:52

Chelsea was fairly snobby 10 years ago!

Bath is somewhere that can be snobby but like Newmarket & Edinburgh, definitely has an enduring seedier side.

Elegran Wed 23-Jul-25 21:52:51

felice Re the social standing of cooks. When my mother was young in the 1930s, she was the cook in a nursing home, skilled at providing good food to all the patients and staff there. The nurses were uneducated young women up from the country, whose ideas of nursing, hygeine and morals were far from perfect. One day she met a girl-friend of a friend. When she mentioned the nursing home the acquaintance was very interested and said she nursed there too and had never seen her there. "No", said Mum, "I am not a nurse, I am the cook". "Oh, just a domestic!" she replied scornfully and lost all interest in more friendly chat. A snob often has fewer abilities and lower standards than the one they despise

JenniferEccles Wed 23-Jul-25 22:51:39

This thread is four years old and it’s been quite sad reading comments from contributors who, for a variety of reasons, no longer post.
One sadly has died and a few others I believe have been banned.

Mollygo Wed 23-Jul-25 23:42:00

I’m not saying posters don’t have the right to resurrect old threads, but why do it?

Fidelity2 Thu 24-Jul-25 00:04:55

People can also be snobby about accents.
One example
Birmingham accent can be called
Brumy ,meant in a derogatory way.

JamesandJon33 Thu 24-Jul-25 05:14:29

I, for one, didn’t notice this was an old thread

Whiff Thu 24-Jul-25 07:47:02

I always thought snobby applied to people not places. Places are just places . Would you look at a building and say it's snobby. Of course not .

Whiff Thu 24-Jul-25 07:48:14

Oops didn't realise it was 4 years old . Note to self read the date of the OP.

Whiff Thu 24-Jul-25 07:50:07

Fidelity2 people in Birmingham call themselves Brummies . So it's not derogatory.

Pheobe Thu 24-Jul-25 07:53:31

The complex where I live! it's split into 2 sections, one end social housing the other end home owners. The latter think they are better than those in the social housing end!

Kandinsky Thu 24-Jul-25 07:57:20

Well, snobs don’t like living on or near large council estates, or near poor people.
So I guess snobby areas would be affluent areas.

M0nica Thu 24-Jul-25 08:12:12

I think 'snobby' says more about the person using it than the people accused of it. We have lived in a variety of places and always found some people friendly and some people not.

Whether the unfriendly ones are looking down on us, I really do not know.

ginny Thu 24-Jul-25 08:51:59

I think snobby means someone who thinks they are better than others.
People are people wherever they live,so, it is the person that is snobby not any particular area.

Pheobe Thu 24-Jul-25 09:05:32

M0nica

I think 'snobby' says more about the person using it than the people accused of it. We have lived in a variety of places and always found some people friendly and some people not.

Whether the unfriendly ones are looking down on us, I really do not know.

I agree with you, that it says more about the person. I grew up in a council house and my kids were brought up in a council house, My older daughter married with kids lived in a council house in the same road as me and she was fortunate enough to be able to buy it. They sold the house which was on a council estate and moved to a posher area in the same town. She is now one of the biggest snobs I know! My married son was in private rented and they bought a brand new house, he hasn't changed at all.

kircubbin2000 Thu 24-Jul-25 11:28:30

I live in a snobby place. I've joined various things but unless your husband is a doctor etc or member of the yacht club strangers do not fit on. I've sat having coffee with some of the ladies as they discuss people and things I don't know about but they never ask about me. I thought I was getting friendly with one but discovered she didn't know my surname or anything else about me.

M0nica Thu 24-Jul-25 17:44:42

The behaviour you describe kircubbin2000 is unfriendly, and rude but not snobby. Snobs merely look down on you because they think they have some higher social status.

JamesandJon33 Thu 24-Jul-25 18:14:19

I remember when we moved from Wales to North London, my mother had tremendous difficulty with groups she joined. Worst was the local church woman’s group. She never liked where we lived.
It was quite the reverse when DH and Me moved back to Wales. Included instantaneously .

M0nica Thu 24-Jul-25 19:55:19

I think we are unaware of the immense cultural differences there are, even between regions. We have just moved form 15 miles from Oxford to 20 miles from Cambridge and it is like moving from England to Spain.

the town we have moved to is the same size as where welived before, the two main supermarkets are the same, yet everything is so different. The range of foods the 2 supermarkets sell is entirely different to those we bought in the same stores in our previous home. There is a local midweek market, both have a vegetable stall. One sold every fruit and vegetable you can think of, the other sells home grown veg and little else - and much more expensive. I could go on and on.

Two different cultures - only 100 miles apart.

Whitewavemark2 Thu 24-Jul-25 19:59:38

I think those displaying snobbery are almost certainly suffering from a degree of lack of confidence in themselves.

petra Thu 24-Jul-25 20:30:04

M0nica

I think we are unaware of the immense cultural differences there are, even between regions. We have just moved form 15 miles from Oxford to 20 miles from Cambridge and it is like moving from England to Spain.

the town we have moved to is the same size as where welived before, the two main supermarkets are the same, yet everything is so different. The range of foods the 2 supermarkets sell is entirely different to those we bought in the same stores in our previous home. There is a local midweek market, both have a vegetable stall. One sold every fruit and vegetable you can think of, the other sells home grown veg and little else - and much more expensive. I could go on and on.

Two different cultures - only 100 miles apart.

That’s exactly the same dynamics where I live.
Equal time by car 15 minute from my bungalow to this village

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/Barling.html
to the golden mile Southend.

www.alamy.com/stock-photo-the-lights-of-the-golden-mile-at-southend-on-sea-essex-england-uk-15362427.html

AmberGran Thu 24-Jul-25 20:39:23

In Wales I am a snob because I decided leave Wales to work in London. Wales isn't good enough for me anymore apparently - despite the fact I go home twice a year and keep in touch with everyone.

In the NE I was a 'hoity-toit' (don't know if that's how you spell it but it means snob) because I don't have the right accent and do things differently to my in-laws.

It's a weird world. So many people needing to have their life choices validated by others.

Oreo Thu 24-Jul-25 22:17:46

I read once that a snob was the old name for a cobbler, and now cobbler has been replaced with shoe repairer.

Oreo Thu 24-Jul-25 22:18:19

Cobblers were often locksmiths as well.