Snobbiest places in the UK

I was always called a snob growing up because I spoke "well" and lived in a large house in a very desirable part of town. However, I would argue that this was my parents' home and their constant nagging at me to speak nicely. Me? I got pregnant in my teens and married the mechanic father a few years later. As you can imagine... that went well!!

I have laughed at some of these experiences you’ve described. I would agree that it’s people not places that can be snobbish. I can think of several examples that I have experienced but one of the worse places for people with ‘a bob on them’ in the 1970’s was the National Childbirth Trust. I can remember some very strange behaviour from some of those women. I had a professional career but these people appeared to me to be riding on their husband’s coat tails.. I would listen as they introduced themselves and it usually began with ‘I’m xxxx my husband is a solicitor/ GP/ Consultant/etc. I thought they had such low opinions of self that they had to hide behind their menfolk. So sad.

Snobbishness is such an ugly trait to have.

Albertina " We don't need help from a stupid looking thing like that !" How rude! It reminds me of trying to negotiate my eldest child’s pushchair out of a cafe. It was easiest to back out and pull it. As I made the pavement and looked up there was a woman in twin set and pearls just stood stock still. I apologised in case I’d caused her inconvenience and she snottily said, ‘It helps if you look where you are going’ and waltzed around us (on the wide pavement) with her tweed skirt swishing from side to side. I could only think she had been scouring the town looking for a reason to be unpleasant to someone!

You must have found the one and only snob there or perhaps they didn’t understand your question!

The streets are a tightrope between entitled students on bikes and entitled tourists on pavements, TrendyNannie,
?

The spaces in between are filled with lecturers and consultants.

No offence meant. I just always feel surrounded by the elite?

kjmpde

I have a strong Brummie accent and find that once i open my mouth their attitude changes. So many TV programmes portray us Brummies as thick and that view continues. Is that how some would consider as snobby ?

Kjmpde - I know lots of lovely (and intelligent) Brummies! I’m sure you are one of them. I also came across some who mocked my own quite strong regional accent in broad Brummie tones. I let it go, two wrongs etc

I'm enjoying your stories. Here are a couple of mine:

A college friend of mine's brother was going out with a gorgeous blonde Swedish girl and they made a fine looking couple. He couldn't speak a word of Swedish and confided in his sister with "I think she's lovely but how do I know whether or not she's a Swedish cockney?"


My DM had a cousin who had done rather well for herself and lived in leafy Surrey. We visited her one Christmas when all her family were home including her new GDiL. We both had babies at the time and I was breast feeding. All this young woman said to me or the only thing I can remember was
"Isn't it awful when nanny's away at Christmas - I'll have to heat up the bottles myself.."

Also have you seen the clip?:
www.facebook.com/bbcscotlandnews/videos/938768633628866

Totally agree. How can a place be snobbish, ???

Cambridge without a doubt, says peasblossom I was born in Cambridge love everything about it, can you enlighten me! Very intrigued to know!

I was walking my small mixed breed dog in a small park where I used to live. I came upon a woman about the same age as me who was trying to get her Jack Russell dog out of a stream. It had obviously gone down the steep bank and couldn't get back up.

I approached the woman and offered to help. I suggested that perhaps the sight of my dog at the top might entice her little fellow out of the water. She looked at me in total disgust and said " We don't need help from a stupid looking thing like that !"

I had only owned my little dog for a few months at that point and had no idea such snobbery existed among dog owners.

The village I live in is called Wendover. It is a half n half place. We have the older folk who live here (65 & upwards like me) that are so friendly and lovely and love their village (its been declared a town but to the people that live here its Wendover Village!) but the newer younger families that have moved in and around, so many of them are so up themselves its unreal!!
I honestly overheard a father at the local school well over two years ago and its melted onto my brain!
" Yes, well, I may go to the Chocolaterie on the high street, David Jason goes there you know....Oh I sit and chat with him all the time! We're quite close to Chequers too so theres that yeah, oooh, best dash, must make Mummy her favourite Flan, I'm King of the Flan you know, all my friends say they simply won't come round unless I make my flan!'

I can honestly say I giggled to myself all the way home. King of the bloody flan! lol

Tedd1

I was a mature student about to embark on a nursing degree at Oxford Brooks university. Having difficulty finding the place, I asked an older gentleman if hy could point me the way. He scratched his head and then he said to me “ oh you mean the polytechnic “. He obviously didn’t acknowledge where I was going as a proper university!!

To be fair, if he/d been a resident of the area for ages, he'd have always known it as Oxford Poly! That wouldn't necessarily mean he thought of it as any less of a university. (My husband went there when it was the Poly, my daughter (for a term) when it was Oxford Brookes)

Waitrose

Joesoap

I dont think there is a particular place where it is snobby.I think people who think themselves superior to others qualify as being snobby, mostly people who have come up in the world, tend to be snobs. for no reason at all, forgetting where they started out. IMHO

Totally agree !

HannahLoisLuke

I’m very surprised to see Coventry mentioned as snobby. I know the city reasonably well and it’s got many decidedly run down areas that could never be described as snobby.
Even one of the so called wealthy areas is within sniffing distance if the sewage works ?

Me too. I thought it was a rough old joint. Now some of those nice little Warwickshire villages,maybe.

I have a strong Brummie accent and find that once i open my mouth their attitude changes. So many TV programmes portray us Brummies as thick and that view continues. Is that how some would consider as snobby ?

I dont think there is a particular place where it is snobby.I think people who think themselves superior to others qualify as being snobby, mostly people who have come up in the world, tend to be snobs. for no reason at all, forgetting where they started out. IMHO

My friend and I visited a WI meeting when we stayed with my cousin. We were welcomed politely and asked how we knew J (my cousin). I explained the relationship and you could see us go up in the eyes of the WI members because my cousin is quite wealthy and lives in a big house.

But when asked where we came from, members dwindled away like melting ice cream because it was deemed not a very salubrious area (like all places it has its good and bad sides).

Later we heard one member say to my cousin: "I suppose they had to come here to see you, because you can't possibly go there!"

My cousin was mortified at the remark and apologised to us. But the WI ladies, over the next few weeks, continued to comment on her "unfortunate cousins" so she left and joined a different branch who, she says, are much nicer.

I was very hurt when a 'friend' put her child (a friend of my son), into private primary school, because she didn't want her son to be mixing with the children from that school. We had been friends through ante natal sessions, social outings, our sons had played together. So presumably my son wasn't good enough for her son, and that I feel is a form of hurtful snobbery.

Watch you don't trip with that almighty chip on your shoulder?

Exactly.

I’m very surprised to see Coventry mentioned as snobby. I know the city reasonably well and it’s got many decidedly run down areas that could never be described as snobby.
Even one of the so called wealthy areas is within sniffing distance if the sewage works ?

We used to have a saying for snobbish people "all fur coat & no knickers"
DH's grandma used to say that.

Salcombe! Ah yes, I can remember when it was quite ordinary, just a lovely place to visit.
Like muse said about Cornwall.

We visited the pub my Dad used to go to as a young man, it was just an ordinary Cornish pub, now a pretentious bistro pub with prices to match.
And pretentious customers rather than locals.
Perhaps we shouldn't have been surprised.

These places have been taken over by the moneyed brigade, forcing locals out.

All money, no class.

My late cousin. She was the double and acted like Mrs Bouquet candlelight suppers and all. But the family knew her background!