Loving the common thread so much thought we should go “POSH”

Linen napkins as opposed to a sheet of kitchen roll (common)

Having observed people who have come from a variety of backgrounds, my idea of someone posh is someone who goes out of their way to make others feel comfortable without being in any way condescending or patronising. Now that’s class at any level.

And linen napkins of course

I had a posh neighbour who lived across the road who came wandering over when we had a skip on the drive full of old tat bits and pieces and commentated with a "may I say you have some very nice junk in there" wasn't sure whether he was being facetious but did say "well help yourself if you see anything you fancy". A couple of hours later he came over and did just that removing an item or two, for their house in France allegedly Then again he was an eccentric professor who was prone to coming out of his house with a cup of coffee, putting the cup on top of the car whilst he popped back in to get something and then driving off with the cup still balanced on top of the car....not for long though!

People who go out for dinner in the evening. We would go out for our tea. Dinner is at midday ish.
People who eat supper.

A lot of my relations are called Wedgwood so I must be posh.
We had a girl at school who brought photos of her shooting holidays with her foot on the deer we thought she was posh, poor thing didn't get an o level.
I was brought up to believe I was as good as everyone else and qualifications counted for all " Anything on paper can't be taken away" was my father's usual quote.
I did have an aunt who tried to be posh in her beaver lamb coat my father called them Lord and Lady Docker.

Sago I am laughing at your Mum's list!

Was she Hyacinth Bouquet by any chance?
Did you have an Aunt Violet, the one with a Mercedes, a swimming pool and room for a pony? ???

M0nica

nanna8 Why are the things you describe 'posh'? Expensive, yes, but 'posh'?

Saying garage to rhyme with Farage
I'm posh!! ?

M0nica
Because Australians probably have a different definition of poshness than British people.
Having a house in Sydney with gardens down to the Harbour and your own beach is posh!

paddyann54

Me too Monica My dad always told us we were as good as anyone else and no one was better than us .I've worked with people from all "classes" they are just people, some nice some not so ,its not about what they have or who they think they are.

I think it's supposed to be an amusing thread?

Oops, Australian intonation there ? definitely not posh!!

On the subject of cars, when I was little, it was considered ‘posh’ if you had a four-door car as opposed to a two-door car.

The four doors were probably Rovers or similar, the two doors a little Morris or a baby Austin.

My mother brought me up to consider myself as good as anyone else. If I was ever daunted by "poshness" I was told to imagine them sitting on the lavatory. I can confirm that it works !!

Having an all white cat.
White sheepskin rug.
Detached house.
Just thought of another one.
White Christmas lights were posh
Coloured lights common as muck!

I wonder if having something light coloured was seen as difficult to keep clean and therefore not common??.

Callistemon21 She was the most dreadful woman, she defined everything as posh or common.
I married someone she would have put in the “posh” category and that made her hate me more!
Thankfully I couldn’t give a tinkers toss as long as people are well mannered and kind.
Life as a child was a minefield though, never knowing what was and wasn’t acceptable, I just wanted to wear C&A clothes, have ketchup on my food, watch crackerjack and play with Mary Jane Leary whose mother once wore slippers in the street.

walking your own dogs on your own land in your holey pyjamas

On the subject of cars, when I was little, it was considered ‘posh’ if you had a four-door car as opposed to a two-door car

We were most definitely not posh, then, because we didn't even have a car just ?

Surely saying garage rather than garidge is nothing to do with being posh, it’s just the correct pronunciation isn’t it?

Some of these are so funny.
I remember my mother and grandmother talking about ‘breeding’ too ?
It was a very class ridden society we grew up in wasn’t it?
Not so much now I think.

Chestnut

Calendargirl Being posh is definitely all about breeding and social class. Yes, you can be living in poverty in a hovel and still be posh. Maybe your parents were upper (or upper middle) class and you were well educated, you will always be that person no matter how far you fall financially. Then there is 'new money', people who are from the lower or working classes but have acquired lots of money and are wealthy. Lots of examples in entertainment and sports. They have money but are not deemed posh or classy. Attempts to be posh by these people come across as totally fake like Hyacinth Bucket.

I agree.
Harry Enfields We AreConsiderably Richer Rhan Yow couple were really rich, but their way of dressing and the things they bought and the way they spoke and behaved put them firmly in the category of cCommon as Muck.
On the the other hand, a well educated, well spoken, well mannered, considerate of others person can live in a run down hovel, wear knitwear with holes in, covered in dog hairs, and yet will come across as posh.
It's an attitude

I just wanted to wear C&A clothes, have ketchup on my food, watch crackerjack and play with Mary Jane Leary whose mother once wore slippers in the street.
All perfectly reasonable ambitions, Sago .

My mum had some funny ideas too.
We could watch ITV, but not tell anyone. BBC2 was posh, and I don't think we had it for a while after it came out, but I don't know if that was a regional thing of if you needed a more modern TV than we had.
There were definitely no bottles or jars on the table - jam or ketchup went into little pots.
My mum's cousin bought a new build house when they were quite rare, and it had three loos. Now that was posh. And it had a shower as well as a bath, which amused my father for some reason. He always referred to it as a 'shaaah' until my mum wore him down and insisted they had one fitted. He also had a thing about people called Simon (I have no idea why ?). They were posh to a man - every last one of them!

We had a neighbour who considered herself posher than the rest of the neighbours. We all had outside toilets back then. This lady took in lodgers. She had a notice in the outside toilet attached with a nail, which read 'Please do not wee on the Floar'.

Same in our house Doodledog no milk or sauce bottles on the table. Fish & chips eaten inside from china plates never outdoors in the paper.
My mother had a full pinafore which she wore in the mornings then after lunch she changed her clothes and wore a frilly apron.

crazyH

Anyone who went to university and ‘read Classics’ as we often hear on Mastermind ….

Really??

ixion

crazyH

Anyone who went to university and ‘read Classics’ as we often hear on Mastermind ….

Really??

Oh, come on. Do you really think it is strange that in the 50s or 60s, it was considered 'posh' to study Classics as opposed to Engineering or something that would 'lead to a job', at a time when only something like 5% of people went to university and most left school at 14? Of all the things on this thread that is the least surprising, IMO.

The nuns at my convent school loved the word "breeding" and would announce to the class that certain favoured pupils had breeding, the implication being the rest of us didn't, presumably we all came about in a Dolly The Sheep laboratory type of way, except that had yet to happen back in my dim and distant school days

According to Alan Clarke, posh is living in a castle and inheriting your furniture as apposed to buying it.
Quoted to Michael Heseltine.
Love that man. Didn’t give a stuff about anyones opinion ?

What we have forgotten to mention is that posh people (with class and breeding) would never use the word POSH! It's not in their vocabulary.