Is it friendlier Up North?

I have loved in the North all my life.in various places
First plsce.West riding.too friendly ,neighbours popping in any time never knovked.didn't like that.
Moved to a Morecambe after my divorce.people couldn't do enough for you.even when i was looking for a place to live after living at parents people would actually let me know if they had seen anywhere advertised ,made a lot of friends
Moved to the East coast,just the opposite..
I have loved here now for about 50 years and in this house for 40 years.don't know many people even now
When I first moved here ,my sister loved here we went out together and got looks because we didn't come from here
I will make conversation with anyone.but that's as far as it goes
When I first moved here I was told people weren't accepted so easily from away.
I see people when walking my dog and made a few friends to chat to and that's it

MacCavity2

*DaisyAlice and Merlotgran* that’s three of us now with a view of the Isle of Wight. I’ve lived in London and Kent but this is the friendliest place I have had the good luck to live. The New Forest and the sea. Wonderful.

Did my Midwifery training on the Isle of Wight. It was great. Drove all over as my friend and I had Yamaha 90 motorbikes. So much different scenery on a smallish island. The midwifery classroom overlooked the prisons and we used to wave to the Camphill chaps who were allowed to tend the verges on the roads. We had a flat in Cowes which overlooked the water and we could see cruise ships sailing out. Fond memories.

Might be friendlier But I heard from a friend up there just today that NHS service is much worse than down South.

I'm from the North East of England and were very friendly. People from the North will talk to everyone, in a shopping queue, walking along. Some southern people are more quiet, reserved, nose in the air, but when I've visited my sister in law in Hampshire, there are loads of very friendly people. Keep being friendly

septimia, that’s a ridiculous statement. I am, like a lots of other people that live in the’South’ happy to strike up a conversation with other people first, otherwise nobody would speak to anyone!

On another note this kind of divisive conversation makes me so mad🤬🤬🤬🤬, it’s totally unnecessary and doesn’t achieve anything. To me it’s as bad as making racist comment.

I’m another South Coater with a view of the IOW🛳⛵️

The trouble with villages where everyone knows everybody, is that they form closed groups that do not welcome newcomers, Fine if you are an insider, tough if you aren't.

I have led a peripatetic life, my father was in the army and we were always on the move. It mean I have lived in England north and south, plus several south east Asian countries and several European countries.

The only unfriendly place I have lived in is the Flemish region of Belgium. I will not burden you with descriptions of their constructive unfriendliness and unkindness, but I was not the only one to find them signally unfriendly.

I have had no problem at all anywhere in the UK.

I was born n Suffolk. lived in London, Cambridgshire, Nottinghamshire, Essex now moved back to the UK from 25 years in Spain and France and live in the North ....loved all the places I have lived and always found people to be friendly and welcoming (my neighbour is trying to teach me Geordie (he's not having much luck, I still need an interpretor ha ha )....life is what you make it wherever you live .....not sure where to next .......ha ha

Interesting that the, ‘ Where are you from?’ question is regarded as a mark of friendliness in this thread and not traumatising and worthy of that great condemnation, a horrified Tweet.

I'm from the South.
Lived up North since 1991. I think people are friendlier up here.
And I'm bloody lovely to everyone!

Meant to say, My head's an absolute shed today... I may just go back to bed. Lol 😆

Yeah, there are differences, but only if you really try to seek them out. I'm originally from Manchester, born and lived there for 38 years. Moved down to Poole in Dorset over 10 years ago, and at first I found probably about 80% of the people I met quite curt, bordering on rude. But as time has gone on, I got used to people here, I found their attitudes have softened, unless I was just mixing with the wrong folk in the first place. Lol. Anyhoo, I think, as you get used to each other, you often find that the way you first looked at other people's perceived personality, ended up being a mis-representation of how they actually are.
And if you can understand any of the absolute drivel I just wrote, then you're a much better person than me... lol. My head's an absolute she'd today, but I hope you all caught my drift. 🙃

I have always found friendly people wherever I went when on holiday in the 🇬🇧. We spent most of our time in the Dorset area. But have friends in several places in the UK.

"Even going into shops if you even said Hello on entering and if there was another customer in already they reverted to speaking Welsh even though I had heard them chatting in English on entering. Happened in a lot of places. I admire the Welsh for using their language but to obviously so deliberately change was to me very rude."

I've experienced that too in Wales. My Mum's family were Welsh and we often visited family there. Once people realised she was Welsh they wanted to know all about her and why and who we were visiting. In Mum's opinion that was just plain nosey! She once asked the village postmistress for directions to a care home where a very elderly aunt was resident. Word quickly went round the village that we were very wealthy because the home was a private one! Suddenly everyone spoke to us.

To any GNERs who are Welsh, don't be offended it's just a recollection. I have many happy memories of visits to Wales and the warmth of the Welsh people.

I think they are. I was born in Lancashire but now live in Sussex. I think people in the north are more relaxed and very open to just chatting to people they meet. People in the south seem more reserved unless you break the ice and talk first (then they are friendly and chatty!) Smiling at everyone breaks the ice too.

A friendly wave to DaisyAlice, Merlotgran and MacCavity 2 from across the Solent! We moved over here 10 years ago and have been delighted at how friendly people are here. One or two were a little cautious until they knew we were residents and not holiday home owners. We spent a week decorating our house before our furniture arrived and we needed a ladder. We didn't want to buy one as we had several in storage, so I popped into the village hardware store to ask if I could hire a ladder for a few days. I was promptly handed the perfect ladder and told "Just bring it back when you're done with it." I offered payment and proof of identity, the reply was "Not necessary I know where you live. Is there anything else you need?"

We have found people all over the island to be very friendly, helpful and trusting. The garage that services our car doesn't ask for payment until the end of the month. DH says 'In London they wouldn't give you the keys until you'd paid!'

Complete strangers always greet you with 'Hello' or 'Good Morning' or at the very least a smile or a wave. We can always tell the holiday visitors because they don't do that.

I'm a Londoner born and bred and have always found them to be friendly, but perhaps in a different way. They're more reserved until they know you better and less likely to start a conversation with a complete stranger, an element of suspicion perhaps: Why is this person speaking to me, am I about to be mugged. But in my experience they would help anyone in real need. I will happily to talk to anyone whoever they are.

I think if you have a friendly manner you'll get a similar response from those you meet, wherever you are in the country.

Like DaisyAlice I could swim in the Channel every day fur a very short walk, however I once went to Sheffield, very ‘norf’ to a Kentish man, and found the people unbelievably uncouth, rude and unwelcoming. Grumpy bastards to a man, especially in the pubs, where my girlfriend was not at all welcome, so give me my good old southern region, any day of the week. .

I'm a northener but haven't lived there for around 50 yrs. I found the southerners incredibly friendly, we made lots of friends there and found people very straightforward which we both appreciated. Now live in small village in West Mids and found it much harder to make any friends here, most seem very parochial and mainly unwilling to allow any 'foreigner' into their circle. Generalisations of course but glad so many people find us notheners friendly.

My family originated in the North West and I live in Northumberland. If I smile and say good morning when I'm walking my daughter's dog in Bristol, many people are amazed but either return the greeting hesitantly or are shocked and scurry silently past! They probably think I've escaped from an institution! I've never known anyone initiate a greeting down there! 😂 Here in the North East, we roll our eyes if people don't greet us or respond to our greeting. We're a friendly lot up here in the Frozen North.

In my experience (I have moved, gradually, from Hertfordshire to the north east of Scotland) there is no difference in friendliness or helpfulness. We were in London recently and everybody we met was lovely. Only on Skye and in Snowdon have we ever felt out of place - people quickly lapsed into Gaelic and the Welsh language when we entered shops.

MY experience is that Northerners are friendly to their own kind, but view Southerners as overprivelidged and stuck up.

One very close friend moved up North when she married a Northerner and found it very difficult, she was always made to feel an outsider. Her husband refused to move South as he held the same views as above. However when the came down South for my daughter's wedding, within 48 hours he was putting an offer in on a house in our village saying that he had not met one snotty person and how wonderful everyone had been!!

I have always found the South very friendly, and trips to the North and Scotland particularly I have found the natives very condescending.

I actually have a lot of Northern friends in the South and here in France, and I was very close to my Northern inlaws who lived in the South.

My daughter was briefly at Liverpool University and found huge discrimation because she was from the South, and told me not to speak too much or the prices would go up! she was so unhappy there that she soon moved to Nottingham.

So no, I don't think people are friendlier in the North, it's a fallacy.

Yes, Londoners are suspicious of strangers, but this also extends to other cities in the South.

The unfriendliness of some places is unreal. Having grown up in a village where everyone knew everyone, I've found some cities to be unpleasant places where you might not even fit in if you lived there 30 years. If people judge other people on their own standards then I'd hate to know what their "standards" are for them to treat others the way they do.

Thankful to live in a smaller place now.

I live in Essex and everyone is friendly where I live, young and old, everybody greets others with a cheery hello. Sometimes it takes ages to just pop to the shops because of the number of people you stop and chat to on the way.

I was born and brought up in the NE by the seaside and it was wonderful. Everyone used to say hello and was friendly. When at the age of 15 my parents moved us down to a suburb of NW London I was totally shocked that everytime I smiled and greeted a stranger on the way to the tube station that they just blanked me.

I still live in the South but moved to a town about 20mins away from NW London. To be honest it's not much better. I've lived in the same house for over 20yrs and I think I could be dancing naked in the front garden and people would just walk past and ignore me, it's quite bizarre.

The only place I ever encounter any level of friendliness is when I take my dog to the park. Suddenly everyone is friendly and we stop and chat about dogs and the weather, even managed to make a couple of new friends.

Still prefer the North though.

I’ve never lived in the north. Until recently I lived in outer London where nobody spoke to you or was particularly friendly. Everybody was rushing it seemed. Now I live on the south coast and it is very different. People are friendly in the shops, they chat, are more smiley. I guess there are differences depending on where you live.

Whan my mother ( from Staffordshire) was dieing in her bungalow 'up north' in the Fylde,she would complain that neighbours would trek up a 10 m path to shout through her bedroom window ' How are you, Mrs H?'
She was desperate for help....... I was several thousand miles away with a new baby and could not fly.
No help was available either paid or voluntary. My father had always tithed money to the local church from a very limited salary and also spent his time; 'helping those who need it' Funny that none of these saw fit to help Mum
We now live ( and have for 50 years) in a Hampshire village The newcomers seem very pleased to have found each other here and their listed buildings on the money raised in leaving London Similar age with smallish children Had met in London

Suddenly the village in which they have arrived is stratified They are kindly and very helpful incomers but we are no longer a mixed community The village community and activiities have dwindled almost to nil ..... the house and service prices have escalated..... the shop has gone...as has the bus service

A moveable community and much of its original culture and all of the activities lost