The friendliest and least friendly places to live in U.K

I agree with other posters, Merseyside is very friendly. I can go shopping in Liverpool and end up chatting to other shoppers.

Beanutz2115

I think you must have lived in the wrong part of Rochdale. We have some lovely neighbours. There is racism though, because ‘minorities’ seem to be taking over the centre of the town. It doesn’t feel like England any more. I can shop in Asda and hear about ten different languages.

Nannashirlz

Being from the north east I’ve got to say us. Having traveled all over country and lived overseas. I’d say north east I talk to anyone and everyone no matter if I know you or not and everyone from north east is the same. Definitely not down south most ignorant people I’ve ever met. You can smile at them and they don’t even smile back lol

It's what you say that matters not that you talk to everyone. As a southerner I've been told how unfriendly we are ( great generalisations )and expected to accept it and happily converse with said NE person. Simply believing you are friendly doesn't make you friendly.

I am Swindon born and lived there all my life until aged 50 when we moved North West.
I got used to wishing people good morning and a nod to people on the street.
A few years later I had to spend a spell back in my own home town. Walking about tried to nod and smile and was ignored or people looked at me as if I'd gone potty

NotSpaghetti

I found Norfolk hostile. We have lived all over the place but wouldn't choose to go back there.

I found the Swaffham area of Norfolk just about the friendliest place I have ever lived in but hop over the border to Cambridgeshire and it’s a different story.

I also got on really well with the people in the Suffolk/Norfolk area around Diss.

Funny how we’re all different.

I moved to Norfolk from the East Midlands 20 years ago in my 50s, largely because my grandparents had lived there and I had spent many childhood family holidays there so I loved the coast and countryside (still do). Funnily enough, just before I moved, I had a chance meeting at a bus stop in my Midlands town with someone who had moved to Norfolk but returned after a year because she found everyone so unfriendly. Since then I've often thought about our conversation because I did find it extremely difficult to make any meaningful friendships here and, even now, the majority of my friends are people who have come here from other parts of the UK. I don't find Norfolk people hostile but they do say that it takes at least 20 years to be accepted here, and I've never lived anywhere else that has such a big, and long-established, social class gap.

westerlywind, that does sound annoying.
maybe polite passive resistance ?
or do you have any glasgow friends/relatives who could come down and big you up a bit in the face of the local snooties.
or you could play the slightly vague dotty card; when they are saying how disgusting the mess is, ought to have been swept up already...
you could smile sweetly and say,
oh, do you really think so, well you're probably right, i wouldn't know.
and drift away. do not respond to them in any way they are trying to manipulate you into doing.
do not acknowledge their self-appointed role.

I love living in the East Neuk of Fife, small coastal villages (Sean Batty ITV1 last night did his programme from there), lots of nice shops, St Andrews if you want something a bit different or supermarkets, people speak to each other, help out best place to live.

I'm a Londoner and I will talk to anyone in a pub or on a tube as do all my family. Hate It when people say Londoners are unfriendly. maybe you mean the visitors in london are unfriendly

As I said previously, people are people wherever you go. I have struck up conversations with cheerful friendly people all over the UK. I’ve also come across some very miserable and rude people all over the Uk.
It is not where you live but what sort of person you are.

It’s never the place it’s always the people. Some people don’t want to interact with you and some do. I’m always cheery and sociable, talk to anyone but some folk don’t want to know and I’ve found that North, South and all the countries I have visited. For some it’s intimidating when a stranger just pipes up.

50 years ago this week we were in Edinburgh on our honeymoon. I remember going to a pub one afternoon and chatting to a couple of customers who proceeded to buy our drinks for the couple of hours we were there . Doesn’t come much friendlier than that

Without a doubt Merseysiders are the most friendly people. I have the Liverpudlian habitat of talking to people at bus stops, on the bus, in shops …I never stop sometimes to the embarrassment of my children. I have not lived in Liverpool for a long time but whenever I visited and asked for directions so many people would start a conversation and hearing my rather Australian accent they wanted to know more. I would go to the Cathedral a lot…so many helpful people and at the main Liverpool library, when I would look at microfiche records people thought I may need help and were full of friendly advice. I am so proud to be from the friendliest city in the UK. This post shows that I can never shut up!

BlueBelle

I haven’t found anywhere unfriendly but I think I shock Londoners on the tube or on buses as I talk to everybody and they don’t do they ?

heh heh, yes they do!
Londoners are very friendly, but I find as a general rule that young people everywhere are too busy on their phones nowadays.Older people do chat away, sometimes, according to my husband, far too much.He may mean me.

I counted up the addresses where I have lived, the other day - both in UK and in Germany, The Philippines, Egypt and China. 22 addresses, unless I have missed any! I've never found any place unfriendly: I think people normally react to the way you are and how you behave towards them. I usually expect to like people, until/unless they prove me wrong...

lived in south west manchester on and off for 50 years, made very few real friends, i would say that people on the whole were reserved,and some downright ignorant, penny millionaires and the ilk.I moved to the east side of manchester, it was noticeable that people were friendlier on the whole, i won't romantise it though, people are people!

I hate to say- but Manchester unfriendly. I'm from the city but it's morphed into a mean and frankly a tad intimidating place. I don't feel either comfortable or welcome there any more on the scant occasions I venture in. Maybe it's because of its now cosmopolitan mix rather than majority Mancs?
Friendly? North East, Durham and we were well looked after I. Edinburgh last visit both in passing and when we got a bit lost!! Everyone helped us find our bus stop and were both locals and folks with foreign accents too! Loved the place!

red1

lived in south west manchester on and off for 50 years, made very few real friends, i would say that people on the whole were reserved,and some downright ignorant, penny millionaires and the ilk.I moved to the east side of manchester, it was noticeable that people were friendlier on the whole, i won't romantise it though, people are people!

South Manchester types live under the illusion that they're 'Cheshire' ?? hilarious how stuck up they are! And they're mostly gronks anyway, you're spot on!!

Congratulations on your Golden Wedding Anniversary, Thisismyname1953!

east manchester was a lot of working class, mills. mines etc now they gone i agree that the advent of gentrification/cosmopolitan mix has split them up. there used to be local dialects, now the accent is similar throughout manchester.The days of the man with a flat cap and two whippets is a memory!

Gabrielle56

red1

lived in south west manchester on and off for 50 years, made very few real friends, i would say that people on the whole were reserved,and some downright ignorant, penny millionaires and the ilk.I moved to the east side of manchester, it was noticeable that people were friendlier on the whole, i won't romantise it though, people are people!

South Manchester types live under the illusion that they're 'Cheshire' ?? hilarious how stuck up they are! And they're mostly gronks anyway, you're spot on!!

I lived in South Manchester for a few years (Withington), and it was one of the friendliest places ever. You can only speak as you find, and I loved it there.

red1

Yes, it’s a shame that the old Lancashire dialects are disappearing. Most younger people now speak in a kind of horrible ‘Manc’ accent (think Oasis?).
However, at least wider travel has meant that certain towns are less insular, e.g. Littleborough in the 60s - if you weren’t born there you weren’t accepted. The M62 has brought new housing, new shops and lots of outsiders to the area.

Funnily enough, a new bar has just opened near us called ‘The Cap and Whippet’! ?

I agree, Elless.

I lived in South Gloucestershire for many years near Bristol border. Our immediate neighbours were lovely but apart from that the others weren't sociable. On busses nobody spoke or passed the time.
Retired to South Devon and its so friendly here. Very different in my friend's east Devon town though. People are quite reserved there.