Londoners - Are you Real or Fake?

luka

Well-known member
i know theres a lot of people here who live in london and act like they know it really well and understand it and have like,deep insights into its nature and the nature of its inhabitants, and they would think of themselves as londoners. they probably reckon they know they're way around,probably like to think they're pretty streetwise, know their crackheads from their smackheads and all that, but really,deeop down, they know they moved here 3 years ago,from some shithole in the sticks. so what i want to know is, who here was born and rasied in london.
which part? just out of interest. where do you live now?
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Definitely fake. I was born in Swindon and grew up in Uffington in Oxfordshire. I moved to London in 2000 (I think) and I've lived in Maida Vale, Mile End, Stepney, Bethnal Green and now Hackney where I think I'll stay for the forseeable future.
I wouldn't exactly say that have deep insights in to London but I'm beginning to find my way around a bit now.
 

owen

Well-known member
oh, fake as fake can be.

i've lived in london (south of river- first new cross, then peckham, then camberwell/brixton hinterlands ,and deptford for the last 3 years) for 7 years but am originally from Southampton. Seeing as I'm 24 though that does mean I've lived in london my entire adult life. and my dad's a londoner. will that do?
 

bassnation

the abyss
fake - never going to get away with pretending i'm born and bred london with a comedy welsh accent like my own.

i have lived and worked in london for over ten years though, even if i did escape to the fresh air and greener climes of essex a while back to get married.
 
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martin

----
I was born in Burnt Oak, Edgware General Hospital. Some pedantic types might sneer and holler that I'm technically from 'Middlesex', however I'd counter-argue that 'technically' they are a bunch of wankers who know nothing. It's 10 mins on the bus from Cricklewood and into Harlesden and 20 mins by train to Camden, is that close enough for you all?

I lived outside London for a few years (not by personal choice). I now live round the corner from *rs*n*l's shithole of a ground - bizarrely enough, as I've supported Tottenham since I was 5. I've lived in New Cross and Camberwell for 3 years, Stratford and Bethnal Green for about 6 months apiece, moved back to the street in Burnt Oak where George Michael grew up between 1997 and 2002.

I'm still proud about coming from Burnt Oak, it's funny looking back to when the 'welcome' sign had 'TWINNED WITH BEIRUT' sprayed under it. There's loads of crime, but I never felt in serious trouble there, maybe that's just bias though. All this stuff about London kids today being worse than ever is crap, back in the 80s there was this overflow of teenagers from the Graham Park Estate who were seriously fucking psychotic.

I know loads of people would hate it, it's not remotely glam, but I still miss it! Especially the markets on Saturday mornings. It's a bit of a 'couldn't give a fuck about the rest of London' place. Also, there are shitloads of really good looking girls up there, I don't know why. I once had a good chat with someone from Selectadisc on the basis that we both grew up in Burnt Oak. You should hear one of these conversations, it's a right laugh. Elvis Patelvis once played live in Burnt Oak too - that was our gig scene.
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
fake, tho as i've lived in liverpool for 16 years, london has nothing to teach me street-knowledge-wise and certainly hasn't ever shown me anything new in terms of drug addiction or crime.
 
faker than all of you put together, though I would probably not attempt to get away with claiming to know anything about the following 'city things': drugs (I had some once, tho, they were quite nice), violence (eek! run away!), slang (apart from what my students tell me), the seething underbelly of the beast (grumbly), or architecture (the buildings are too big, I just can't see them properly).

I spent the first 18 years of my life in a field in the middle of nowhere being bored and cold and rarely talking to anyone. Sort of the opposite of having any insights into a metropolis, basically.

I did live in Coventry for a few years after that, which was nowhere near as violent as everyone claimed it was. I loved it! Very concrety and they used to play the Specials' 'Ghost Town' in the precinct when the shops closed.

Isn't London a bit like New York tho? People kind of elect to move there and create a kind of 'existential' city, rather than one based on the contingent fact of birth?

But, yeah, aren't there any proper londoners on dissensus (apart from Martin of course!)?
 

martin

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autonomicforthepeople said:
i've got you all beat. i just live there in my head. good sandwiches :)

You're better off that way. It's not like it was in the old days. Back then you could go see a soundsystem for just one pound! And have enough change to get a bus home. Homeless people aren't the same these days, they used to be all covered in sores and dying, now they seem quite chipper! I blame 'The Big Issue'. And the museums! All gone downhill since I was a nipper. The football's rubbish, you used to be able to ZZZZZZZZZZ
 
autonomicforthepeople said:
good sandwiches :)

God I wish I lived in the London-in-your-head! You don't get much change from a fiver for a rubbish bit of bread with manky tomatoes and rancid cheese and a crap cup of coffee in the real one...
 

sufi

lala
born in wandworth, brung up in bristol me.
then lived in lunun since i was a teen, not that i'd ever claim to be a londoner except mebbe in bristle, & vice versa
1 lifetime is too short to get to know this dunia anyway
 

boomnoise

♫
fake: born and raised in whitley bay near newcastle, moved to london in 2000. lived in manorhouse, bruce grove and now whitechapel.

i reckon you don't have to be from london to be a londoner, would any of the proper londoners agree with that? i mean multiculturalism is one of the main reasons i came to london in the first place.
 

matt b

Indexing all opinion
boomnoise said:
fake: born and raised in whitley bay near newcastle, moved to london in 2000. lived in manorhouse, bruce grove and now whitechapel.

i reckon you don't have to be from london to be a londoner, would any of the proper londoners agree with that? i mean multiculturalism is one of the main reasons i came to london in the first place.


being born and raised in whitley bay, you would've had a fair bit of catching up to do

BOOM! BOOM!

;)
 

boomnoise

♫
matt b said:
being born and raised in whitley bay, you would've had a fair bit of catching up to do

BOOM! BOOM!

;)

well obviously not exclusively in whitley bay all the time, i ventured into the toon on the regular. plus you can learn a lot from whitley bay. ;)
 

Woebot

Well-known member
luka said:
i know theres a lot of people here who live in london and act like they know it really well and understand it and have like,deep insights into its nature and the nature of its inhabitants, and they would think of themselves as londoners. they probably reckon they know they're way around,probably like to think they're pretty streetwise, know their crackheads from their smackheads and all that, but really,deeop down, they know they moved here 3 years ago,from some shithole in the sticks. so what i want to know is, who here was born and rasied in london.
which part? just out of interest. where do you live now?

fake. also arriving back on the plane from holiday realised how much i detest the place.
 
S

simon silverdollar

Guest
very fake. i moved here in summer 2003.
and i live in clapham, which isn't really part of london, more a little slice of buckinghamshire that's somehow got transplanted next to brixton.
still, i get cheap rent and get to live with my girlfriend.

before i was a fake londoner, i was born and raised in cheshire, in a small rural village on the outskirts of runcorn.
 

luka

Well-known member
that's what i thought.

i don't really like it. its clogging up the streets. allyou lot. plus you all want to work in media or something.
 
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