KEVP wrote:I don't think being born in London should be a "top sign of a true Londoner". Someone who is born in London but spends their entire life somewhere else isn't going to be considered a "true Londoner". While someone who moves to London and lives there a long time and fully embraces London life and identity is much more of a "true Londoner".
I was thinking the same thing, KEVP.
Enid Blyton did live in London again as an adult, in a flat in Chelsea with her husband Hugh, but they only stayed there for 18 months. She went to London quite frequently for work-related matters and shopping though.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
Katharine wrote:According to someone I was talking to the other day, a true Londoner never refers to the Underground as 'The Tube'.
Interesting to read the responses to my quote. Maybe it depends on which part of London people are from that influences the choice of 'tube' or 'underground'?
I live just outside London and spend quite a lot of time there. I have always heard it referred to as The Tube. The London Evening Standard, the local newspaper always refers to it thus as does tfl.
"What a lot of trouble one avoids if one refuses to have anything to do with the common herd. To have no job, to devote ones life to literature, is the most wonderful thing in the world. - Cicero
Even growing up in Australia, I always knew very well that the London Underground was called the Tube!!
Society Member
It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
The typical Londoner that I knew has almost disappeared. Today's typical Londoner is probably of African ancestory (yes, I know we all are before Courtenay points this out ). London is now so multi-cultural, that native Londoners (those whose great grandparents were Londoners) have moved away.
London has always been a city of immigrants. It was built in the first place by immigrants from Rome. In any period of history the "typical Londoner" was an immigrant or child of immigrants.
Every new group of immigrants is resisted by the people already in London (especially the younger Londoners) but then with enough time each group becomes integrated into London, and everyone forgets they were immigrants. Then a whole new group of immigrants from another place arrives, and the whole story starts all over again.
It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)