Why are People from Different Areas of London so Strikingly Different?

I'm from the East. Life is quiet, people mind their own business. And of course, I have visited Central, where life is definitely busier and people seem to have a little life in their eyes. I have visited the South, too, a couple of times – Southwark and Greenwich, which were quiet, but people looked as though they enjoy life. I realise that Southwark and Greenwich aren't really that far South, but no matter what direction you go in, the further out you go, the more suburban or deprived it gets, let's keep things relative to the Thames.

My take

I know there are different types of southerners, easterners and centralers (could that be a word??), but I'm going off my limited experience because I'm just too curious, okay? Now, I don't have any experience in the West, even though I would absolutely love to, so I'm going to use other people's accounts and experiences from the web and will probably update this post as and when I do visit one day.

It's so difficult to get the tube to the South: you only have Northern, Victoria, the Overground, a little dip of Jubilee and some District. I think that's the main reason the North and the South are a little divided, I guess. Obviously bad public transport would prevent people from being able to visit interesting places, especially bars. You can't enjoy a swanky pub if you're driving there. I mean, where I live, we only have the DLR, but it's like a spider on the map; it's everywhere. There's something slightly romantic about the South: I think it's kind of like visiting a village or a small town in the countryside, which I stupidly used to think were boring. The South kind of reminds me of visiting North Walsham or Market Harborough. There isn't any of the fancy city life such as the Sky Gardens or Covent Garden, it's kind of just… normal, as opposed to the fancy architecture and flats of the North that put London on the global map.

I have a feeling people from West London would be like Central, just quieter.

An article in Delahaye Moving argue that West London has a reputation for being posh, with a range of high-end restaurants and shops, being home to the upper-middle class and celebrities. The Standard has an article analysing a survey of opinions on the different areas of London, with the North and the West owning more adjectives that have positive connotations. Both articles actually contain information that compare the East and West more than they compare the North and South. There may just be more differences with East, West and South rather than the North.

So what do we think would happen if these diverse personalities meet at once?

How would they act? What would they get up to?

Let's say there's someone called Falomah from the East, Oscar from Central/West and Alexis from the South. They couldn't agree on Alexis' idea to go to a bar, nor could they agree to go to a restaurant suggested by Oscar. Now they're standing in a predicament because Falomah couldn't suggest anything since she's surrounded by schools rather than nightlife. They're stood on the Northern line, holding onto the bars because all the seats were taken, when it dawned on them: you can always drink at home and invite others to your get-together (that is, if your landlord doesn't forbid it). People in Britain rarely pass up on an opportunity to drink. They collectively decide to get off at Goodge Street and walk to Oscar's place to drink a bottle or two of vodka.

When the late morning came, the three of the begrudgingly woke up. Oscar was in his bed, still tucked in and with a clean face, since he was the only one that managed to was it last night. Falomah is sprawled out on his floor with smudged makeup and Alexis is on the sofa with a towel for a blanket with the guy who had been chatting her up all night on the other sofa. The majority of people they had met and invited had left, apart from Alexis' 'fella'. It's been a rough night, but so worth it – they all needed a blast.

So from a technical standpoint…

There are actually quite few articles on the different personalities of London's Ends, despite how much opinion is thrown if you're a local, or even a country lad looking to move to the big city. I wonder if this is mainly due to the fact that sociology hasn't been a field of study in the U.K. for quite as long. The thing that baffles me most is the fact that there's such a divide between the North and South of the Thames. An article published in MyLondon in 2021 interviews several people from the North as to why they hate the South and it kind of sounds like the interviewees just aren't acquainted with the country-style of the South. They seem to hate the South simply because it doesn't have "architecture," "bowling," "Hampstead Heath" or "transport." Maybe they don't actually hate the South and have been bribed for these opinions, but there was a reason this article was written.

These entries do remind me of living in the countryside, and everything I hated about it, simply for not having the things I wanted. I can't lie, I feel quite honoured to live in London, let alone the North (if you consider the Isle of Dogs peninsula to be North), but I can imagine what it would be like living in the south. Here in the North, I'm blessed with beautiful scenery and exotic attractions. I guess in my opinion, if you'd like to go on holiday to somewhere quiet but also close-to-home, I wonder what it would be like holidaying to the South. I imagine it would be like relaxing in a comfortable place, but you're not being constantly reminded of work, or doing the laundry or doing the dishes.

I can understand the divide between the East and the West. The East was very much targeted in WWII and still hasn't fully recovered (much like other urban areas such as Coventry) and makes the West look even further in the other direction, viewed as calm, maybe even dull, and pompous as the East gentrifies, according to some answers on Quora and Reddit.

(View of London as a whole from Horizon 22 from Secret London.)

No matter how different these areas are, they're still part of metropolitan London and I might even say I would be proud live in a city that is so diverse in personality, especially while they're changing. It's all fascinating, including the rough areas that have ways of dealing with being unfavourited.