What is the chance of meeting a guy speaking RP in London?

Guest   Mon Jun 09, 2008 4:16 pm GMT
What is the chance of meeting a guy speaking RP in London streets?
Isla Dogs-Chav   Mon Jun 09, 2008 4:27 pm GMT
Not effin likely - not on my manor.

Try West Lundin, Sunshine.
Damian in Edinburgh   Mon Jun 09, 2008 10:23 pm GMT
What are your chances? Sky high in some areas of London, less so in others, so it depends which part of the Capital you happen to be in at any given time.

Take yourself to somewhere like Cheapside or Bishopsgate or anywhere in the City during standard working hours any weekday and your eardrums will be assailed by guys all yacking away in RP as they scurry along the pavements at full pelt. Drop into a City wine bar or pub bistro around lunchtimes and you will hardly be able to hear yourself think with all the top decibels RP, girls as well as guys....yelling like crazy above the din of the pub as if they were still on the trading floors.

Or go to where I worked during my recent stints in London - Canary Wharf, in Docklands - many years ago it was just that - docks - but has now been completely transformed into the largest commercial centre in Europe, along with areas of very exclusive, very expensive residential developments, so RP is pretty much strandard in the whole area (apart from the many non Brits or Brits from other regions - such as people like me).

Or go out and about in the more suburban areas, especially the ones with fewer immigrants or ethnics. I won't include Westminster here - the part of Central London most people think of as being "proper London" as it contains all the most familiar landmarks and buildings etc etc etc.. Westminster as is so very cosmopolitan and so full of tourists you will hear more foreign Languages and non-British accents than you will any British accent, let alone RP - unless you head down Whitehall, and around Parliament Square, again during a weekday only.

Take yourself to Hampstead High Street, or Kensington High Street, or Knightsbridge, or East Finchley, or St John's Wood, or Maida Vale or Notting Hill, or even better still, further out from Central London and out to the outer suburbs where you are far more likely to meet up with English English RP speaking London guys - places like Bromley, Chiswick, Teddington, Twickenham, Bexleyheath, Sidcup, Orpington, Chislehurst, Putney, Wimbledon, Carshalton, Kingston-on-Thames, Richmond, South Ealing, Roehampton, Coulsdon ("coolsdun"), Harrow, Surbiton, Ruislip (remember to pronounce this as "Rye-slip"), Pinner, Dulwich, Beckenham, Blackheath, Penge, Barnet, Totteridge, Chadwell Heath, Becontree, Cockfosters, Enfield, Loughton, Chessington...and not forgetting Walton-on-Thames.....I know she isn't as guy, but that's where Mary Poppins comes from - aka Julie Andrews, and even though she has lived in America for centuries she has still retained about the most RP English English accebnt it's possible to have.

Buy yourself an Oyster card from any tube station or main line train station and London's your oyster - it'll allow you to roam all over Greater London on bus or tube (including the Docklands LR) at much reduced fares...all you need do is slap it on the disc as you pass through all entry points and it will adjust your account balance and record your journey. I will always hold on to my Oyster card as I could go up to London at any time and it's such a boon when using the tubes and buses....no buying tickets from the machines.

Your chances of meeting an RP English English speaking London guy will be about 101%. You'll have a few millions to choose from.
Guest   Thu Jun 12, 2008 7:41 am GMT
If you manage to sneek your way into a place called "Buckingham palace" you have probably have a chance.

Anyhow I do find it extremely amusing that most people outside the United Kingdom think we speak in Shakespearean English with a RP accent.
Guest   Thu Jun 12, 2008 9:30 am GMT
Go to Oxford and Cambridge.
Carolyn   Thu Jun 12, 2008 7:29 pm GMT
Personally I prefer Northern accents and Scottish accents to RP. RP sounds so pretentious to my American ears. It's a Sean Connery versus John Majors comparison.