Who is londoner

Person 1: "Are you a Londoner? Are you? No you're not. Someone who lives in London. A person with a genuine birth certificate that states the named person was born in the City of London Maternity Hospital. Unfortunately, shortly after I was born, it was closed down - can't think why Westminster is merely a London Borough, not London.

London is The Square Mile. I'm a Londoner, I live in Middle Temple. She says: "I'm very comfortable calling myself a Londoner. If I go away the idea of 'returning' always means returning to London, for me.

She sees it as a friendly city where there's lots going on, but the down side is that it's "really expensive - especially as a young person you know you're opting for a lower quality of life to what you might have elsewhere in Britain or Europe". Despite that, the idea of a "Londoners first" policy worries her. I'd really just prefer there to be discussion about fixing the housing market in the interest of people who need somewhere decent to live. If there is one thing most native Londoners pride themselves on, it is their skill as geographers.

None more so perhaps than black-cab drivers, who have to pass the Knowledge, an exam that requires drivers to learn 25, street names. Among its graduates is Gert Kretov , 39, who moved from Moscow to London in After initially finding work as a chauffeur he decided to become a taxi driver.

It took him three years to pass the test. Not content to stop there he took over the Eleanor Cross Academy in and now teaches others how to navigate its squares and alleyways. Asked if he feels like a Londoner, he says: "One hundred per cent. I understand London. If you dropped me in Moscow now I'd be lost. He feels positive about the proposals to give so-called Londoners first refusal on housing. He recently moved from north-west London to Ruislip in Middlesex and says he feels like he's being "pushed out" by high house prices.

Is London, like New York, a state of mind? Both cities have a reputation for rudeness and indifference. When at last the visitor understands him, the Londoner, before the visitor has had time to thank him, will walk on with a shy, kindly smile. This is not the case. As many citizens identify as Londoners as did 40 years ago. It is striking that the popularity of the London identity remains at a similar level to 40 years ago whilst the share of Londoners born outside the city has doubled, and despite significant changes in how Londoners perceive their city.

Headline findings, September poll Although London appears the most popular identifier, this does not seem to be at the expense of national identity.

Another surprising finding is that a London identity seems to be fairly evenly distributed across political and generational groups Table 2 , though slightly more variable depending on social grade. By contrast, identification with Britain, England or Europe was strongly related to politics and age.

London it seems, offers a unifying identity. We also did not find evidence of significant differences by area of the capital, 14 either today or in , the London identity was broadly as popular in inner and outer London. Table 2: Identity across groups, September poll However, saying that a London identity is widely held, is not the same as saying that it is widely understood in the same way.

There is an argument that a shallow London identity actually masks the reality of an atomised and segregated city. Those who see London as an atomised place cite several surveys that show a city less integrated than the rest of the country. Others suggest a more positive analysis, highlighting a London-specific ethos of mixing and difference. Engagement with diversity in public or semi-public places like corner shops and school gates may be superficial, given there is little mixing going on in private, 17 but this ethos of mixing through light-touch engagement is also regarded as essential to city life.

In fact, most people disapprove of non-participation in local activities, for instance not engaging with local businesses, not sending children to local state schools, or not treating each other with conviviality regardless of their background.

To consider further how shared or disparate London identity is, we now review the evidence on how other factors and characteristics, such as place, class, ethnicity and sexuality inform and intersect with London identities. If there is one global city that can be expected to have strong local identities, it should be London.

The city has grown from towns and villages, each with its own centre, civic institutions and identity. Attendees at our roundtable noted that the pre boroughs are still a very salient scale for local identities: people talk of living in Battersea, Bermondsey or Bethnal Green, more so than Wandsworth, Southwark and Tower Hamlets. And the Greater London Authority thought local identities were significant enough to redraw in the map of London localities first ordered by chief planner Patrick Abercrombie in However, we know little about how the London identity interacts with local identities.

A poll by Britain Thinks asked 1, Londoners to choose their dominant identity between British, English, Londoner, and a sub-London identity. A third of those who identified as Londoners actually preferred a more local identity: they said they were North, South, East or West Londoners above all.

People from all background identify themselves as Londoners, but we know that for minority ethnic people in the UK, ethnicity generally has greater salience than place in shaping identity. A lot of research has focused on whether living in near people from different ethnic backgrounds can attenuate racial prejudice amongst white people. A review of existing research shows that living in a diverse area does reduce racial prejudice using attitudes towards immigration as a proxy but only at neighbourhood or ward level.