London Local Custom Tips by bzh

When you are in a pub with a group in the UK, the usual thing to do is to buy rounds. Rather then each person buying his or her own drink, someone buys a round for the whole group and when all drinks are finished, it's the turn of another person to buy the round. At the end of the evening, if all goes well, each person has bought a round for everybody else and in terms of money spent it comes out as the same as if everybody had bought his own drink each time. This custom comes from the fact that, in the UK, you have to go to the bar to order your drinks so it is much more efficient if one person goes and buys the drinks rather than everybody going at the same time. But beware, your fellow drinkers will form an opinion of you depending on your pub behaviour. They will expect you to buy a round as often as the others, neither more nor less. If you take your turn less often than expected, you might be reminded that "it's your round" at some point. On the other hand, if you buy more often, someone might step in and tell you "it's my round". The interesting consequence is that, in some cases, you might end up staying in the pub until everybody has bought a round, which can take a long time if there are 10 of you! Of course, the rule can be tweaked: if the group is large it is acceptable to limit the round to part of the group; or if there are ladies in the group, their turn might come less often.

Cheers!

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As everywhere else in the British Isles, the pub is the social meeting place in London. People have a chat, a beer or two (or 10 or 20), catch up with friends, agree deals, do everything in the pub. For some of them, it is a second home, for others it is their first. You don't have to drink alcohol but you are fully expected to take part in whatever discussion is going on there. Beware, it might be about football, especailly is there is a screen there.

Now a real pub must be warm, have comfy sofas and a chimney (even a gas one will do). You must be able to find real ale and talk to strangers without them being offended. If the place where you are doesn't have all this, it is not a real pub, just a trendy bar.

So, for a slice of genuine London life, head for the nearest local pub.

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Britain has a problem. It is too far North and the climate is too cold and wet to grow grapes. This is why the traditional drinks of the British Isles have always been cider and beer. However, you can now find very decent wines everywhere in London. How did that happen? It all started with trendy wine bars that were set up as posh places where people could enjoy glasses of nice (and expensive) wines from Europe or the New World rather than beer. Due to the number of foreigners in London and the general propensity of Brits to try everything that involves alcohol, drinking wine when going out became more and more popular, especially for that part of the population that had to get rid of a so called beer belly. The result is you can now find decent red and white wine in most pubs in London. Even the house wine can be very nice stuff. In addition to this, because Britain doesn't produce wine (or very little), Brits, contrary to let's say the French, have no pride in drinking only their home wines and they will try anything. As a result, the choice you can find in London is usually quite extensive and of good quality. So, if you are fed up with drinking ale, ask for a glass of Chardonnay or Shiraz.

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Visitors can be extremely confused by the way some of the well known landmarks are pronounced. English is not a language where pronunciation rules are obvious to start with and some words, in particular local place names have evolved an even more confusing pronounciation over time. Here are a few examples that you are likely to be confronted to.

The name of town of Leicester is pronounced by dropping the 'ce' syllable resulting in a word that sounds like "Lester". Hence Leicester Square is pronounced "Lester Square". The same goes for other names like Gloucester (Glouster) or Worcester (Worster).

Petersborough is pronounced "Pittsburg", like the town of the same name in the US. However, Peterborough, without the 's', is pronounced as you would expect.

Greenwich is pronounced by dropping the 'w', resulting in "Greenitch".

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The London tube can be very crowded at times, especially in the centre. There are a number of etiquette rules that Londoners use when travelling on the tube that are worth knowing as they will make your journey more relaxed.

Stand on the right of the escalator. Escalators in tube stations are just wide enough for two people to stand side by side. The rule is if to stand on the right to let people in a hurry walk up or down on the left.

Let the people off the train before boarding. Don't rush into the train if it is packed, let the people off first. Not only is it polite but it will make boarding quicker because you will not have two flows of people trying to go into opposite directions in a confined space at the same time. Don't worry, the train driver is keeping an eye and will only close the doors when people who wanted to get out are out and as many people as possible who wanted to get in are in.

Take you backpack off your shoulders. If you have a rucksack and are standing, take it off and put it on the floor. In a busy train, every movement you do will whack your bag into some fellow passenger. Don't think you will be able to stand still as the train's movement can be unpredictable at times.

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