Cultural observations: London

[@oscarejdonovan]

Was sick to film this with you, Frankie is David Attenborough for the working man ✊

[@rosk.wilburn5847]

True gentleman ❤

[@pravkdey]

Aye

[@Bromoteknada]

You dont have his number to tell him that privately? No, it has to be a comment so you can present yourself to us with the hope that you get some subs and one day be rich (spoiler:not gonna happen)

[@thePronto]

He's the David Attenbrough that doesn't work for the Beeb, so he can say what he wants without getting threatened with defunding by the government of the day.

[@auguststar]

Thanks very much Frank for delaying the gentrification of south London, hopefully people will forget about us

[@dashinn585]

Gentrification of what? Idk what you're talking about mate

[@tarateom]

Peckham, Clapham, Crystal P its already happened

[@houseof192]

Croydon will soon be full of empty black highrises and no Westfield

[@the_local_bigamist]

You joking? Have you been to Pecknarm or Brixton in the last five years? Basically Shoreditched to f*ck. You need to go south from Deptford and eastwards into Woolwich, Plumstead and all that to see the real southeast London. And remember that this is mostly southeast London - if you go into southwest London, you'll eventually end up in Chiswick or Richmond, where as if you go east from southeast, you'll end up around Newham and then into the places like Barking and Dagenham. If you go south, you'll find the Kent-Greater London border overspill estate towns. You can place many of the areas of southeast London into the same narrative format as Dante's Inferno. 9 circles.

[@deanodog3667]

Best Irish social commentator since oscar wilde!!

[@Dreyno]

I was once on the Victoria Embankment looking across the river at what I thought was South London but a local informed me it was, in fact, a mirage and I was actually on the south coast of England. I have no reason to doubt them.

[@Itchyfeet4077]

You were actually looking at France.

[@rosk.wilburn5847]

Where is west London

[@Ro99]

Thank you for confirming South London doesn’t exist to me. I haven’t ever plucked up the courage to check it myself and I’ll never have to anymore

[@the_local_bigamist]

The southeast (i.e. the "real" south London) isn't what it used to be. Pecknarm and Brixton have gone the same way as Brick Lane, Shoreditch, Hackney generally, i.e. gentrified by art graduates who set up in Peckham because east London became too expensive. As long as you don't go as far south as Deptford, you should be fine.

[@MrFas4wd]

I think you’ll find Brixton is part of the South-west of London, the best part of London 😂. Also, Deptford is like Kensington compared to Thanesmead, Plumstead and Abbey Wood. 😣

[@augustusaquaticus4289]

Deptford is super gentrified now

[@whyIsItSoLoud]

You can't get there without taking three different buses and a delayed Overground anyway

[@Sabotaz80xx]

Deptford’s pretty much the same as Peckham nowadays, very gentrified.

[@kida6460]

"everyone here thinks i work for a recycling company, because they keep calling me a wasteman" absolute gold

[@alexsmith-rs6zq]

“Spend all their money on DJ equipment and Waitrose deliveries” I actually snorted

[@djtk6921]

The "stop laughing" was the cherry on top

[@breeko3334]

Notice how at the end Frankie drops a hint when he says “South London is not real, don’t come HERE”. Now given context, this could once and for all prove that South London may in fact be a real place, however, for now we truly don’t know and it may forever go down as one of the worlds many mysteries.

[@010101110100]

Didn’t even film that bit in South London 🫡 (how could he, it doesn’t exist)

[@judywebb8004]

Sth London is really expensive

[@GyikaCPFC]

Cultural Observations: Tube rides - A perfect place to chat and get to know the friendly locals. They simply love it when strangers attempt to make polite conversation with them.

[@tcrijwanachoudhury]

Evil comment 💀

[@HonestSonics]

Absolutely. Monday between 7.30-8.30am is when you'll catch them on best form.

[@judywebb8004]

​@@HonestSonics Monday morning on the Tube. 😨

[@truthmerchant1]

​@@HonestSonics It's even better if you carry a unicycle with you (Don't ask me how I know this 🤣)

[@mfjigsaw6010]

As someone who lives in London since born almost 50 years ago... Frank knows it as well as I do. The South London part is spot on!

[@rosk.wilburn5847]

Brixton😂❤

[@kildogery]

The correspondent the world needs. As a Scottish man, with t'ick Irish blood, who also spent the best part of a decade living in that London, this is the best thing since Bourdain.

[@user-yv7mu9en6v]

Stop lying, your family is from india.

[@kildogery]

@@user-yv7mu9en6v you've obviously never tried my mum's cooking

[@hlm896]

't'ick' lmao this guy doesn't realise the video is about him

[@kildogery]

@@hlm896 damn you got me 🤭

[@Kinuhbud]

@@hlm896 *americans have entered the chat*

[@Im49th]

I have lived in London for almost 30 years and expected not to understand your observations about South London because it’s like a mysterious alien land to me and yet somehow you still nailed it.

[@jahram9940]

South London: riddled with middle class centrists from areas like Cornwall who have gentrified roughest parts of London such as brixton and peckham but proceed to dress as homeless (with fingergloves) to avoid getting robbed. They also think saying words like "cool" and "man" means they fit in and eat from overpriced caribean food outlets

[@G2z899]

As a South London bloke I confirm everything he said about this place.

[@rong2912]

I'm from central London.

[@bolivians4breakfast143]

i goto london in 20 days, this seems like an omen to cancel my flight thank you for the insight frankie

[@funkuro]

Unless it’s something really important, please do. It sucks here.

[@funkuro]

@mx22 Top 5 things to do in London: 5. See the sights 4. Eat the rich ‘English’ cuisine 3. Walk by the River Thames 2. Meet the locals! If you’re lucky, you’ll meet some ok people 1. Leave.

[@deanodog3667]

​@@funkuro why ? London is g8t !!

[@lordgemini2376]

Yeah please don’t come here. London is full as it is 👍🏾

[@lordgemini2376]

@@funkuro If it sucks then please leave as well. We need less people here. Especially those that weren’t born and raised here. Back to Hampshire or Suffolk you go fella 👋🏾

[@kitchenasmr6876]

I want to draw attention to the aspect ratio of Frankie's videos. Truly the best aspect ratio of all the aspect ratios. Every frame a masterpiece.

[@thrownstair]

4:3 is an underrated aspect ratio in our widescreen world. A little more intimate while still being big enough to fit a few people in frame.

[@Google_Does_Evil_Now]

​@@thrownstair 4:3, real view. This cheap 16:9 was a con by LCD to save on material whole still saying it's 32 inches. Yeah, but it's 30% less screen area. So we see a lot less. 4:3 is great for sports too. Frankie, do you have spares of that jacket?

[@viljamtheninja]

@@Google_Does_Evil_Now I'm guessing you're joking, but widescreen started being used by filmmakers for artistic reasons long before LCD screens were invented.

[@deadhouseplant1585]

The londoners seem to think I'm one of those small business owners. They keep calling me bossman for some reason.

[@theblackswordsman9951]

Nah u must own a chip or chicken shop

[@CyclingSteve]

It's always colder in south London despite it being closer to the equator.

[@MrBeardless]

The very best anthropological analysis of London I have seen. Or that has ever been undertake. Just brilliant. Thank you

[@the_local_bigamist]

Not bad, but you only really showed the London simulacra - 3 out of 4 possible London experiences, designed to cater to certain class and/or cultural-based interests and prejudices. For example, if you'd have kept going eastwards, you'd eventually end up around places like Newham, then Barking and Dagenham, and these places haven't been touched by that same Brick Lane/Shoreditch type gentrification. Also, you missed out on the saahf - there is the southwest, which when you pass Brixton starts to become very posh (Richmond, Chiswick etc.). Brixton itself, which is almost directly "south" (technically southwest) has become heavily Shoreditched tae f*ck, as has Pecknarm. To see the "real south London" (which really means southeast London), you need to go to Deptford and then keep going south to places like Woolwich and Plumstead. Eventually you'll meet the Greater London/Kent borderlands with the overspill estate towns which house people that have been priced out of east London, saahfeast London and other places and now live on council estates outside of Greater London. Naturally, the same ecosystems of postcode violence occur, and the big boys from the boroughs bring down the class A's to feed the local demand, utilising the wannabe gangsters who missed their chance to be in the Peckham Young Guns (PYGs - Giggs fans may have heard of them) as Pecknarm started to become gentrified when Goldsmiths students started to move there as Hackney/east and northeast London become too expensive, meaning that the next generation of PYGs would have to form new gangs outside of the Greater London postal code range and shoot or stab each other elsewhere. Anyway, London isn't really real. Of course there is the simulated centralised version for tourists but the real bits are hellholes full of people who came from all the way around the world to study, intent on making a great salary, only to end up commuting to a Starbucks in Zone 2 whilst living in Zone 6, with 6 flatmates, because their degree has no currency. Or you will find the last remaining locals that are hanging by a thread but will likely be pushed out to the overspill towns eventually: local nutters, gangsters, postcode roadmen types who go around on lecky scooters or mopeds nicking watches that were flashed on Instagram, prostitutes, thieves, the MET (avoid at all costs - especially if you are a woman or a person of colour), addicts, confused students from sheltered backgrounds who have never seen this side of life and all of the other things that every major city in the west has/should have. It is fun for a while, but the old saying "He who tires of London tires of life" which is not only a mis-quote - said by the wealthy Samuel Johnson in 1777, it is also only said by people that don't actually have to live there all of the time. Last time I heard it quoted was by a very old man who was in the city (centre) at a function that the company he worked for was holding for the auld workies. The function is held annually. This man lives in Devonshire. That should tell ye enough about it. I always say to people if they are visiting: go for six hours and see the things you want to see. After six hours, you may well end up being either a victim or (more likely) a perpetrator of a stabbing, adding to the endemic issue. There is just something about major cities that makes people want to stab each other, and the updated Johnson quote should be: "he who tires of life should go to London.".

[@meditationsfortheanxiousmind]

Amazing comment

[@the_local_bigamist]

@@meditationsfortheanxiousmind N'aww thanks man. You're a legend, love your content. Deffo buying you a coffee on payday. Namaste 🙏

[@asma-mushtaq]

Please tell me you do this for other cities. I need a low down on (the real) Birmingham. 😶

[@DelFlo]

@ssgdhg sdfff we could perhaps say that education itself, has become hyperreal in this regard.

[@Stamnoj]

Do not go to North East London or you'll get stabbed, trust moi

[@matttherrien9608]

Frankie has inspired me to take up awkward looking jogging whilst shouldering a backpack.

[@robinelliott-ni2eh]

Do a video about Irish tax dodging.

[@asma-mushtaq]

🤣

[@lordgemini2376]

Bet you he won’t 😂

[@tcrijwanachoudhury]

No you didnt 😂

[@fintonmainz7845]

Eating the chips on both your shoulders makes your head fat

[@AtticusEdwards]

The goofy runs at the end invariably slaughter me

[@Joshthepurple]

I was once going south on the Victoria line, went past Pimlico and ended up in Crawley. Absolute nightmare.

[@ijejlnfzzdfar7540]

I litterarely lost it after the first 'hello'. The timing with the bus. And all the rest. Genius.

[@WeWillAlwaysHaveVALIS]

This is sublime, as someone who is from East London that is the perfect summary of the place.

[@caravanlifenz]

It's the voice pattern that I love. This is exactly how we used to read out our school speeches and presentations when I was a kid. "I like this book because of the pictures. I like this picture because it's a cat. This picture is of a dog. Can I sit down now, Miss?"

[@jameseustace4375]

“Go to London, I guarantee you'll either be mugged or not appreciated. Catch the train to London, stopping at Rejection, Disappointment, Backstabbing Central and Shattered Dreams Parkway.” Alan Gordon Partridge.

[@pipercharms7374]

or you'll have a fantastic day and eager to go back (from a brit who actually enjoys London but does not live there) and has had a fantastic day multiple times when visiting London, proving this untrue :P

[@rudolphteperberry3888]

Kin 'ell you just reminded me I had a dream about you last night! You were a Saturday morning E4 presenter in the early noughties reporting on a grotty music festival in the woods!

[@danny2me70]

We all.hate Tory's even the Tory's hate Tory's ,,,,oh I bought your book last week and I'm getting through it lol very funny 🤣🤣

[@TrassseB]

My house is right in the border between Tottenham & Hampstead infact my sons room is on the Tottenham side and he think he is a drill rapper & my daughters room is in Hampstead side and she is a neo-marxist spoilt brat student 😅

[@alibushell6762]

"And finally we have south London" Literally standing in a street next to Brick lane in East London (near where I live so I recognised it immediately).

[@nickbooze9766]

The Heart of Darkness really.

[@bobmcdade5217]

He had to end it like that because he couldn't find anyone in south london who would let him take the piss.

[@matthewwalker5430]

Amazing. I've lived in London all my life and you nailed it, lol ...

[@TheCuttingBureau]

Great list! That was so enjoyable. Yeah, it was an absurdly good year for metal. All the best for you guys in '24.

[@nickohira1397]

Got to love London 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿❤️

[@bryangooden4298]

Everyday is gray sweatpants season for Frankie.

[@meditationsfortheanxiousmind]

That’s right

[@joeroberts2156]

​@@meditationsfortheanxiousmind how many nights in a row do you have to sleep in them until they're ready for filming? *Sorry, filumming, is that right? I'd say shooting but someone might get the wrong idea.

[@escherpainting8622]

Scathing, artistic, brilliant... but above all? The truth.

[@Oooo-bi7bi]

London is a nightmare and I only stayed because I had the chance to live not far from the south bank for next to nothing. It is too busy and expensive.

[@francinebacone1455]

Such a treat, yes sir! :)

[@garybrockwell2031]

Very cool Frankie 😁🤣 This South LONDONER Cockney got a great laugh out of it😘😁🗣️💯🆘🇬🇧🧐

[@ChadYu]

When someone is running in south london, it is natural to assume that someone had pulled a knife out on them.

[@longdragon3]

Simply brilliant!

[@rosk.wilburn5847]

Brick lane bakers😂😂😂😂😂❤❤❤❤❤❤ my local bruv

[@wesleyburton5684]

Watching this while pooping brings it to the next level

[@eugenest6079]

London - my love!

[@monomakes]

South London FTW mate! Hehehe

[@ByddinRhyddidCymru]

Brave choice visiting London, stay safe

[@Phil144gbp]

🤣🤣🤣 so true even better hearing you say it 💪

[@Andi_andI]

as a Londoner I can confirm every word this man has spoken is true

[@jameslowe2979]

I was not aware that Ali G and Louis Theroux had had an Irish child. Respect!

[@thekidgt929]

Bang on with the art students!

[@markisaac7970]

"south london doesn't exist", he is so right!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@hasnat9]

That South London shot is on a road off Brick Lane lol

[@aribrahim1898]

And finally we have South London... don't go here! I lost it 🤣 🤣 🤣

[@tidydan1]

Man's disrespecting my south london endz.

[@broccoli7985]

as a south londoner, I can confirm it's existence, so long as I am real

[@meditationsfortheanxiousmind]

You are not

[@hb3393]

South London still going under the radar, just how we like it 😎

[@ArtTheoriez]

I don;t think that was south London at the end. But love the content as always.

[@Kinuhbud]

lol i really needed more on south london

[@philipshortall9771]

Ya nailed it Bro

[@nearlyaverage9694]

As someone who lives in south London, I can confirm it doesn’t exist

[@elestromusicgamesfun1101]

0:24 - TRUTH BOMB!

[@pancakesandtea]

East londoner here, we got off lightly. Hehe.

[@junfa8686]

As a Londoner who took a friend around as a tourist, he’s bang on.

[@Jupa]

As born and bred in Bethnal I can confirm that even my mother addresses me by wasteman.

[@yesgeorge333]

should have done all the goths in north ldn

[@matsui90]

They no longer exist. Camden is just another souless tourist trap now.

[@the_local_bigamist]

@@matsui90 Bingo. I remember when Camden was still seedy and fun. Now it has gone through that "Disneyfication" process.

[@yesgeorge333]

@@matsui90 thought so lol

[@ethandavis8090]

Yoooo Frankie’s In my city… come around for some brunch and yoga tomorrow 😅

[@youdontknowme3935]

holy shit someone that actually knows the secret about south london

[@Krsto777]

"The indy artists suddenly turn into drill rappers" 😂😂😂😂

[@bruce-le-smith]

as someone who lived in Roehampton for a couple of months i can confirm there was no human existence there and it is not a place one should go, everything else in this video is true too

[@frivolitymachine3914]

This reminds me of that Savage Eye sketch about Dublin junkies becoming reporters.

[@theboyneeds]

Factually spot on there Frankie. 👍

[@katerclickbait887]

Can confirm, south of river Thames there is nothing and you can't get there easily anyways

[@the_local_bigamist]

Overground. Pecknarm, Brixton, Lewisham and Greenwich, which actually has some decent parts (but it also has Woolwich etc.).

[@paulthomas8262]

As someone form South London, I didn't exist until I came to Ireland.

[@jazzerinochocochino]

Great observations I gave it a like

[@joeclark6413]

2:05 average existence of a south Londoner

[@markmolloy1381]

Can you make a video on Carrickmines please?

[@VERY_VARIOUS_VIDEOS]

Wonderful London.

[@MattCooperKay]

That's purple.

[@ireneparkinson1021]

Brilliant as always 👌 👏

[@pstylez8034]

To many north of the Thames, South London is a myth.

[@Ididntchoosethisname]

I tried to go to South London once, but it wasn't on the tube. Doesn't exist.

[@sadcat5724]

Only watch these videos for Frankie's running

[@danielfitzgerald2561]

Nailed South London

[@DelFlo]

Yoo Frankie could you do a Cultural observations: people who always wear sunglasses

[@noeonoohno4219]

East London is where 1/3 of all cabbies live, and where you get everything from black power to orthodox jews. Love it here. I didn't study art.

[@vannhantran547]

Frankie needs a collab with Filthy Frank

[@beardedloon77]

As a native south londoner of many generations and centuries, his recommendation of staying away is justified.

[@TMan786]

Sensational!

[@ficationsare6552]

You avoided the right places.

[@bizling]

As a south Londoner born and raised, I concur, which I why I no longer live there.

[@stellatilly9911]

I am about 90% sure that footage of "south london" is actually east london...

[@LuxClassical91]

0:21 Is that hit sound from the opening titles of Blade Runner?

[@swamp-yankee]

Ya should roast Boston. Lot of folks over there think their Irish even though their families been inbreeding in the south end for 5 generations.

[@x6CSGO]

its a pleasure

[@GibboEditz]

Funny video, also your underrated, and deserve more subscribers, I know 100k subscribers is alot, but you don't even have a verified checkmark :/ Keep up the great work! 👍

[@EpohDerf]

I have to go here next week. Any advice if I feel like I am not fitting in?

[@Bullsquid592]

its normal, no one fits in. drugs help

[@the_local_bigamist]

Exactly as the guy above said. In fact, one of the only things I genuinely like about London is that you don't have to fit in and nobody gives a sh*t about you or notices you. People there are more atomised than in any other place I can think of. Central Manchester is similar, given that it is basically trying to be "the London of the North", which is a really f*cking stupid idea when you realise how terrible London actually is.

[@orchardgroovey2774]

Leave, stole that from somebody.

[@lordgemini2376]

How will you fit in? There’s almost 10 million of us. No one fits in pal

[@deanodog3667]

@@lordgemini2376 is London worth a visit??

[@ProfessorKenneth]

Come to Swansea mate😂

[@spark5012]

Hey Frankie, The girl at NCAD with the mallet. You should ask her out. Also, could you do a video on how your clothes differ from that of a neurotypical Irish male? Thanks.