Britain Is Only London

Britain Is Only London is an archive of the original Trooper Tales page of the same name from TV Tropes.

Archive
This troper has heard of American Harry Potter fanfic authors who have Hogwarts placed somewhere in London, despite the fact that it's in the north of Scotland. So that's right, the whole of Scotland is in London.
 * Exemplifies this trope when you consider it's expressly suggested it's hours away from Kings' Cross on the train.
 * Considering the efficiency of British public transportation, it's perfectly possible to spend a few hours in a train from Kings Cross and still be in London. Still not an excuse though.
 * Especially if you're on the Circle line.
 * This troper once came across a Harry Potter fic in which the characters are headed to King's Cross for the new school year, so they Apparate to the Leaky Cauldron. Then they walk over to the station, which, considering the Leaky Cauldron is supposed to be on Charing Cross Road, would take about thirty-three minutes according to Google Maps The author had apparently assumed that the Leaky Cauldron and King's Cross were right next to each other.
 * A phenomenon quite common in fanfiction, regardless of the nationality of the writer, when writing about a series set in a part of the world they know nothing about. They just don't care enough to take fifteen minutes to actually look stuff up to make sure they're not writing complete and utter garbage, so they stick anything they want anywhere they GOD damned well please. And just try to call them out on it, especially on Fanfiction.net. I dare you.

This Troper has a friend who was interviewing to rent a room in someone's house in America and brought along her mother as a character reference. When it was brought up that she was from England and the interviewer asked where, specifically, her mother responded, quickly, "London". The correct answer? Chatham, Kent. Admittedly, that's a FROG-7 throw away, but still...
 * Bizarrely this Troper also comes from Chatham, Kent. When she lived in France, she found it was far easier to say she was from London than be more specific. Although in a similar, country-specific vein she finds it necessary to just say "kent" (an entire county) when asked by fellow Brits where she lives.

Whenever a brain-dead American celebrity (ie Christina Aguilera) is asked by the British press something to the effect of "How do you like the UK?" they will almost always answer with "I LOVE London!"

This Troper visits the states about once a year, and almost always is asked where she's from at some point during the trip (given the American's apparent obsession with the British accent) - she quickly learned that "Buckinghamshire" meant less than nothing to them, and now settles for "about an hours drive from London".
 * To be fair, if I told you I was from Clay County, Missouri, you would have no clue where I was talking about. So, using landmarks is the more reasonable way to go about it, in your case.
 * This Troper is always divided on whether to say "about twenty minutes from Disneyland" or "on the outskirts of Greater L.A."
 * This Troper can't say "I grew up in Youngstown" to anybody who doesn't live in Ohio. It's always "I grew up near Cleveland." Similarly, my best friend always has to explain that she's from the state of Washington, not Washington, D.C.
 * Or Washington, England.
 * This troper is so glad she was born in Atlanta!
 * This troper wishes that this becomes a precedent, and that people begin using landmarks/cities as location; it's quite annoying when someone says they're from an area that most people from their country obviously know where it is, but very few outside of that country does.

This Troper's company was visited by an American salesman who telephoned his head office in the States announcing, "I'm calling from London, England", prompting looks of astonishment from his hosts who believed themselves to be in Coventry.

This Troper recently visited New York, upon being asked where I was from, I answered "York" and was continually surprised when people (including New Yorkers) did not know that "New York" was named after somewhere else. One person correctly guessed it was in England, and promptly asked how far that was from London.
 * Actually, New York was originally named New Amsterdam by the Dutch until it was traded to Britain for Guyana. It was renamed New York in honor of the Duke of York, who later became James II of England. So it was actually named after James II, not York, though I guess you could say that it was indirectly named after him since his Dukedom was centered on York.
 * In a similar vein, this Troper was listening to an American podcast that read out an email from a listener in "Boston, England". The hosts decided that the listener had meant to say "Boston, New England" or the like and spent a few minutes teasing him for "not knowing where he lives". Boston is in Lincolnshire.
 * Try being from a city which had it's unique name hi-jacked and made famous by a certain Civil War-era president (albiet unintentionally). Going around America saying your from Lincoln just isn't quintessentially British for the Yanks, who assume that Lincoln in Lincolnshire in England was named for Abraham Lincoln. Still, it could be worse, I could be from Washington near Newcastle. (NB: The name "Lincoln" descends from the Latinised Romano-Celtic name "Lindensium Colonia" meaning "city by the pool", and was founded by the Romans c.43 AD.)

This Troper's Yorkshireman fiance was visiting her in Colorado this week, we went out to lunch and the guy behind the counter commented on his accent "where are you from?" "northern england" "oh.....you mean Scotland?"

Some American once tried to say to me that Britain is only England. I'm Scottish, so I naturally got ticked.

Some people who actually live in England try to say Britain is only England. This troper is from Wales and gets really annoyed by this. I was in Las Vegas and a woman from England was telling a local about a show they have in England called "The X Factor". I would've loved to step in and say "We have it in Wales and Scotland too. It's also FILMED there as well as in England!"

This troper (Pastylover2) moved to Canada from England in 2006, at age 14. He lived in Cornwall. Canadians ask how far away from London it is. Urgh...

How could we forget Madonna declaring on American television that 'England (!) is a small country, there is only one city'? (and here it is: 4.22 in) Link

This troper, if he ever does a show in London, (or any other part of the UK or Ireland) vows to say "HELLO SUSSEX!" as a nod to this trope

This Troper's (Sen) currently attending uni in London and is even more supremely annoyed by this phenomenon - it just somehow seems like a larger insult to the intelligence when you actually live in the city, pretty damn far away from any famous landmarks (anyone seen the Barbican in any films lately? Me neither, and that's the closest to my area).

So, in my writing, I tend to obsessively abuse Google Maps and go overboard with placing the action far away from local landmarks and in other cities. I've kinda been pondering a verse where for comedy's sake the UK imposes more absurdly draconian measures on tourism to stamp out this trope (sample: Westminster Palace gets repurposed as a general store, the guards are abolished, all tourists landing in the country are forced to name at least one more city before being allowed in), Author Tract be damned. -- ---
 * This troper, if he ever does a show in London, (or any other part of the UK or Ireland) vows to say "HELLO SUSSEX!" as a nod to this trope.
 * @/🇸🇳 This Troper's currently attending uni in London and is even more supremely annoyed by this phenomenon - it just somehow seems like a larger insult to the intelligence when you actually live in the city, pretty damn far away from any famous landmarks (anyone seen the Barbican in any films lately? Me neither, and that's the closest to my area). So, in my writing, I tend to obsessively abuse Google Maps and go overboard with placing the action far away from local landmarks and in other cities. I've kinda been pondering a verse where for comedy's sake the UK imposes more absurdly draconian measures on tourism to stamp out this trope (sample: Westminster Palace gets repurposed as a general store, the guards are abolished, all tourists landing in the country are forced to name at least one more city before being allowed in), AuthorTract be damned.


 * This troper went on a trip to England to visit my father. When I got back, everyone assumed I had been in London the whole time. Actually, no, I'd gone to a town called Haydenburg and then to Nottingham, and actually went nowhere near London.

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 * People around me seem to think that London is a country and a city at the same time, sometimes they think the same for Paris.
 * This tropette and her family tend to say that we live near Manchester, when it's half an hour's train ride from where she lives, and would be amazed if she didn't have to explain that she lives in Penwortham, Lancashire.
 * Every year my family and I go abroad to Cyprus or Spain. Last year we decided to experiment and go to mainland Greece instead. People couldn't tell whether we were American Or English apparently. When one waitor asked which one it was and we said England he responded with: "Ahh England, London is a beautiful city." Cue astonished expressions. We actually live in Wirral -about an hour away from Liverpool- which is in the North West and nowhere near London.