On 26 Oct 2015 at 9:44am SecondGeneration wrote:
Is the term DFL exclusively used by people who are not from Lewes? I've heard it a lot but only ever from the mouths of people who are at most second generation lewesien. People who are actually rooted in Lewes seem to not be bothered by the idea of outsiders come to the town.
On 26 Oct 2015 at 12:24pm fat controller wrote:
I have only been here 10 years but I have a feeling it is more about how people behave and whether they are mouthing off a lot!
On 26 Oct 2015 at 12:28pm Country Boy wrote:
It would be interesting to know how many regular posters on here are DFL. Me, I'm up from Eastbourne, some 26 years ago.
On 26 Oct 2015 at 1:00pm Red wrote:
What is the actual definition of a DFL?
Is it if you weren't born in Lewes but moved here from London at any age?
On 26 Oct 2015 at 1:07pm Petty... wrote:
@red yes your right basically dfl is down from London!
On 26 Oct 2015 at 1:11pm SecondGeneration wrote:
It's a generic term of abuse used by middle class lewes dwellers against anyone who has the audacity to enjoy bits of the town which they have arbitrarily decided they don't like.
DFLs do things like eat in Bills where the people complaining about DFLs drink tea in Buttercup whilst complaining that the town is full of antique shops.
The anti-DFL brigade seem to just hate everyone, they are against the idea of the travelodge as it is downmarket, whist also being against bills as it's too middle class. The moan on about this whilst they shop in waitrose.
The whole thing is very tiresome really.
On 26 Oct 2015 at 1:21pm Penguin wrote:
It's not necessarily where you are from, there are plenty of people from London that are fine. It is more the attitude that comes with some of them. Google Viz comic Modern Parents, that sums them up pretty well.
On 26 Oct 2015 at 2:09pm Guido wrote:
So they move to a town full of history and tradition and then proceed to try and stop that tradition because little Tarquin doesn't like the bangs. If only they did a little research before the decided to force the house prices sky high and build their tin shacks at our gateway!
On 26 Oct 2015 at 2:13pm Dixie Normus wrote:
@Guido - You're bang on the money!
On 26 Oct 2015 at 5:15pm SecondGeneration wrote:
where are your parents from Guido??
and their parents?
which is sort of my point, people who are all butt hurt about DFLs are normally lacking lewes roots.
On 26 Oct 2015 at 6:05pm Tony Soprano wrote:
I don't get your point, SecondGeneration. DFLs drive me mad and family are Lewes several generations back.
On 26 Oct 2015 at 6:06pm Guido wrote:
@Second generation my parents are from Lewes as were my grandparents. It's not about that, it's the ones that move to Lewes and want it to be something different and will go out of there way to change things that have happened for hundreds of years, buy properties at above asking prices and then leave them empty most of the year stopping younger generations from staying in the area, forcing them to move away to cheaper places and open shops selling items that the middle class Lewes resident couldn't justify purchasing. Those are the people we don't like in Lewes. Come to Lewes, fit in, enjoy it's history and stop trying to turn it in to a rich persons playground and we wouldn't know you were here..
On 26 Oct 2015 at 6:11pm Ross wrote:
What about people who have moved from London to take advantage of the cheap house prices and commute on a daily basis like myself? Am I part of the 'problem'?
On 26 Oct 2015 at 6:20pm guido wrote:
@Ross, how do you see Lewes? Do you like the way it is? Do you put up with the annual bonfire celebrations?
On 26 Oct 2015 at 6:42pm Southstreeter wrote:
I have lived in many places around this country and without question Lewes is in a league of its own when it comes to nimbyism , like Ross I came because I could get a much nicer house in a much nicer place when I moved to lewes . Maybe if some of you left occasionally to experience the outside world you would just appreciate what you have and be happy to share it with someone who isn't your cousin .
On 26 Oct 2015 at 7:06pm John Smith wrote:
I can't help feeling that the definition of a DFL as given above actually adds up to all the things that DFL haters don't like about their neighbours. "They open shops selling string". They eat in Bill's. They "force up house prices" (?!?!?) They shout Oggy Oggy. They join SBS. ETc etc.
Many of the people moving to London do so because they can't possibly afford to live in London. So actually, how about directing your anger at Russian oligarchs or Chinese millionaires laundering funds? Or at successive governments for completely failing to deal with the increasing pressure on housing all over the south east.
And if you don't like the price they're offering for your house, don't take it. Insist on a lower one. That'll fox 'em.
On 26 Oct 2015 at 7:14pm John Smith wrote:
Sorry, I meant moving to Lewes, obviously. (Freudian slip?)
On 26 Oct 2015 at 7:20pm Guido wrote:
You don't seem to be getting the point! I have no issues with any person who moves to Lewes from anywhere in the country. Just don't come here and complain about the way we do things, don't open shops selling expensive string and don't build ugly £1m tin houses. This is Lewes, the historic county town of Sussex. Let's keep it that way.
On 26 Oct 2015 at 7:39pm Sussex born wrote:
I grew up in Lewes, as did my parents and grandparents. I don't like bonfire. I quite like some of the shops selling string. I like coffee shops and have occasionally eaten at Bills. Am I allowed to complain about the way we do things?
On 26 Oct 2015 at 8:04pm Smokehouse wrote:
I think the difficulty I have with the London crown coming down because Lewes is 'cheap' (!!!!) is that local people who have older children wanting to leave home and I know quite a few just in my area, including myself, find their children are unable to stay in the town as rents and obviously house prices are now really high in Lewes, - partially because of DFL's driving up the demand and hence the prices. It is a lovely town and we are a victim of our own success. I think it is radically changing in character and I'm not sure for the better, I for one don't want to live in a town with the sort of imbalance that comes of just moneyed people around, - this isn't healthy and results in the Lewes 'Bubble' mentality, all lah lah lovely and creating a somewhat disconnected and rarefied atmosphere.
On 26 Oct 2015 at 8:08pm Smokehouse wrote:
London CROWD , another Freudian slip
On 26 Oct 2015 at 8:52pm John Smith wrote:
And you're missing the point. Lewes doesn't exist in isolation. It lies somewhere in the middle of ludicrous house prices in London and a retirement flat in Eastbourne or Bexhill. People who've grown up in London don't have a chance of finding somewhere to live there: talk to third or fourth generation residents of Hampstead, Hackney or Brixton, and you'll hear the same complaints. No-one can afford to live where they were brought up: that holds good all the way across the south-east (and probably beyond). So blaming all the woes of Lewes on incomers is just plain silly. As I said before, there are two parties to a house sale: the vendor and the buyer. A vendor doesn't have to sell his house for crazy money, does he? It isn't the fault of incomers that there is an unsustainable and economically ruinous house-price boom. Blame that on governments, not some family looking for somewhere to bring up their kids.
On 26 Oct 2015 at 9:00pm the big mam wrote:
To be a Lewesien you have to be born here.
In Lewes we have D.F.L
and out of towners which move here from out of town .
but they like going on about the D. F L also .
On 27 Oct 2015 at 7:47am Another B and B lady wrote:
My kids started life in Lewes. They trained for careers, worked hard in London for over 10 years and have come back to Lewes to raise families. They work for the NHS locally now. They can just about afford to live in Lewes. Are they DFL's ...? So much nonsense about this. Lewes is not 'special'. It's 'special' to those who live here but as noted above, many small market Towns in England have the same problems of those living here (even new arrivals) resisting the inevitable changes that must come to keep communities alive. I lived here I the 70's - Lewes was very dull and 'small town'. It is far more vibrant now,and a much more attractive place to live. Could it have something to do with the mix of people who have kept it alive and changing?
On 27 Oct 2015 at 8:42am Tipex wrote:
The concept of dfl's has puzzled me. Surely any town needs diversity? Those who boast about having been born and bred in lewes having never lived anywhere else are really missing out. Go and see the world (or at least this country) and bring your experiences back to lewes to the benefit of the town and yourself.
On 27 Oct 2015 at 11:00am RootlessCosmopolitan wrote:
What do they know of Lewes, those who only Lewes know?
On 27 Oct 2015 at 11:07am Stand there. wrote:
I think a lot of nonsense is talked about people who have 'seen the world', as being somehow superior to those who in effect live in one place for most of their days. Maybe there is way to much busyness and activity of self being held up as a badge of being somehow a more worthwhile human being, and as being a purpose in itself. The story being if you don't run around like crazy you are somehow 'missing out'. Are you? 'Don't just do something, stand there'. Slow down, appreciate and be content, and why belittle people for leading a life in Lewes. If they can that is, financially. Diversity ? What's diverse, in an economic and therefore social sense about Lewes becoming a town only for the very well off?
On 27 Oct 2015 at 12:08pm RedHeartedCyclist wrote:
@Guido I think Harry and Paul saw this happening up in London years ago and your right it's the same here in lewes now . Jokes on them really
Watch the video »
On 27 Oct 2015 at 1:32pm RootlessCosmopolitan wrote:
I left my home town at 18 and have moved around Britain, and to an extent Europe, working all over the place, whatever suits my career and lifestyle at the time. I find it hard to sympathise with those complaining that as a result of high house prices in Lewes they have to live in Seaford or Uckfield, 'far away' from their families, or have to travel to the next town to find work. I also don't think people are entitled to live in Lewes just because they were born here.
I feel sorry that people who want to live here can't afford it, whether they were born here or not, and yes everyone has a right to housing. But the idea that one of the most beautiful towns in the country, in the middle of the downs, with easy access to London and Brighton, is not going to be expensive somewhat ridiculous.
On 27 Oct 2015 at 6:43pm Vindex wrote:
Funny how people have a sense of ownership about things they have never owned.
On 27 Oct 2015 at 11:53pm Lewes Lady wrote:
I have sometimes asked a question to friends moaning about their children having to live elsewhere, "Do you wish you had spent less of your income in the pubs and clubs in town over the years, so that you could instead have saved up and bought your own house when they were dirt cheap - that you could now share with / leave to your kids?" Silence usually follows.
On 28 Oct 2015 at 12:05pm Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
I'm a DFL (if you count Croydon as London), and I moved here 24 years ago because I loved the town and everything it stands for. I didn't commute, I got a job here first, and I didn't move because it was cheap (my house was actually more expensive and smaller than my house in Croydon).
Whether it's the number or the nature of the more recent influx of DFLs, I don't know, but I feel that the nature of the town has changed hugely in the last few years. The overpriced "lifestyle" shops that seem to be taking up half the high street, the "artisan" bakery, the evolution of Bills from useful greengrocer to overpriced cafe, and the loss of newsagents, butchers and bookshops is indicative of Lewes' gradual transformation into a middle-class, Modern Parent ghetto, imo.
When people buy a house near St Anne's in the high street and then try and stop the Pelham renewing their music licence, as happened a few years ago, they really ought to rethink their property-hunting methods. Same goes for the bonfire-haters - don't move somewhere and then try to make it into somewhere else.
I was in Ledbury a few days ago, and it rather reminded me of how Lewes used to be. Lovely buildings, bookshops, greengrocers and butchers with some great pubs, all surrounded by stunning countryside. It made me very nostalgic.
On 28 Oct 2015 at 12:53pm Herefordshire wrote:
Blimey all that way before you can escape the Gentrification. Or Cafe society ? Every man and his dog runs a cafe in Lewes.
On 28 Oct 2015 at 1:06pm Good Conservative wrote:
I have been here 45 years. Sadly Lewes now reflects and magnifies the imbalance in our economy where the money seems to be made by greedy bankers and parasitic lawyers. Where is the industry? Oh yes the tiny remains is in the north street 'quarter'. (btw anybody who uses the word 'quarter' for a district is clearly mad anyway as quarters are what you get when you cut up an orange)
@act - I want to move to Ledbury as I am beginning to hate Lewes, especially now we have a submissive MP
On 28 Oct 2015 at 11:42pm RootlessCosmopolitan wrote:
Nostalgia ain't what it used to be. The world moves on, butchers and bakers and candlestick makers close, Bills turns into a franchise and spreads all over the place, artisan bakers open up in a lot of towns. In every other place in Britain it's just things changing, but in Lewes it's the fault of the DFLs.
No-one moves to Lewes because it's 'cheap', because it ain't. You could move from London to almost anywhere else in the south east and get more for your money. People are attracted here because it's a little bit different to most of the home counties.
On 28 Oct 2015 at 11:46pm RootlessCosmopolitan wrote:
And by the way, complaining about some annoying side-effect of bonfire does not make you a 'bonfire hater'.
On 29 Oct 2015 at 6:43am Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
GC, if we both moved to Ledbury, the local residents would probably start complaining about UFLs - Up From Lewes.