"London RP" - there is no such thing. Linguist call this the SSB accent (Standard Southern British). Listen to a radio announcer from the 1930s for a sample of actual RP - it is something quite different. Moreover, SSB is the natural dialect of a large number of native speakers, whereas RP never was. It was specifically designed to be a diction that could be understood despite ubiquitous tuning noise at the time. Moreover, RP was specifically devoid of class or regional connotations - although it did come to be seen as upper class over time.
In an example of convergent evolution, the "radio announcer accent" used by Americans was in many ways similar to RP.
A sister-misunderstanding is that the queen speaks RP. In our times, the royal family speaks a variety of English that is something onto its own - not related to how rich or posh or aristocratic people elsewhere in the country speak. However, it is possible (I do not recall) that the monarchs of the 30s through 50s actually used RP for radio and TV addresses, which has cemented the association between RP and "the queen's / king's English."
"London RP" - there is no such thing. Linguist call this the SSB accent (Standard Southern British). Listen to a radio announcer from the 1930s for a sample of actual RP - it is something quite different. Moreover, SSB is the natural dialect of a large number of native speakers, whereas RP never was. It was specifically designed to be a diction that could be understood despite ubiquitous tuning noise at the time. Moreover, RP was specifically devoid of class or regional connotations - although it did come to be seen as upper class over time.
In an example of convergent evolution, the "radio announcer accent" used by Americans was in many ways similar to RP.
A sister-misunderstanding is that the queen speaks RP. In our times, the royal family speaks a variety of English that is something onto its own - not related to how rich or posh or aristocratic people elsewhere in the country speak. However, it is possible (I do not recall) that the monarchs of the 30s through 50s actually used RP for radio and TV addresses, which has cemented the association between RP and "the queen's / king's English."
Edited by tweekatten