Did you have elocution lessons ?

I can recall a teacher suggesting to my Dad that I had elocution lessons as my accent would certainly 'hold me back'....to this day I'm unsure of his response as he asked me to wait outside for him but I have a feeling it wasn't as polite as it could have been!
Despite having left Liverpool many years ago...I still have my accent and I'm still quite proud of it.

Yes , but not for long - perhaps a term as they were expensive
( guineas ! ) and frankly , all we did was learn great chunks of poetry whilst the teacher ( who also "taught " drama ) smoked through our reciting with a glazed , bored look and complete indifference .

Haha! I had unofficial elocution lessons when I was 11 and just relocated from Wirral to Hertfordshire. The lessons consisted of getting me to say "Potato Puffs" then hitting me while falling about laughing for some reason.

The lessons didn't take. I still to this day pronounce 'grass' and 'butter' correctly, the way Chaucer and Shakespeare would have pronounced them, rather than use hideously-mutilated Home Counties vowels.

And us northern types never came from somewhere called 'Oop North', with 'Oop' presumably rhyming with 'poop' and 'book'. We come from Up North, and not as the nesh southerners say, 'Ap Nawth"!

I think elocution lessons can be very helpful if you are learning English and have problems with pronunciation.

Yes. Non native English speakers may have difficulties with where the stress fall on a word or phrase and that may have to be specifically taught.

Think Miriam a vulgar person, however she speaks.

All sorts I quite agree with you about Miriam. I actually think talking nice does not detract from being a vulgar person.

At the age of 12 years I got a scholarship to attend a Stage School in Central London. Half day normal lesson, other half drama, dance, etc. etc. Loved it there.
BUT......they detested my East London/Essex accent, and they and I worked hard to change it into what was then (early 1950's), BBC English.

Sadly I left there after taking a few GCE's early at the age of 15 and got a job in an apprentice Hackney Hairdressers. MY acquired accent caused me to be very bullied. So, I then worked vey hard to rid myself of that.

There have been many times since that I wish that I had been stronger and kept that accent, I speak reasonably well and clearly, but East London is always there.

Yes, same here in a way. My parents had very flat RP accents, and never used local accent or words. So I worked hard at acquiring 'street speak' to fit in with the local kids. But being able to switch from one to the other, has been very useful in many ways.