I’ve just moved from London (which definitely counts as being in the south) to Chester (which I am assured counts as being in the north). Where exactly I passed from south to north on that drive though, remains a matter for some debate. Was it Watford Gap (not, as I had imagined for years, a dramatic canyon, or even a branch of a well-known clothes shop chain, but something as dull as a service station on the M1)? Was it Warwick, Birmingham, or even Stoke-on-Trent?
Who knows. It’s one of Britain’s great cultural divisions. Like the one between Devon and Cornwall about how exactly to prepare a scone (don’t even get us started on the correct way to pronounce the word). Or the one between Yorkshire and Lancashire, which I’m reliably informed started centuries ago with an argument about who should get the strawberry creams in the tin of Roses.
Many others exist. Due to space limitations I could not even explore on this diagram the fierce rivalry between opposite sides of the River Thames, Liverpool and the Wirral, or Milton Keynes against everyone else. Or the magnetic pull of London for television broadcasters. Or why on the Severn Bridge it costs you to get into Wales but it’s free to escape.
Wow, we have a lot of dividing lines round here. But for the record, I quite like it up north.
Brilliant map – sorry it didn’t upload to Facebook! Hope you enjoy Chester – near my origins on the Wirral. My parents both worked in Chester and through a common contact ended up at Bible College in Birkenhead. I do enjoy visiting back there, but glad I live in the (slightly) warmer south since my days in Africa are past!