"North of Watford" and "Watford Gap"
Not to be confused with North Watford.The phrase "North of Watford" is used in a light-hearted, yet derogatory sense—typically by those living in southeastern England—to describe any part of the United Kingdom situated more than a relatively short distance north of London and the Home Counties. It is a euphemism for 'provincial' and by extension 'unsophisticated'. It is commonly understood that the term is in fact highly arbitrary and flexible, applying to an approximate latitude rather than the town of Watford itself, but its use has contributed to a mildly negative association with the place name. However, in modern usage the term generally denotes the English Midlands and Northern England. See Bombay Hills for a similar cultural border concept in New Zealand.
The phrase is also linked to the Watford Gap, a motorway service station on the main north-south M1 motorway, which is located 50 miles north of the town, in Northamptonshire.
Read more about this topic: Watford
Famous quotes containing the words north and/or gap:
“It is the sea that whitens the roof.
The sea drifts through the winter air.
It is the sea that the north wind makes.
The sea is in the falling snow.
This gloom is the darkness of the sea.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The confrontation between America and Europe reveals not so much a rapprochement as a distortion, an unbridgeable rift. There isn’t just a gap between us, but a whole chasm of modernity.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)