"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.
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Famous quotes containing the words north and/or gap:
“The English were very backward to explore and settle the continent which they had stumbled upon. The French preceded them both in their attempts to colonize the continent of North America ... and in their first permanent settlement ... And the right of possession, naturally enough, was the one which England mainly respected and recognized in the case of Spain, of Portugal, and also of France, from the time of Henry VII.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Here is the place; right over the hill
Runs the path I took;
You can see the gap in the old wall still,
And the stepping-stones in the shallow brook.”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)