"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:
“Why does man freeze to death trying to reach the North Pole? Why does man drive himself to suffer the steam and heat of the Amazon? Why does he stagger his mind with the mathematics of the sky? Once the question mark has arisen in the human brain the answer must be found, if it takes a hundred years. A thousand years.”
—Walter Reisch (1903–1963)
“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)