Northern Vs Southern culture?

[Gumper]

DP is working class and from Newcastle, I'm middle class and from way down South.

We often talk about cultural differences.

He lives down here and I've only ever been up north a few times so it's hard for me to gauge.

So, is it UR to think there are big differences and if so what are they, in your experience?

[ScreenshottingIsNotJournalism]

Shopping is a hobby/treat/outing up north - did you really say that?!

yup, lots of people said that, see all the "more dressed up" posts. You can't have a wardrobe of fancy clothes if you don't shop for em!

[namechangedtoday15]

Yes but saying it's a hobby or a treat or an outing is just patronising. People may shop for clothes more often (actually don't agree but that's not the point) but the phrase is just condescending.

[mrswarthog]

I'm from Liverpool and having meandered around the UK am finally living 5 miles out of the city in Sefton. It's definitely a class divide, I have lived in Wales, the SE & the NE & Yorkshire and pretty much find my 'tribe' (educated w/c to lower m/c) to be similar wherever.

[EssentialHummus]

Foreigner here. I found that when I moved here I made friends with more Northerners than Southerners. I just found them more open, more easy-going, more "steady".

Were they northeners living down south though, or northerners "at home"?

Down south. I am still to visit most of the north and check them out in their natural habitats . I rather liked Newcastle

[KenDoddsDadsDog]

I wish shopping was a hobby/ treat / outing in the North East all the time. I'd be so happy. It's a proper grind having to buy carrots for the pit pony.

[GrumpyMcGrumpFace]

I think it so much depends where you are, rather than huge N/S generalisations. Having lived in opposite ends of England, I'd say rural NE and rural SW have great similarities. We all talk in supermarkets

[Dachshund]

I was born in London to 2 Londoner parents but brought up in Yorkshire.

Met South Londoner DP at uni in Yorkshire and we moved together back down after graduation.

I'd say there are far fewer cultural differences than people make out. As pp say - it's class differences mostly. Middle class people are middle class all over the country. Might be slightly more tutting down south and also slightly more crossover of new/old money.

[SolomanDaisy]

I'm northern and the main difference I noticed when I lived in Kent for a year was the racism. Much more openly racist in Kent. Might just have been a bad experience though, as I was only in one place and only for a year.

[Rowanhart]

No Waitrose.

[2rebecca]

I think there are class differences, but think a well off Edinburgh resident would have more in common with a similarly well off London resident than a poor Hull or Glasgow resident.
I lived in NE England for a while and there are lots of affluent areas like the commuter villages on the north York moors. The middle class people I mainly socialised with there aren't much different from middle class people in Fife and Edinburgh or Greater London.

[noodlepixie]

I have a dad from the south and a mum from the north. There are big differences but I don't think it is class related, or that one group is friendlier than the other.

[StickTheDMWhereTheSunDontShine]

So what's up with Northerners that reflects unfavourably on them, then, then, retrobot? I think we're fucking fantastic, in all our flavours.

I do hope you're down South. Don't want the likes of you bringing us down with your particular brand of snootiness.

[Papergirl1968]

Lived in the midlands all my life, right on the border between the industrial conurbation and the rural shires. From reading the above it should be the best of both worlds and in some ways it is in terms of jobs, property prices, and access to both good shopping and leisure facilities and the countryside.
But I long to live closer to the sea which is a good two and a half hours away, three and a half hours to get to nice coast.
And the other thing that bugs me is that very few midlanders seem to really achieve in the worlds of media, modelling, sport, drama, music etc, not without moving to a big city, almost inevitably london. Even then, we seem to be at a disadvantage as we have a universally disliked accent!

[almondpudding]

I agree that the culture in both the North and South varies massively. I also can't really say why they're different.

And yet I couldn't live in the South East again.
And DS didn't apply to any Southern universities.

So my head might think they're the same, but my heart says otherwise.

[OrangeNoodle]

Most of these posts forget there is a south west in the south as well as a south east.

I am a Londoner but have lived in other parts of the UK and now live in the far south west. I'd say we have more in common down here with culture in more northerly parts of England (or Wales or Scotland) than we do with our southern colleagues in the south east.

I'd also say culture in the south east of England is massively different from culture in London. Surrey in particular is one place I would never want to live again.

[museumum]

Some if it is just London / not London. Because so much of "down south" is dominated by London. People tend not to mean Taunton or Helton or Exeter when they talk about the south.

The biggest "not London" thing I noticed is that people went home at 5 on a Friday, got changed into casual clothes and Friday night here is like Saturday afternoon. Very laid back. There's not the sane after work drinks in a suit thing.

[fuctifino]

We do have Waitrose up North but Booths top trumps it anyway

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

As a Scot it irks me a bit that north of England is referred to as the North

[LaurieFairyCake]

People up north dress up to go out as they go out at weekends

In London we go out much more during the week after work and at weekends too - very casual dressing

However, the median tidiness of people is higher down south. I've never seen anyone without a shirt in Tesco, wearing pj's or really scruffy trackies in the shops. The gap between day and night out clothes isn't so high. In the north it's massive - you'll see lassies in their curlers at the shops and then massively dressed up in the evening.

It's not just a class thing. I definitely dressed up more when I lived at home. Down here I look ok-ish most of the time so don't bother making an effort.

[ScreenshottingIsNotJournalism]

I'm northern and the main difference I noticed when I lived in Kent for a year was the racism. Much more openly racist in Kent. Might just have been a bad experience though, as I was only in one place and only for a year

IMO kent is an exceptional pocket, and has been shat on by the rest of the south in a way so emotions run higher about foreigners.

London outsourced its housing problems to kent more than I think anywhere else, at a far faster rate than the county could hope to cope with it! Literally shipping in foreigners from london by the thousand into small towns with no infrastructure. Then obviously it's got the coast and the ferry ports and tunnel nearby.

That doesn't excuse the racism that I agree you DO hear openly in Kent, but I think explains why it's not necessarily typical of the south in that respect.

[CallWaiting]

I currently live quite far north and it's very middle class and culturally not very different to when I lived in the Home Counties.
I'm from the (south) Midlands and so don't class myself as either northern or southern!