Why is The North seen as backward and undesirable?

[Sibsmum]

Can't understand why The North, seems to get looked down on , except when someone wants a holiday home somewhere pretty, or a big house for cheaper prices.
There are Universities, theatres, good schools, roads that aren't clogged all the time( and some that are...)spectacular scenery... So why is there still a perception that somehow The North is 'less' everything than the South?

Blackpool can be a bit grim and there are a lot of chippies ,however just a mile up the road is Lythem St Anne's which is much nicer and I expect you can get fruit and veg there !

A couple of pints and change for a fiver. Beautiful countryside, house prices are great. It's great up north. Don't forget your big coat tho.

House prices - definitely.

Was on a work call with a director who lives in North London. We're quite friendly and both confessed to being nosy about people's houses so gave each other a wee tour. She couldn't believe how much space we have and when I told her what we'd paid for our place - which wouldn't even buy a flat in her neighbourhood.

That said, I do like London. But Jesus I wouldn't be paying £400k for a one bed flat with no garden.

I think people make unfair assumptions about both the North and the South. Everyone always makes out like the U.K. just consists of “Working Class Northerners” and “Londoners” Thats pretty much what one fragment of the existing culture war is. What about the rest of the country?!! I’m from a deprived, decaying forgotten coastal town in Sussex. There’s no affluence here. Swathes of London are also working class. Just like there are sections of the North that are incredibly affluent and powerhouses of culture and education.

[quote MuddlingMackem]@Wheresthesanitygone, are you in Leeds by any chance? We stopped by one year for a meal on the way home from holiday, and were gobsmacked at how expensive everything was compared to elsewhere.[/quote]
Not far from Leeds, but would say that’s average in most of the country pubs further out too

Does the diet get worse the further north you go?

Actually you're all down south.

The north starts about the Moray Firth for me.

Parts of The North are horrendous, but for those who think that The South is fantastic I suggest you read the thread about Weston 'Super' Mare

Having said that, I would never live in The North of England ever again.

Parts of the south are also horrendous. Parts of anywhere are horrendous.

Your point is bettsbattenburg?

I live in Blackpool. I don’t know what suet pudding is and I buy fresh fruit and veg from the local greengrocers. I rarely go into the town centre as it’s pretty grim (especially when the lovely tourists descend in their masses), but head to the outskirts and it’s not much different to any other town.

I’ve loved living here during lockdown, the beaches and the prom were clean and the sea crystal clear. Now all the tourists are returning and it’s starting to look like a tramp’s bin bag again. I always find it funny when people criticise Blackpool because the main problem with it is the tourist demographic it attracts (not all, but lots) and they don’t live here, they most likely live amongst those who call it a shithole.

My family moved from the North (Lancashire) to the South (Home Counties) for economic reasons in the 70s.

I was birthed when we lived in Yorkshire and now live in a town that was described as the slums by a certain race car driver

We are so lucky to live in this Country and it is good we don't all want to live in the same place. I lived in London for a few years and really wouldn't do it again unless I had the budget to live in a top area.

Londoners are not unfriendly. The ones who are unfriendly are the dipshits that moved to the "big smoke" & give it the big I am.

@mollypuss1 I had grandparents in Blackpool and visited a lot. I think it is a majestic place. The light on the seafront is beautiful and it has trams, which elevates it above anywhere else imo.

Yes that's it @mollypuss1, I'm sorry for calling Blackpool from I agree it's the tourists that make it grim ,we live about forty minutes drive from Blackpool so do to quite.often for an afternoon ,it's the lairy stag and hen do,s that spoil it .

As a person from Northern Ireland, who knows the South fairly well due to family living there, I think if I lived in England I'd go for the North. I'm not entirely sure why though, perhaps it's the shared ground of poverty, flat caps and stodgy carbs

@Ginfordinner

Parts of the south are also horrendous. Parts of anywhere are horrendous.

Your point is bettsbattenburg?

That both North and South have horrible areas, obvious isn't it?

London house prices haven’t always been this high.

Remember in the late 70s/early 80s looking at a terraced house in the area we lived in the north (still a very expensive area MIL has a 2 bed flat there and it is £400k without a garden) and then looking at a similar terrace house in London and finding we couldn’t afford either but the town in the North we lived in was the more expensive and yet was subject to poorer wages than what we could earn in London.

The Midland Wales Scotland

Chippies are much better up North because they do gravy.

I’m not sure people do anymore do they?

I think it’s quite dated and naff (can’t think of a better word sorry) to assume the North is not full of desirable places to live and work? There are certainly crap holes, but there are plenty of crap holes all over the UK.

Tbh I couldn’t be arsed to entertain someone who thought along those lines, it’s like when people turn their noses up at Aldi or TK Maxx - it’s a really outdated mindset. Are people really daft enough to assume a WHOLE HALF of a country isn’t up to scratch? Who can be bothered with someone that vapid and idiotic.

I am a Londoner living in the North.

@MingeofDeath

Chippies are much better up North because they do gravy.

There are chippies that don't do gravy???? Wtf.

I like Northern chippies cos they do grated cheese. I came back to the Midlands from uni in Preston and forgot how much I'd become accustomed to chips, cheese and gravy

Read The Road to Wigan Pier - it explains it beautifully, and people still assumes it's like that.

Blackpool gets a bit grim where the unused B&Bs have been converted into HMOs, same in Morecambe, but a lot of seaside towns are like that, it not just a northern thing.

[quote TheSandman]@lockdownparty
I live in Scotland, I think some people are surprised we have wifi

In all seriousness a tourist asked my daughter, who was serving him in a shop in the Highlands where we live, whether we had electricity in our village. This was last year.[/quote]
This actually made me feel happy😂
I am from what's considered Easter Europe and was asked few years back if we have indoor toilets now or just outdoors ones... 😂

Chips and curry sauce is better than any fast food American style burger/chicken restaurant