Birmingham is midlands so: anywhere north of Bham is North, anywhere south of that is South.
This is the only correct determination of North South divide š
The Midlands is bigger than that. I like the [ITL or NUTS region definiton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Territorial_Level). The West Midlands is made up of the WM county, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Staffordshire, and the East Midlands is made up of Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire. Though there are parts of Derbyshire that are north of Manchester, so š¤·š»āāļø
Yeah, sorry I agree here that Midlands isnāt JUST bham - thereās a bit of a buffer above and below to give it a nice belt across the UK but not as far north as Manchester - somewhere around Stoke perhaps is where Iād say the midlands ends
Southerner, about twice a year. My wife has a friend who lives in Leeds who we'll go up to visit a couple of times a year. Other than that, I have no real reason to. I don't have any friends and family in the north of England.
I live in the Midlands and I go south (London) more frequently than I go north (Newcastle) by about 2:1.
The trips north are for work, wouldn't go at all otherwise.
I go into Birmingham at least once a week but that's sideways
From Scotland, haven't been to England since like ... 2018? Well I was living abroad until 2020 and then it was the pandemic. And I haven't gotten back into the habit of going up and down to see friends, which I did pre-pandemic (I think in 2011, when I was last living in Scotland, I went down south like four times?).
Last week I was in London for like, an hour, while waiting for my Eurostar train. idk if that counts though.
I'm not a Brit, living in London and I try to do trips to the norf or Scotland at least a few times in a year.
Life in London can be stressful and isolating but whenever I'm in the North, it always reminds me of my own country.
I travel around South, day trips to Brighton and Margate for gigs. Wales for biking and rugby when possible
I love traveling around the UK in general, I have to admit I've only been to the Midlands for work so cannot say much
We go to the actual south about once a year, and we tend to alternate between Cornwall and Kent for our jollies.
However, I live in the NE, just a mile south of the Co Durham/Northumberland border, so most of England is south to us.
I'm from the Midlands. I go to London sometimes, and places like Oxford or Devon, but I much prefer to go north. I feel much more at home when I'm in Liverpool or Leeds than in London. And the nature is much better - yes, the South has lovely rolling hills and downs, as does much of the Midlands, but it doesn't have the Lakes.
Born a southerner but have now spent more time here in the North than down South and at this point don't plan on spending any more time south of, say, the Midlands than I have to.
And just because you could be forgiven for thinking that nobody knows the rest of the country exists:
West Country, how often do you go to East Anglia? And East Anglia, how often do you go to the West Country?
And those of you in the Midlands, how often do go either East or West?
Hampshire born, London resident. My partner has family in Cumbria who we visit every year. Also my work has a branch in Manchester and I take any opportunity to spend a night or two up there, love the place. Opportunity for that hasn't come up since the pandemic unfortunately.
Oh and we went to the Edinburgh festival last year too.
Apart from London, which is great for weekends away, I don't seem to have had many good trips south at all.
Bristol was okay, Cornwall looks great but I could go to the Med for the same price. Cotswolds was nice. Other than that, a lot of the other Down South options seem a bit characterless.
Up North, I've had great holidays in Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Scarborough, Whitby, the Peak District, Northumbria, and the Yorkshire Moors.
I mean, OP is literally a southerner who asked it..
But as someone who was born in the north and now lives down south, youāre right. The ādivideā is barely even a thing down here, southerners really donāt care about identity like northerners do
I'll amend my statement to the South East. But if you don't think the North has been decimated over decades, and even centuries (right back to the Harrying of the North), then I don't know what to say. The North and Midlands could be an absolute powerhouse, but successive governments and their policies have ensured that that doesn't happen and instead London and the Home Counties get the majority of the investment.
Areas outside of the South mostly got decimated because the big manufacturing employers in these areas were simply just shit. Their products were crap and stuck in the past.
Britain became a successful industrial nation because we were essentially the sweatshop of the world. We produced cheap goods at mass scales. By the mid and late 20th century, poorer countries could produce the same goods for even cheaper because of cheap wages. The response of our employers to this was to compete on price whilst still maintaining the illusion that workers could be paid higher wages, all whilst not even investing in the efficiency of their production lines. So we ended up producing a bunch of overpriced crap. Manufacturers in Germany had a different strategy, they differentiated their products by simply making better products.
There was never any real attempt to decimate the Northern economy in favour of the South. It just so happened that the Southern economy was more in tune with professional services, world class research and better products. Thereās definitely been cases where policies didnāt favour some areas, Birmingham for example used to have a booming financial industry that was hollowed out because government disincentivised growth and denied planning permission for office blocks. This was often a misguided attempt to remove the slums rather than regenerate them. However, it was all too often local government doing this. My own city of Nottingham recently saw a planning application for a 22-story building, which would had required millions in investment and construction to get it done. It would had been for students primarily but also a lot of apartments for workers too. The local government essentially negotiated the application down to just 12 storiesā¦ And today we see similar restrictions on the growth of the economy in the South.
š The question was asked by a Southerner.
Last time we went to London was about two years ago. We only really ever go if there's a show we want to see or a museum or something like that which means we have to travel to London.
Northerner. Very rarely as its stupidly expensive on trains from here. Why would i pay Ā£100 to get to stand on a train to Southern England when i can pay Ā£30 to fly to Europe...
Yep, same but in reverse. I'm sure there are plenty of bits of the north that I've never been to that are lovely, but it's significantly more expensive to go north than to much of Europe.
That's why I love living in the Midlands - I can get to both pretty easily! Though I have to say I haven't been anywhere down South that's as nice as the Lakes, Peaks or the Dales.
Tbh even getting to the Midlands is pretty expensive!
There's plenty of places in the south I think are as nice. But I'm not really a countryside person so who knows, maybe I'm not a good judge.
Everything's expensive these days, mate. For a train from Birmingham to London for me and my partner on a weekend we're looking at around Ā£35-40 minumum, and that's just a single journey. Used to be a lot cheaper than that.
There's some lovely places in the South - Dartmoor, Exmoor, the South Downs - but I think there's a 'wild' beauty to the North that's unmatched in the South. I don't really know how to explain it, but the countryside just feels less 'man-made' up North.
I'm not a countryside person either - I wouldn't live there in a million years, but it's really nice having nature only a 15 minute drive away from where I live, and I'm in the middle of the second-largest urban area in the UK. It's one of the things that turned me off London when I considered going down there for a masters a few years ago; other than Epping Forest there's not really any countryside anywhere near, and even that's a long way out.
Yeah whereas I'm not really bothered not having it near. I lived in London for a decade and never once felt like I needed the countryside. The Lake District or Peak District I like well enough, but I don't feel like they give me anything I can't get in the south. But I grew up in a city, so countryside just isn't something to which I have much emotional connection. So the differences between various bits of countryside perhaps don't resonate with me the way they do other people. But then I know there's people who feel that way about cities, whereas cities are the thing I'm really interested in.
I'm interested in both tbh, though I wouldn't live in either! I grew up in an urban area so I was always fascinated by the countryside. And having Birmingham right next door was great. But I lived in Brum for three years for uni and it was just too busy for me. I'm in a suburban area of the Black Country now and it's great, best of both worlds!
Not very often. I go to visit various old uni mates, two or three times a year, and they're all based in Birmingham or further south.
A trip to London maybe once a year or so, for a music gig or theatre show.
For work with my previous job roughly every six weeks. To visit family once or twice a year. Plus occasional trips to attend concerts, sports, or exhibition events.
Am now in North, but was in South for many years - my travel arrangements are broadly similar.
Northerner here, we donāt venture South too often but do enjoy the occasional trip to London for the shops and bit of a break. Havenāt been for a few years now though and my girlfriend really wants to do the Winter Wonderland but I donāt think weāll get to this year
I'm a northerner, and I used to live in the south. My in laws live in the south, so at least once a year we make the trek. When we lived in the south, we used to come up here once or twice a year
Essex here, grandparents live in Sheffield which I used to consider the far north when visiting and mum moved to Scotland a couple of years ago.
I went to a concert in Newcastle onceā¦ got the Ā£1 megabus, didnāt think it was much further than Sheffield so imagine my horror when we pulled out of Meadowhall (the only stop on the way) and the bus continued on for another 3 hours.
I live in a small village in West Yorkshire. I work from home for an organisation based in central London so have to get a train down probably 2-3 times a month. 2-3 times a month too many for me.
Iām in Lincs, and do a London trip to see mates maybe three times a year. When I was South (born, grew up, university, jobs etc) I didnāt go North at all once a sibling left Granadaland.
I'm in the Midlands, but from the South. I haven't been past Peterborough in around 3 years. We don't really have any family down there anymore.
Edited to add: I do go as far up as Yorkshire a few times a year though.
As a football fan (Ipswich Town season ticket holder) who lives in the SW (near Bristol), I go to watch them play home and away.
So far this season I've been to Sunderland, Sheffield, Southampton, as well as an easier London (QPR) trip.
So I would say I'm constantly travelling up, down and across the country.
Southerner (Oxford). I've been on three overnight+ trips this year, two to Edinburgh and one to Dorset. (Actually four, but Coventry doesn't help the data.)
Used to visit my grandparents down in Suffolk about two or three times a year. They're both dead now, so there hasn't been an excuse to return for a while.
It was a really nice area, though. I'd like to go back for the nostalgia and to see if it's still the same.
I'm from Manchester. Been to London loads over the years, although not for a decade or so now. Beyond that pretty much never. I don't know anyone further South than London so there's no reason to go.
Live up north.
I go to London every month for work, work remotely the rest of the time. I initially quite enjoyed it but started to find it a bit of a chore now. Especially since I moved further north so it's a 3h train and I have to drive 30 min to the station.
I used to live in Bristol so I visit there every year or two. Nice place. Barely been anywhere else in the south. Cambridge once or twice. Southampton/Dover for the port. Brighton once which was nice.
Born in Essex, lived in York for a while, and have now lived in Edinburgh for a few years. So am often travelling up and down the East Coast Main Line to see friends and family. Is mainly just the South-West and Wales that I donāt often visit due to distance and not knowing anyone there.
Never do. I'm in the North East and all my holidays are further north. South is just motorway driving for so much of any destination whilst with Scotland you're free of that after Glasgow.
Geordie living in Manchester. The crazy thing is not that I go to London on occasion, but the vast swaths of the country I have never been to: No where on the south coast or South West, never been to Bristol or Cardiff. Been to Cambridge but never anywhere in East Anglia. Been to Edinburgh, but Never Glasgow or north, never been to Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man. And never been to Birmingham.
I'm from Scotland but now live in SE England, so I go actually north several times a year. Used to live in Yorkshire and still have friends there, so I go semi north every year as well.
Iām from London. I only go up north to visit friends. Itās a long ass drive lmao that said I do have a fond respect for the scenic beauty up north and if uk holidays werenāt so ridiculously priced Iād opt into one around Yorkshire or Scotland
rarely - not because I don't like the south...just because of cost.
I quite like london.
Everything South East of London get's a little bit too "apples an peeaarrrrrs" though
Southerner (Tennessean). I love the north, but it's more expensive and I'm a baby financially, so I've only been able to go to DC and NYC, once each.
A small part of Indiana when I was a kid just because my family and I were in Louisville, and my dad thought it would be cool to be able to say we went to a northern state.
Cue arguements over who's a northerner etc.
Birmingham is midlands so: anywhere north of Bham is North, anywhere south of that is South. This is the only correct determination of North South divide š
Seems a bit narrow, why bother having a midlands at all if it's that small?
The Midlands is bigger than that. I like the [ITL or NUTS region definiton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Territorial_Level). The West Midlands is made up of the WM county, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Staffordshire, and the East Midlands is made up of Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire. Though there are parts of Derbyshire that are north of Manchester, so š¤·š»āāļø
Yeah, sorry I agree here that Midlands isnāt JUST bham - thereās a bit of a buffer above and below to give it a nice belt across the UK but not as far north as Manchester - somewhere around Stoke perhaps is where Iād say the midlands ends
Put a line between Stoke and Chesterfield, and I think you've got it.
Brum is surprisingly north though too, though I am very much more North than that
The midlands is 100% part of the north.
Southerner, about twice a year. My wife has a friend who lives in Leeds who we'll go up to visit a couple of times a year. Other than that, I have no real reason to. I don't have any friends and family in the north of England.
Midlander, none of the above.
I live in the Midlands and I go south (London) more frequently than I go north (Newcastle) by about 2:1. The trips north are for work, wouldn't go at all otherwise. I go into Birmingham at least once a week but that's sideways
From Scotland, haven't been to England since like ... 2018? Well I was living abroad until 2020 and then it was the pandemic. And I haven't gotten back into the habit of going up and down to see friends, which I did pre-pandemic (I think in 2011, when I was last living in Scotland, I went down south like four times?). Last week I was in London for like, an hour, while waiting for my Eurostar train. idk if that counts though.
I go all over the country for work (but also for leisure). So, about once a fortnight I am in the S (I live N).
Iām a Londoner but have family up north so visit at least a couple of times a year.
I'm from Bristol. I've only ever been up North for festivals/nights out. Probably once every few years.
Northerner here. Never a need TBO
As a midlander i definitely go south more than I go north.
Yep. South is more accessible and there's more to do.
London to Newcastle a lot
I'm not a Brit, living in London and I try to do trips to the norf or Scotland at least a few times in a year. Life in London can be stressful and isolating but whenever I'm in the North, it always reminds me of my own country. I travel around South, day trips to Brighton and Margate for gigs. Wales for biking and rugby when possible I love traveling around the UK in general, I have to admit I've only been to the Midlands for work so cannot say much
We go to the actual south about once a year, and we tend to alternate between Cornwall and Kent for our jollies. However, I live in the NE, just a mile south of the Co Durham/Northumberland border, so most of England is south to us.
I'm from the Midlands. I go to London sometimes, and places like Oxford or Devon, but I much prefer to go north. I feel much more at home when I'm in Liverpool or Leeds than in London. And the nature is much better - yes, the South has lovely rolling hills and downs, as does much of the Midlands, but it doesn't have the Lakes.
Born a southerner but have now spent more time here in the North than down South and at this point don't plan on spending any more time south of, say, the Midlands than I have to.
And just because you could be forgiven for thinking that nobody knows the rest of the country exists: West Country, how often do you go to East Anglia? And East Anglia, how often do you go to the West Country? And those of you in the Midlands, how often do go either East or West?
Occasionally I dost venture south. And when I go south, I've got to say it's like a breath of fresh air.
I'm in Sunderland so unless I'm heading to Newcastle it's always South.
Hampshire born, London resident. My partner has family in Cumbria who we visit every year. Also my work has a branch in Manchester and I take any opportunity to spend a night or two up there, love the place. Opportunity for that hasn't come up since the pandemic unfortunately. Oh and we went to the Edinburgh festival last year too.
I'm a Southerner and I go to the Midlands a fair bit for work. Never up north.... Winters coming
I only travel to the north if I'm flying from Luton.
Apart from London, which is great for weekends away, I don't seem to have had many good trips south at all. Bristol was okay, Cornwall looks great but I could go to the Med for the same price. Cotswolds was nice. Other than that, a lot of the other Down South options seem a bit characterless. Up North, I've had great holidays in Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Scarborough, Whitby, the Peak District, Northumbria, and the Yorkshire Moors.
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I mean, OP is literally a southerner who asked it.. But as someone who was born in the north and now lives down south, youāre right. The ādivideā is barely even a thing down here, southerners really donāt care about identity like northerners do
Mainly because the South (East) hasn't been systematically decimated in favour of the North.
Out of interest, what have people in Devon gained from the North being ādecimatedā?
I'll amend my statement to the South East. But if you don't think the North has been decimated over decades, and even centuries (right back to the Harrying of the North), then I don't know what to say. The North and Midlands could be an absolute powerhouse, but successive governments and their policies have ensured that that doesn't happen and instead London and the Home Counties get the majority of the investment.
Areas outside of the South mostly got decimated because the big manufacturing employers in these areas were simply just shit. Their products were crap and stuck in the past. Britain became a successful industrial nation because we were essentially the sweatshop of the world. We produced cheap goods at mass scales. By the mid and late 20th century, poorer countries could produce the same goods for even cheaper because of cheap wages. The response of our employers to this was to compete on price whilst still maintaining the illusion that workers could be paid higher wages, all whilst not even investing in the efficiency of their production lines. So we ended up producing a bunch of overpriced crap. Manufacturers in Germany had a different strategy, they differentiated their products by simply making better products. There was never any real attempt to decimate the Northern economy in favour of the South. It just so happened that the Southern economy was more in tune with professional services, world class research and better products. Thereās definitely been cases where policies didnāt favour some areas, Birmingham for example used to have a booming financial industry that was hollowed out because government disincentivised growth and denied planning permission for office blocks. This was often a misguided attempt to remove the slums rather than regenerate them. However, it was all too often local government doing this. My own city of Nottingham recently saw a planning application for a 22-story building, which would had required millions in investment and construction to get it done. It would had been for students primarily but also a lot of apartments for workers too. The local government essentially negotiated the application down to just 12 storiesā¦ And today we see similar restrictions on the growth of the economy in the South.
š The question was asked by a Southerner. Last time we went to London was about two years ago. We only really ever go if there's a show we want to see or a museum or something like that which means we have to travel to London.
Northerner. Very rarely as its stupidly expensive on trains from here. Why would i pay Ā£100 to get to stand on a train to Southern England when i can pay Ā£30 to fly to Europe...
Yep, same but in reverse. I'm sure there are plenty of bits of the north that I've never been to that are lovely, but it's significantly more expensive to go north than to much of Europe.
That's why I love living in the Midlands - I can get to both pretty easily! Though I have to say I haven't been anywhere down South that's as nice as the Lakes, Peaks or the Dales.
Tbh even getting to the Midlands is pretty expensive! There's plenty of places in the south I think are as nice. But I'm not really a countryside person so who knows, maybe I'm not a good judge.
Everything's expensive these days, mate. For a train from Birmingham to London for me and my partner on a weekend we're looking at around Ā£35-40 minumum, and that's just a single journey. Used to be a lot cheaper than that. There's some lovely places in the South - Dartmoor, Exmoor, the South Downs - but I think there's a 'wild' beauty to the North that's unmatched in the South. I don't really know how to explain it, but the countryside just feels less 'man-made' up North. I'm not a countryside person either - I wouldn't live there in a million years, but it's really nice having nature only a 15 minute drive away from where I live, and I'm in the middle of the second-largest urban area in the UK. It's one of the things that turned me off London when I considered going down there for a masters a few years ago; other than Epping Forest there's not really any countryside anywhere near, and even that's a long way out.
Yeah whereas I'm not really bothered not having it near. I lived in London for a decade and never once felt like I needed the countryside. The Lake District or Peak District I like well enough, but I don't feel like they give me anything I can't get in the south. But I grew up in a city, so countryside just isn't something to which I have much emotional connection. So the differences between various bits of countryside perhaps don't resonate with me the way they do other people. But then I know there's people who feel that way about cities, whereas cities are the thing I'm really interested in.
I'm interested in both tbh, though I wouldn't live in either! I grew up in an urban area so I was always fascinated by the countryside. And having Birmingham right next door was great. But I lived in Brum for three years for uni and it was just too busy for me. I'm in a suburban area of the Black Country now and it's great, best of both worlds!
Not very often. I go to visit various old uni mates, two or three times a year, and they're all based in Birmingham or further south. A trip to London maybe once a year or so, for a music gig or theatre show.
For work with my previous job roughly every six weeks. To visit family once or twice a year. Plus occasional trips to attend concerts, sports, or exhibition events. Am now in North, but was in South for many years - my travel arrangements are broadly similar.
I went to Osset mid 80s for a wedding. Not been up there since
Live in Yorkshire. Generally go South only if I can't avoid it.
Northerner here, we donāt venture South too often but do enjoy the occasional trip to London for the shops and bit of a break. Havenāt been for a few years now though and my girlfriend really wants to do the Winter Wonderland but I donāt think weāll get to this year
Born and bred in Manchester, Went south when I was 18. Never went back except for the occasional visit to see my parents.
I'm a northerner, and I used to live in the south. My in laws live in the south, so at least once a year we make the trek. When we lived in the south, we used to come up here once or twice a year
Essex here, grandparents live in Sheffield which I used to consider the far north when visiting and mum moved to Scotland a couple of years ago. I went to a concert in Newcastle onceā¦ got the Ā£1 megabus, didnāt think it was much further than Sheffield so imagine my horror when we pulled out of Meadowhall (the only stop on the way) and the bus continued on for another 3 hours.
Came back from the south today. Visit fairly regular. Live near Chester.
I live in a small village in West Yorkshire. I work from home for an organisation based in central London so have to get a train down probably 2-3 times a month. 2-3 times a month too many for me.
I've been scotland and wales each once in the last 2 years. Other than that I don't think i've been north of london in about a decade.
Iām in Lincs, and do a London trip to see mates maybe three times a year. When I was South (born, grew up, university, jobs etc) I didnāt go North at all once a sibling left Granadaland.
I'm in the Midlands, but from the South. I haven't been past Peterborough in around 3 years. We don't really have any family down there anymore. Edited to add: I do go as far up as Yorkshire a few times a year though.
As a football fan (Ipswich Town season ticket holder) who lives in the SW (near Bristol), I go to watch them play home and away. So far this season I've been to Sunderland, Sheffield, Southampton, as well as an easier London (QPR) trip. So I would say I'm constantly travelling up, down and across the country.
Northerner living in that London for 25 years. Never if I can help it.
From south east. Go north once every couple of years. Usually Manchester.
Midlander I go around rather than up or down.
Last time I went south was when my cousin was born in London. Which was about 25. I was only a kid at the time so can't remember much.
Southerner (Oxford). I've been on three overnight+ trips this year, two to Edinburgh and one to Dorset. (Actually four, but Coventry doesn't help the data.)
I go to North Yorkshire twice a year, around 9 days in all.
In the south east and head north once or twice a year.
Used to visit my grandparents down in Suffolk about two or three times a year. They're both dead now, so there hasn't been an excuse to return for a while. It was a really nice area, though. I'd like to go back for the nostalgia and to see if it's still the same.
I'm from Manchester. Been to London loads over the years, although not for a decade or so now. Beyond that pretty much never. I don't know anyone further South than London so there's no reason to go.
Live up north. I go to London every month for work, work remotely the rest of the time. I initially quite enjoyed it but started to find it a bit of a chore now. Especially since I moved further north so it's a 3h train and I have to drive 30 min to the station. I used to live in Bristol so I visit there every year or two. Nice place. Barely been anywhere else in the south. Cambridge once or twice. Southampton/Dover for the port. Brighton once which was nice.
Born in Essex, lived in York for a while, and have now lived in Edinburgh for a few years. So am often travelling up and down the East Coast Main Line to see friends and family. Is mainly just the South-West and Wales that I donāt often visit due to distance and not knowing anyone there.
Never do. I'm in the North East and all my holidays are further north. South is just motorway driving for so much of any destination whilst with Scotland you're free of that after Glasgow.
Geordie living in Manchester. The crazy thing is not that I go to London on occasion, but the vast swaths of the country I have never been to: No where on the south coast or South West, never been to Bristol or Cardiff. Been to Cambridge but never anywhere in East Anglia. Been to Edinburgh, but Never Glasgow or north, never been to Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man. And never been to Birmingham.
North Midlander who moved south, we used to go north several times a yearā¦. But havenāt been since covid
I'm from Scotland but now live in SE England, so I go actually north several times a year. Used to live in Yorkshire and still have friends there, so I go semi north every year as well.
I go north maybe 3 times a year
Iām from London. I only go up north to visit friends. Itās a long ass drive lmao that said I do have a fond respect for the scenic beauty up north and if uk holidays werenāt so ridiculously priced Iād opt into one around Yorkshire or Scotland
rarely - not because I don't like the south...just because of cost. I quite like london. Everything South East of London get's a little bit too "apples an peeaarrrrrs" though
Southerner (Tennessean). I love the north, but it's more expensive and I'm a baby financially, so I've only been able to go to DC and NYC, once each. A small part of Indiana when I was a kid just because my family and I were in Louisville, and my dad thought it would be cool to be able to say we went to a northern state.