Watford Gap

English

Proper noun

Watford Gap

1. A pass between hills in the English Midlands, near the village of Watford, Northants, crossed by the M1 motorway and West Coast Main Line.
2. (figuratively, chiefly Southern England) The notional border between the North and South of England; the North–South divide.
   • 1981, Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Shirley Brooks, Francis Cowley Burnand, Owen Seaman, Punch:

     New Yorkers, who don't really go anywhere ever, are the worst offenders. They think anything north of New York is Bridgeport. Bridgeport, Connecticut is the Watford Gap of America.

   • 2009, Rosemarie Jarski, The Wit and Wisdom of the North, Random House, →ISBN:

     This collection may not bridge the Watford Gap, but any joshing at the expense of our southern cousins is good-natured and laughter-lovers from both sides of the divide are welcomed.

   • 2010, Gavin Mitchell, Essays on Martial Arts and Meditation, Lulu.com, →ISBN:

     And, before light sabres, Sith Lords and Ewan McGregor's accent wandering to the other side of the Watford Gap from which he was born spring to mind, note that it is likely that George Lucas borrowed the concept.

   • 2010, Robert Ryan, Signal Red, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

     She was barely in her twenties, skinny, with a black Helen Shapiro semibeehive that was in need of fresh backcombing. She spoke with an accent he couldn't place, apart from it originating north of the Watford Gap.

Usage notes

The Watford Gap is south of Birmingham and most Midlands cities, which are culturally distinct from Northern England. For this reason, the expression is mostly confined to speakers in Southern England for whom these differences are less apparent.