I live that sentiment. Faced with having to move outside the north circular I thought I might as well emigrate. Here I am.

It's true that I think Toronto ends at Bloor, if you're going to live in the GTA there's little reason to go outside the Bloor/Lake/DVP/Bathurst box but the better bits of the Greater Toronto Area are like the better bits of the Greater Birmingham Area. Better only by comparison with the rest of it.

But you are to the South of us ! How can you be in the North ?

Yes of course, but from a London perspective, Watford Herts is a good proxy.

That's the Watford I grew up thinking was the end of the world. I first heard of the Watford Gap on this board, google mapped it, and was shocked to discover that such a far-flung place still counted as England.

Funny that there's no equivalent south of London, although I believe Croydon has some kind of quasi end-of-world status. (Assuming, of course, that one recognises the badlands south of the river as London.)

Different Watford, innit. The Watford of the Watford Gap is in Northamptonshire, about halfway between Northampton and Rugby. Its significance from a North/South perspective is that it's generally considered the point at which vowel pronunciation changes.

Of course, inveterate Southerners will try to conflate everywhere north of Watford, Herts as "the North." Or, in dbd's case, everywhere north of the North Circular.

"Hendon, Gateway to the North" has a certain ring about it, I suppose...

Quite, I'd have thought Southwark serves that purpose well enough.

Once one crosses the river, one is effectively on the continent. It's nice to have easy access to such exotic places. A bit like being in Toronto and so able to be in Buffalo the same day.

I won't exactly call Buffalo "exotic". Now you could have chosen more better looking places like the American side (millionaires row) of the thousand islands

I'm reading "Shakespeare's Local" at the moment - another excellent read from Pete Brown. Centred on the George Inn Southwark, from when it was first mentioned in writing over 600 years ago, it's the history of Southwark & London as seen from a single bar stool, if you like.

Recommended.

Oh my goodness.....I just finished reading this book .It was a recommended book on "thegoodreads" website. This pub is indeed an original with lots of history, with people like Dickens and Chaucer. A nice place to chillout near London Bridge for sure

The NA version though is called Shakespears pub

93% Middlesbrough!!OMG Where did I go wrong.? I was actually at least 20miles north of Newcastle., but I have been away for a very long time.:

im 90% northern and im from Newcastle!

Always foggy at Watford Gap.