11 things you’ll hear in a debate about the North/South divide at York

University is one of the most unique settings where, inevitably, Northerners and Southerners are forced to coexist. There are many differences between the two, and so I thought it was time to summarise our main differences, to try and settle the debates and conclude as to where our cultures clash at the University of York.

1. Where the north/south divide actually is? – York is definitely the North, but where is the South, Birmingham? Leicester? My friend from Brighton even thinks London is the north! And then there is The Midlands, the area for places that are neither north or south, but where is this? Cumbria? Bedfordshire? Someone please set the record straight once and for all.
2. Pronunciation: I cannot even count the amount of times I have argued about whether it is b-a-th or b-ar-th, gr-a-ss or gr-ar-ss, Constant-i-ne or Constant-ee-ne.Is it bath or baaarrrth?
3. For northerners tea is a meal- Commonly known to Southerners as dinner, in York tea can be both a builder’s brew and your go to student pesto pasta.
4.  Gap Yaah vs Gap Year – Northern students did a gap year and worked in Tesco before coming to York, southern students did a gap yAAAh and went to a yoga retreat in Bali or sailed the Whitsundays in Australia.
5. The Clubs are cheap as chips for Southerners- Us Northerners can’t even comprehend a club charging more than £7 entry, yet in London, £20 would be your average price for a Salvos Wednesday.
6. Southerners are shocked by York’s arctic temperatures- If you are going to apply to York uni, you are going to have to adapt to our sub-zero temperatures, especially for a night out. Forget your tights or coat (no one is waiting in the cloakroom queues) Northerners are hard, and we are immune to the cold on a Friday night.
   

   I mean, these girls clearly aren’t cold, they think they are in Hawaii

7. Southerners don’t understand the beauty of Salt and Peppers cheesy chips and gravy – Although I think a fair few have been converted, let’s be honest, by the end of a three year degree, you should be converted.
8. Everyone from the south has mutual friends-  Who went to school in the south, knows all other schools in the South and will have loads of mutual friends with other Southerners, in the North you wouldn’t be caught dead mixing with another school.
   

   probably the amount of mutual friends each Southerner has is summarised in this photo

    

9. The lack of train gates –  Rather unique to York, but I have heard quite few Southerners express their shock when they arrived in York and were free to just walk on out the station, without proof of a ticket- we are just that much more trusting up here!
10. Yorkshire Puddings are Love, Yorkshire Puddings Are Life- A roast just isn’t a roast up North without *several*  Yorkshire Puddings.
    

    We even have the beauty of the Yorkey Pud – if you haven’t tried it you haven’t lived.

     

11. An outrageous Yorfess post – A Yorfess post that draws the divide in an outrageous place can usually be found at the heart of one of these debates.

A northerner definitely drew this

As for the midlands, to include Sheffield and Liverpool or not?

Photo Credit: York Parties