According the Guardian news blog:
The snootier variety of north Londoner has a well known penchant for making disparaging remarks about not daring to go “south of the river”.The idea among these snobs is that south London lacks some of the sophistication of the north of the capital, which they contend is a paradise of ciabattas and cappuccinos.
So, news today that a scientist has named a desolate crater on Mars after Tooting, south London, may not do a lot to lessen the prejudice of the south-bashers.
For my American readers, the North-South London animosity may be a bit of a surprise. North Londoners like to look down on us South Londoners - "no culture", they say. It's true that central London is "north of the river" Thames, so they like to claim that. But the suburban reaches of North London are just as dreary as the most boring parts of South London. And us South Londoners have plenty of fun down this way. We don't need to cross the Thames to get culture, fun nights out and good food. We like it down here, and even carry a bit of reverse snobbery -a South London friend of mine says "I don't go North of Soho"
The Guardian (which must be exclusively written by North Londoners) takes a snooty tone in their special space report.
Tooting takes its rightful place in a list that includes Chive, Canada, Circle, Montana, Dank (a town in Oman) and Dingo, Australia. Loon, Ontario. Luck, Wisconsin, Quorn, Australia - presumably meatless - and Pica, a town in Chile - presumably pointless.
...snip...
Peter Mouginis-Mark, the Nasa scientist who named Tooting on Mars...he grew up in south London, though he left in 1970 and now lives in Hawaii. He wanted, he says, to give his mum and brother a kick by putting their town's name on the Red Planet. It's an ambition that anyone can understand. Who hasn't ever dreamed of putting Tooting into outer space?
All that North London snobbery is annoying, but I did pick up a new space fact. All the features on the planet Venus are named after women or female deities.
3 comments:
woo hoo! tooting is a hole!
just wanted to drop a note and say thanks for linking to my site (hope you don't mind if I link to yours as well)... and we're neighbours! I'm also in tooting b'way, but have never run into another am-expat in these parts.
small world after all :)
Jen (from Jen's Den of Iniquity)
Austin has a similar divide, though on much smaller scale, of course. The Colorado River (know locally as Town Lake) divides North Austin from South Austin. It is an incontrovertible fact that North Austin is superior in virtually every conceivable way to South Austin. Saying such a thing in a South Austin honky-tonk is probably akin to screaming "Roll Tide" in a Knoxville tavern. Nonetheless, the veracity of the statement can't be contested.
The last time I was in London, nearly 12 years ago, I made a foray south of the river and found it a very different experience from when I was ther 5 years earlier. It seemed not nearly so rundown and menacing. I don't know if that was a consequence of a change in my attitude or real change. On my first trip it was all "Guns of Brixton". On the next trip is was all "Bridget Jones' Diary". Well...not quite.
Hey Jen, glad you found us!
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