Being From The North Still Holds Me Back

The North-South divide isnt just in Game Of Thrones. Its real, says Liverpudlian Jessica Evans.

- Jessica Evans

WHEN I ARRIVED in London five years ago, I thought the city would be an open and inclusive place to expand my horizons. But despite many amazing, positive experiences and making wonderful friends, there have been times in my professional career that I’ve realised this city I now call home probably isn’t as diverse as it likes to believe, especially if you’re from the North.

According to a recent survey by ITV/ ComRes of more than 6,000 adults from across the UK, 28% of Brits say they have experienced prejudice for having a regional background and accent. That doesn’t surprise me. Like many other Northerners working here, I find myself routinely – intentionally or not – pigeonholed as less educated, less on-trend, and essentially lower class, just because my origins lie a few hundred miles further up the country.

Take my accent. I was working at a news agency when my former editor asked the team if anyone wanted to do the voiceover for our celebrity red-carpet videos. No one volunteered, so I put myself forward. I was immediately made to regret the decision when he told me my enunciation ‘was simply not professional enough to be considered’.

Further into my career, I worked on a culture desk with a manager who often made cutting remarks about how it surprised him that I’d ‘ended up’ on this desk, as a Liverpudlian. ‘What could you know about culture?’ he laughed in front of the team, as I internally listed our status as European City of Culture, birthplace of the Beatles and the fact we have more galleries and museums than any other British city outside of the capital.