Geography and accents; further thoughts

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 81916

As one of the English posters on the group, I thought I would try to 
draw together some of the  details about geography and accents which 
have been mentioned, largely for the benefit of non-UK readers.

London is difficult to define because there are historic definitions 
and modern administrative definitions.

Greater London could be considered to be largely the area within the 
M25 London Orbital motorway which would be at a radius of about 15-18 
miles from Charing Cross, the traditional point for measurement. 
Central London is actually made up of two cities, The City of 
Westminster which contains the administrative centres and shopping 
areas and the City of London which houses the financial institutions 
and places like the Tower of London and St.Pauls Cathedral.

When the railways were being developed, wealthy landowners 
and "carriage folk" opposed them coming close into the centre so that 
most of the termini form a ring perhaps a mile to a mile and a half 
out. Kings Cross is the terminus for the East Coast Main Line which 
goes from London to York, Newcastle and Edinburgh and lies at the 
north-east corner of this ring (and is directly next to St.Pancras 
station which is used for the exterior shots in the HP films). So the 
evidence for Hogwarts being in the north starts there. The flying car 
travels over purplish (heather)moors which makes me think of North 
Yorkshire and the great city (York/Edinburgh/Glasgow?). Additionally 
of course, we know that the winters are very cold with a lot of snow 
which does seem to point to Scotland. In my case, it may be movie 
contamination because I saw the films before I read the books and 
several of the rail shots are taken on the Glenfinnan viaduct which 
is on the West Highland Line west of Fort William. Again, there seems 
to be a sense of remoteness which suggests a large, sparsely 
populated area which would match the Highlands.

The UK is divided into sizeable administrative districts called 
counties. Surrey roughly occupies the south-west quadrant south of 
the Thames and outside the Greater London border up to about 35 miles 
from Charing Cross. It used to extend further into the centre but the 
changes in Greater London in 1965 took part of it away. (When I 
started teaching near Wimbledon in 1961, I was a Surrey employee. I 
became an employee of the London Borough of Merton without moving 
school). Little Whinging obviously doesn't exist but seems to fit the 
pattern of mid-Surrey in being a genteel suburban road made up of 
Pete Seegar's "little boxes"!

One or two accent points. Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville in the 
films,  certainly does not have a Liverpudlian accent. My first 
reaction, having spoken with a Lancastrian accent myself as a kid 
was "He's either Lancashire or Yorkshire". Checking the IMDB website, 
he is from Leeds in Yorkshire. Seamus is obviously Irish -  it's a 
good Irish name. Tom Felton has what appears to be a South-Eastern 
accent, possibly the "Estuary" accent I referred to yesterday. He was 
certainly born in London. Whether you project this onto Draco as a 
result or not is open to speculation.

On the question of Scots accents and pupils at the Hogwarts, bear in 
mind that the pupils and staff are in a boarding school and will be 
rather isolated from their surroundings; I  wouldn't expect them to 
develop Scots accents.