  In England, it is anecdotally remarked that the number of Greggs bakeries to
be found in a town is a reliable measure of the area's 'Northern-ness'.
Conversely, a commercial competitor to Greggs in the baked goods and sandwiches
market, Pret-a-Manger, is reputed to be popular in more 'southern' areas of
England. Using a Support Vector Machine and an Artificial Neural Network (ANN)
Regression Model, the relative geographical distributions of Greggs and Pret
have been utilised for the first time to quantify the North-South divide in
England. The calculated dividing lines were each compared to another line,
based on Gross Domestic Household Income (GDHI). The lines match remarkably
well, and we conclude that this is likely because much of England's wealth is
concentrated in London, as are most of England's Pret-a-Manger shops. Further
studies were conducted based on the relative geographical distributions of
popular supermarkets Morrisons and Waitrose, which are also considered to have
a North-South association. This analysis yields different results. For all
metrics, the North-South dividing line passes close to the M1 Watford Gap
services. As a common British idiom, this location is oft quoted as one point
along the English North-South divide, and it is notable that this work agrees.
This tongue-in-cheek analysis aims to highlight more serious factors
highlighting the North-South divide, such as life expectancy, education, and
poverty.
