Oxford

Oxford is two cities sharing one ring road, and only one of them made it onto the tea towels. The university has run the place since the twelfth century and still treats the town like a lodger, while the half that builds the Minis in Cowley waits behind a film crew on the High. Relations were so warm in 1209 that a group of academics stormed off and founded Cambridge, and town and gown have been polite ever since in the way divorced parents are polite. The green belt keeps the meadows pretty and the prices close to London's, so most buyers end up admiring the spires from the wrong side of a bus gate.