I'm in North Yorkshire, just south of York.
I bought a small Fig Tree (Brown Turkey) from my local garden centre about 5 years ago. Planted it in a very large Tub and sat it in my back garden against a East facing wall as I had nowhere else to put it.
It has been fantastic, grown rapidly and providing more figs than we can handle. In fact we've got a cupboard full of Fig jam!
I've currently got 5 one year old cuttings I took off the tree that are doing really well, don't know what to do with them though. Just planted them for the fun of it! (anybody want one, free to good home)
So to answer your question, yes they will grow 'up North'
Paul