Where is London?

[namechangenumber45]

This is not intended to be a "London bashing thread" so please take question (from northerner) in spirit intended - one of curiosity.

I have been watching the news and an awful update on situation in Penge where a young boy and woman killed. I've never heard of this suburb and couldn't place it on a map - but on looking it seems to be a bit further from what I'd class as "London".

So my AIBU to ask where London starts and finishes?

Have the boundaries expanded? Are there some areas that would be SouthEast a few years ago but are now London?

[Pangur2]

Penge is near Crystal Palace. I think it's zone 3, so suburbs but not outskirts.

[Lorelei76]

Are you thinking of central London? I'm a north londner and I confess I'd not heard of penge till about five yesrs ago.
To me it's London if it has a London postcode, otherwise, no.

[IggyPopsicle]

Its an interesting question, and I'm not sure either. The London Underground itself goes to Hertfordshire and Essex! I'm sure some Londoner MNers will be along to tell us more about it

[sirfredfredgeorge]

It's the London Boroughs, and haven't changed (at all I think, but maybe a bit certainly not anything significant) since the 60's.

The South East parts are quite a long way from what most people think of as London I would agree, but they are.

[Lorelei76]

I'm not aware of any postcode changes so Penge will always have been London if that makes sense.

[Trills]

It's pretty near here.

[Lorelei76]

To address points re Herts and Essex, the Tube does go there but people in an Essex psotcode couldn't vote in the Mayoral election.

[thingame]

well, you have the original square mile of city, then the next bit bound by the north & south circular, then the outer ring of the M25. Quite frankly, anything beyond the M25 is wilderness

[Trills]

It's either

a - inside the M25
b - where you can get to on Oyster
c - places with compass point postcodes (N, S, E, W) rather than place postcodes (CB for Cambridge, M for Manchester, TR forTruro)

[seven201]

To me it's all in the postcode. I used to live in a SE zone 2/3 border postcode not that far from penge, so London, but now I live in Kent which although is in the south east is definitely not London.

[Trills]

d - people who got to vote for or against Sadiq Khan.
e - where you can go on Tube

[thingame]

yeah I'm with Trills on the tube thing. If the tube don't go there, it doesn't exist

[WildebeestH]

Penge has a London (SE) postcode but beyond Penge you get into Bromley (BR) postcodes. I'd agree with Pangur2 - suburbs but not outskirts. It's only about 15 minutes into Victoria.

[Lorelei76]

Trills, that made me lol because a lot of us ran to the poll booth thinking "anyone but Goldsmith"!

[Bragadocia]

I'd never heard of most places in SE London until I moved to Streatham (then again, I'd barely heard of Streatham until I moved to Streatham…)

Everyone should pronounce 'Penge' to rhyme with 'blancmange' - it's more pleasing to the ear.

London postcodes rules out places like Kingston and Richmond, which doesn't seem quite right, as they definitely feel like Greater London. 020 phone numbers, maybe. London boroughs I guess.

[PerspicaciaTick]

TV London is very different from administrative/geographical London.
For example TV Essex is lumped in with TV London and rarely get any of our own news. But we aren't actually part of London in any other way.

[DelphiniumBlue]

Good question. I notice that, for example, Barnet does not have a London postcode, but is officially " London Borough of Barnet ", and is on the tube ( albeit very end of line) and within the M25. Personally, I don't think it is part of London, but couldn't tell you where the divide is.

[WildebeestH]

But the tube really doesn't cover South London well. You need to include overground trains.

[Astoria797]

Milton keynes is 30 mins fron Euston via fast train. So by London logic it should be zone 3 lol

[DrinkFeckArseGirls]

Kingston is allarently London these days 🙄

[DrinkFeckArseGirls]

apparently

[GrumpyInsomniac]

To me, London proper is down to the postcode. Anything outside the London postcode but inside the M25 south of the river often qualifies as Greater London, but not actual London. North of the river, the North Circular seems to do the same job.

[Trills]

I live in zone 2 but I'm half an hour walk from the nearest tube - I don't personally take that as "not in London", but I thought I should offer it up as an option...

[Cherrysoup]

Some Tube stations are out on the sticks. Like Amersham, it's not London, it's practically rural, you can't class it as London.

[Lorelei76]

Delph, good point, but I think Barnet dwellers did get a vote because it's a London borough, which I believe also applies to Bromley...and half of Richmond is TW as well isn't it.

Ooh I don't like that, it weirds me out.