What do you think of as “London”?

[CruCru]

On another thread I got into a discussion on which places are London and which are actually somewhere else. I think that only places with a London postcode are in London, otherwise they are in the Home Counties. However, quite a few people disagreed with me as they said that they lived in an outer London borough. I didn’t want to derail that thread (which was about something else) so thought I’d start my own.

To my way of thinking, if I sent a letter addressed to someone at 123 Their Street, London, Their postcode, it would only be sensible to do so if they actually live in London. If I did that for someone who lives in Harrow, Croydon or Kingston, doing so would cause confusion (but it might still arrive if the postcode was correct).

What do you think?

Sutton is not in Surrey.

The official address is just Sutton, Postcode

Very much isn’t - Surrey ends and LB Sutton begins at the end of my road - so ULEZ etc kicks in, different voting different council tax etc and different rules in Covid.

I grew up in Mitcham. My mother used to tell people we lived in Surrey, which even when I was a child struck me as weirdly pretentious. I'd call it South London to someone who didn't know the area. It feels much more like London than Surrey.

That said, I do address letters to Mitcham, Surrey, and not Mitcham, London. Surprised to read that this changed in the 1960s? Before I was born.