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?

Not at all scientific and a very small sample but I have 3 friends (who don't know each other) all from the same area just inside the M25. The two who were born and brought up there would same the name of their town or 'Hertfordshire' when asked where they live. The one that moved there as an adult says 'London'.

To my Northern mind 'London' is the bits I might visit on a trip to London. From Shepherd's Bush to Greenwich and from Brixton to Islington.

It would arrive because they use the postcode, but if you wrote x street, Kingston, london, it would also arrive because why wouldn’t it

I think cities grow and change all the time, so you can’t hold the boundaries for any period of time - if there’s no gap between a what was once a town and london, then I think you have to accept it’s been swallowed by London regardless of historic postcode

I sure there were people insisting Hampstead and Marylebone weren’t london some time after they were. Pretty much everywhere now in London was once a town or village outside it.

The boroughs blur anyway. I’m in London but my borough includes areas that (techically) aren’t.

.. though I want to add that I love the idea of Croydon being the Home Counties..

Where I grew up there was a hill and one side was London and the other wasn’t. I remember it was good fun to run up the hill and down the other side and say I am going to London.

It depends on who I'm talking to. I spent many years in Ealing (which has a London postcode), and then moved half a mile down the road which put me into a HA postcode and a small suburb called Alperton. If I was talking to someone who was familiar with London, I would say I lived in Alperton, but would tell a non-native that I lived in London (or sometimes Wembley - everyone's heard of Wembley!).

I still consider anywhere that has a tube station 'That London' though.

When I think of london I think of things like the Tower bridge, London eye so central for me.

To my Northern mind 'London' is the bits I might visit on a trip to London. From Shepherd's Bush to Greenwich and from Brixton to Islington.

See this is what we call ‘zones 1 and 2’ 😁

Not read all the replies - I would agree that ( most of the London Borough of ) Ealing counts - W5 W7 W13 W3

but that Borough also consists of Southall, Middlesex UB 1& 2 ? postcode, Northolt and Greenford - also Middlesex and UB 5 & 6 ? postcodes. and Perivale.

Middlesex and UB postcodes are not ' London '

Even when I lived in Hampstead websites would occasionally put me down as Middlesex, even though it was in zone 2 and clearly London.

Now I’m further out in NW London and would say I’m Middlesex, simply because writing London when I have a HA postcode feels wrong. I know Middlesex doesn’t actually exist but still. I guess strictly speaking this is Greater London.

.. though I want to add that I love the idea of Croydon being the Home Counties..

Thornton Heath in Surrey even!

You're talking to someone who asks her Londoner friend what colour tube line she needs to be on to get to them 😉🤷🏻‍♀️

Except you get places like Radlett that are in the M25 but are very much not London in any way.

Yes, I think the situation has been clouded in recent years by places such as Luton Airport, in the middle of Bedfordshire, being referred to as London Luton Airport, and the Harry Potter Studio Tour London, which is actually in Watford, Hertfordshire.

Some idiot once told me that Stevenage was in London. Er - no.😂

My ancestors were all Londoners born and bred, and I've lived in a variety of the bordering home counties. I kind of instinctively know where London starts, but I couldn't describe it to you.

I grew up near Harrow, and 100% it was London for me. But i also knew people from round there who hated London and rarely went into central London. I don’t they they’d deny they were in London though.

i didn’t have a London postcode but we always had a London phone number (01, then 081, then 0181, then 030).

Well it is the London Borough of Harrow so she’s being a bit silly that she doesn’t know who she has been paying her council tax to…

From my perspective in Scotland, anything inside the M25 is London irrespective of postcode or county or whatever.

Well it was in the historic county of Middlesex until relatively recent times, and a lot of local people with ancestors from the area will still refer to it as such.

During the London Olympics there was a sign on the platform at York train station which said 'welcome to London' which I think was something of a stretch of the imagination, and probably quite confusing for long haul tourists.

😆😆😆

So was Hampstead. Being Middlesex doesn’t change that Harrow is a London borough.

I also think that clearly the way people in this part of the world define themselves is different to how the rest of the country define them. I would have no clue if somewhere like Croydon is a "London Borough" or not as it's so irrelevant to me living in Scotland but it is relevant to someone living in that area.

My postal address is Glasgow, but I don't live in the Glasgow city council area. But if I met someone from (say) Croydon, I would say I lived in Glasgow because I would not expect them to know where East Dunbartonshire was.

I also think that clearly the way people in this part of the world define themselves is different to how the rest of the country define them.

As a Londoner it's not something we ever really discussed growing up tbh. But it does seem to matter to people who move to London!

London has 32 boroughs plus the city. That's it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Any part which has London postcodes of SE SW NW, E, WC and EC.

Southend is not London!

If you live in a London borough, you live in London. Usually this is inside the M25.