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?

Well according to Ryanair, Luton is in London

As a naive teenager I think I believed this. As a SW Londoner I didn't know otherwise 😆

My sister told me that she got her new car from London.

It was Newbury, Berkshire.

Anywhere with a London postcode.

Yes, lifelong Londoner here and this diagram is vaguely what I'd see as London, too.

Croydon is definitely in Surrey.

Years ago a friend of mine told us he was moving (from Edinburgh) to London. Had a going away party for him, was London themed and people put money together to have a tankard engraved with "Good Luck In London"

Turned out he was moving to Newbury 🤣

Oh my god what a cross post!!

Im zone 5, vote for mayor and so on. Clearly London but not central London, I never understand the controversy.

Croydon is definitely in Surrey.

The whole borough?!

I remember this too. I was so happy when I first moved to London and scraped an 0171 code. Definitely in an 0208 area now though.

I’d you can’t travel to central London in 30 mins, give or take, it’s not London to me. What constitutes ‘London’ has expanded so much over the years that bloody Manchester will be outer London soon!

It depends on who I am talking to.
I live in one of the Greater London Boroughs. (Zone 5). My postcode is not a London Postcode. If talking to someone from elsewhere in the UK, I would probably say I live in a London Suburb.
If talking to someone on holiday, who would have no idea of the various London Boroughs, I would say I come from London.
if talking about London generally, I would probably consider just, the city and westminster and maybe Southwark as London. ie saying a film or exhibition is on in London, I do not mean just up the road, I would probably mean just the west end (Westminster of possibly the City).

I think I'm in the same area as you! I consider myself Essex and I'm proud of being so, mainly because my mum was here when the boarder was moved and she never gave up the idea of being Essex and I followed suit. I wouldn't consider myself a Londoner but that's just me I think! Some of my friends agree and say I'm in Essex, some disagree with me and say I'm in London :) Def "real" London is further in!

I have this discussion with my Mum all the time* - she lives in Uxbridge, she has a non-London postcode and the phone area code is 01895 so also not London. But she is on the tube and pays council tax to London Borough of Hillingdon.

I say not London, she says London

Conversely, I live in a part of Croydon with a London address (literally my address is London SE25) I have an 0208 area code but because we have no tube and pay utilities council tax to London Borough of Croydon, she says we're the same and if she I not London neither am I.

Personally I think if your address is London then you are in London. If you are a London suburb with a different county/postcode then you aren't.

Orpington, Bromley, Sutton, Uxbridge, Kingston, Harrow - no not London.

Wimbledon, Norbury, Penge etc yes, London even though the council they pay council tax to is not.

*lighthearted conversations we're not going to fall out over it

not the SE25, SE19, SW16 postcodes

I’d you can’t travel to central London in 30 mins, give or take, it’s not London to me.

Well that surely depends how close you live to a station - could easily be a 20min walk!

I think of Central London as being zone 1, and Greater London of being anything from zone 3 onwards that's inside the M25. I'm just outside, and although we have the tube, I certainly wouldn't call us London. Not least because we can't vote for the mayor (even though we are very much affected by his choices). Oddly, I'm not sure what I call zone 2 - definitely London, but neither Central nor Greater...

@IamSallyBowles so you are classing Mitcham and Thornton Heath as Surrey? ok 😆😆

I think of London as an amorphous place with 3 sections: central (I guess sortof Euston/Paddington as far south as Waterloo?), inner suburbs (south to Tooting maybe, north to Hampstead maybe), and outer London (south - Wimbledon, Croydon, Sutton, Kingston; north - Harrow, Watford, Rickmansworth which is technically Hertfordshire but on the tube).
It's no good going by postal districts. Apparently when London was "extended" to take in Croydon, Morden, Sutton etc etc, the P.O. wouldn't change the postal addresses, so some are even officially Middlesex even though it doesn't exist.

there's central London, inner London & outer London.

I live in zone 5 of a London Borough. No London postcode and Kent often appears on the address autofill online. Technically London but don't feel like I live in London - especially when I live walking distance from fields of cows and sheep!

We live in the centre and ehen DS was a toddler he used to smile and clap and say, "back in London hooray!" when we passed Kings Cross if coming from the north or east or Holborn if from the south, Baker St station if from the west.

I love the idea that London is that small, central area. :)

Are you located in a London borough and are you eligible to vote in the London Mayoral elections? If yes then you live in London.

Alternatively are your local buses red? If yes, then London.

Sorry quoted the wrong post

@IamSallyBowles what borough are you in?

you see that is where my theories fall down 😀

I just maintain that I live in London!