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?

I think Ealing and Barnet are London. Ax As a non Londoner.

Bits of Hertfordshire have 0208 numbers. South Oxhey, for example, which us Hertfordshire and under Three Rivers District Council.

How on earth is Croydon not part of London, OP ?
Extracted from the wikipedia:

Croydon is a large town in South London, England, 9 miles (14 km) south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London;

Never mind the freaking post codes...

https://www.tiktok.com/@hollyandbrookearehooked/video/7444256674002652449

Croydon is a town in its own right. Letters sent there go to 123 Name Street, Croydon, CR[rest of postcode].

Live in a London Borough, are subjected to the idiotic policies of the London Mayor, covered by the Met police, London fire brigade and London ambulance, and have a red bus stop outside my front door, have an 0208 phone number. Definitely London, although would have been Surrey in years gone by.
'London postcodes' are not a thing - London is covered by a huge number of postcodes!

And is a London Borough - of course it's London 🙄

It may be a town, but that does not mean it is not a part of London.

Mitcham has a Croydon postcode, something like CR4. My mum was born there and it was Mitcham, Surrey. It changed in 1965 so hasn't strictly been Surrey for 60 years. Always takes a while for people's perception to catch up, but I think it's pushing it to still class Mitcham as Surrey! You are down the road from Tooting, amongst other places.

I live outside the south circular, in a London borough. I have a London postcode. Where do I live in your opinion then?!

Where is the London Borough of Barnet then, if it's not London?

Hertfordshire

Heathrow is in the London Borough of Hillingdon.

But you’ve just said Zone 5 isn’t. Does that make you a twat?
I grew up in zone 5. London buses. On the tube. London phone number. London borough.
i grew up in London.

It hasn't been part of Herts since the 60s.

Barnet's preposterous claim to be part of London was one of the major reasons why BT changed the code from 01 to 071, with 081 (now 020 8xxx / 020 3xxx) assigned to all the wannabe areas in order that those in London Proper would know to shun them.

Really, I don't think growing up in London 'proper' was greatly admired 30/40 years ago. I know because I did grow up in London 'proper' a part of West London that has been gentrified and South London. I don't remember anyone being particularly proud of being a 'Londoner'; it was just a place like any other, unless you were lucky enough to grow up in central London. I did know someone who lived in Covent Garden and someone who lives in St John's Wood, they were the only people I knew that could genuinely show off about living in London, not that she did!

I live in an outer London borough, my address is not London.

But - I pay London council tax, vote for the London mayor and assembly, DD gets her free bus pass, we are in the ULEZ , we have a London phone number (just, a friend in the same borough doesn't), we have the red busses - so I can say I live in London.

Do I feel like living in London? No, not really. I work in Central London, it takes 40 minutes by train and it's a huge difference and I don't really enjoy the town and try to avoid going socially.

All new phone numbers in London, whether inner or outer, are 020, so that doesn’t really stand up any more.

The issue is a large part of the borough of Barnet is in London - Golders Green, East Finchley, etc. So it would be odd to have a London borough not have its namesake as being part of London.

Croydon hasn’t been in Surrey since the 1960s

Poor old Croydon... no one wants it!

Not in the right zone or postcode area to be considered 'true' London for most, but completely rejected as Surrey by the Home Counties Crew.

I say this as a Blue Orchid regular.

Very funny to see all these dinosaurs claiming that if you don't have an 020 phone number you are not in London.
Nowadays, you can LITERALLY buy a number with the prefix of your choice regardless of where you live.
At the end of the day, London is very clearly defined by a list of 32 boroughs. If you live in any of the following, you live in London, regardless of postcodes, phone numbers or bloody colour of the buses.

These are the boroughs:

Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth, and Westminster.

To that list, you need to add the City of London, which has a very particular status.

This settles the debate.

I grew up in zone 5 , it doesn't have a London postcode, I'd say outskirts of London or London suburbs. It's not herts, beds, bucks, Essex etc which I consider home counties.

Hum.

I’m from Wimbledon (zone 3) & here until PhONEday we were 071 - I don’t think I’m from London though.

If non Brits ask I say that I’m ‘from London’ as most people don’t really know where Wimbledon is. They just ‘Oh wow! THE TENNIS!’

My brother is in the square mile, the City of London. Whole other Kettle of fish.