To wonder why people increasingly refer to places not in London as 'in London'

[redpipe]

I genuinely don't understand why people say they live in London when in fact they live in a town within the M25.
Croydon is not in London is it? Nor is Kingston. I never remember people referring to these towns as London years ago. Is this a new thing?

I live and work in Surrey. Croydon is a London Borough. Richmond is a London Borough. Kingston is a London Borough. How are they not Greater London

Sidcup's in Bexley borough, not Bromley.

I looked up one of the alleged Surrey addresses on the Royal Mail address finder website, and they disagree:

Metropolitan Police
Police Station
Addington Village Road
CROYDON
CR0 5AQ

Don't know about some of the places mentioned so far, but I did used to know some idiots who would insist that Slough was London That's really stretching it!

My Scottish cousin says that her brother lives in London.

She said it to my friends at my hen night, who actually live in London (Islington and Brixton) and they said "oh, whereabouts?"

"Gerrards Cross" was the reply.

Hmmm... After reading this thread I've discovered I may have been born a cockney but due to a lack of tube station at my North London address I now live in an exotic unknown suburb in zone 4.

I can't believe I read all 10 pages of this.

Flying from London Luton on Friday.

London is when you have a 207 prefix on your landline.
Surburbs of London 208 prefix.
Neither = Not London.

The LB of Barnet is in Barnet and parts of Barnet do have a London post code ie: New Southgate is N11 and Friern Barnet is N12 - however New Barnet's post code is EN4 but is not in Enfield - weird. All of Barnet is inside the M25.

I like the simple explanation 4x4, trying to think if there are any exceptions to the rule.

I live in Fulham so not much debate there.

Sorry LB Barnet is in London *

4x4 What do you mean by suburbs? The London borough of Barnet has 0208 prefixes. It's still London!

antimatter have you missed the posts saying that Croydon is a london borough [including mine] and that's why you pay tax to them.

Amberleaf Coulsden is not in Croydon, it's in Coulsden (strangely enough!) it just has a CR postcode, as noted by someone up thread

If you mean CoulsdOn then you are as wrong as the other person who said that!

Coulsdon, Surrey which is part of the London borough of croydon.

Someone had better inform all the homes, businesses, hospitals and schools that they have their addresses wrong.

^London is when you have a 207 prefix on your landline.
Surburbs of London 208 prefix^

That's wrong.

Unless you consider Brockley in Lewisham [an inner London borough] a suburb! pushing it a bit there!

If you are in Inverness Croydon is London.

If you are in Kensington Croydon is not London, it is Croydon.

chippyminton
The reasoning haven't answered your question is because I haven't actually said it bothers me have I?
I simply said I couldn't understand why.
Assumptions much?

Surburbs of London 208 prefix.

I believe the technical term is Greater London.

When my inlaws call from kenya, they ask us "how's london?"

We live in derbyshire!
no matter how many times we tell them how far we are from london, they cant let go of england = london.

In Bromley, it is v much the Hyacinth Bucket brigade who refer to themselves as living in Kent. Bromley was the only Greater London borough that didn't want to have the freedom pass - cost too much, their residents wouldn't get value for money because no access to the tube and why would they want to go to nasty, dirty, dangerous London, anyway?

Ken Livingstone had to take them to court to force them to join in. So praise be to Red Ken.

I simply said I couldn't understand why.

And do you now understand that they are right and that they aren't in, say, Surrey?

tiggytape I live in an inner London borough and I have an 0208 pre fix.

Phone pre fixes are not a way of determining inner or outer.

I'm "inner London" (although not Central London - that's a different thing), and have an 0203 prefix! Although this is because mine's a new landline. Shops and neighbours are 0208.

I had always thought that the 8/7 was a north London/south London thing until I realised that Holloway also has 0207. Odd.

I'm surprised at the way that this thread has blown up though! Surely it's all light hearted and just a matter of perception? Some seem to be getting quite offended by it all...

Southwark is NOT in Surrey. Trust me (born and bred).