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?

Southwark? Surely that's only just over the river.

It may be light hearted but it isn't a matter of perception at all. I know Croydon isn't in Surrey because I have to drive out of it to come across the "Welcome to Surrey" sign which, I think, is a bit of a giveaway.

Wimbledon used to be Surrey too as well as Tooting, it's not any more.

RICHMOND

Croydon is a london borough but it isn't London

AND

London boroughs are the thirty-three principal subdivisions of the administrative area of Greater London and are each governed by a London borough council.

Then Wimbledon, Ealing or Willesden aren't London either
as it is classified as outer London same as Croydon

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_boroughs

'Richmond was formerly part of the ancient parish of Kingston upon Thames in the county of Surrey. The town became a municipal borough in 1890, which was enlarged in 1892 and 1933. The municipal borough was abolished in 1965 when, as a result of boundary changes, Richmond was transferred to Greater London.[5] It is now part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.'
Wiki knows.

Tiggy tape that is not true, Havering doesn't, it's 01708.

I really don't get all this hoo ha, as an Essex resident just on the other side of the M25 I consider all London Boroughs to be Greater London. They pay their tax to London services and not Essex, that is the deciding factor for me. The fact that the post office hasn't changed the address after the changes in the 60's is purely for their convenience, although I suppose it could confuse people who don't know this.

As a born and bred South East Londoner (East Dulwich, Peckham, Camberwell) I think what needs to be done now is call London a county and then their needs to be a definition of what constitutes London the CITY.
We've already been Americanised (the worst of it) anyway. Why not pick up something logical from the Americans (New York), where there is a difference between the city and the state.
By the way, lots of people commute from New Jersey and Connecticut and manage to NOT say that they are New Yorkers. They have the equivalent journey into work as say somebody living in Bromley, KENT into Central London.
Urbanisation is what made Southwark come under the London. There are not many villages left within London anymore....Barnes and Dulwich village are the only ones that I can think of off the top of my head (probably because I've actually been to these places).

Doesn't left overTurkey

No I still think Bromley is in Kent.

Anybody remember the boroughs that used to constitute the old ILEA. I remember being VERY pissed off as a child when I moved to be with my mother for secondary school in NEWHAM and it not coming under its auspices.
It was then , in 1982 that I realised the difference between Inner and outer london. Then London Transport zoned London , then the BT thing. Thornton Heath was always Surrey ( I know too many people who moved their, thinking that they were escaping the "riff raff", only for the area to ...well Thorton Heath aint paradise, is it?).
Now anybody within a fifty mile radius wants to call themselves Londoners! Self esteem injection needed! (I'm being naughty!)

I've got an SW postcode and still consider Kingston as London as I can get there on my oystercard, same with Twickenham and Richmond. To my mind anywhere in zones 1-6 is London.

Wimbledon village is pretty villagy - the common is basically a massive field!

Using a tube station as a guide is nonsense, Streatham doesn't have a tube station but Rickmansworth does.

Just to confuse matters further, Surrey's County Hall is still in Kingston, despite the fact that they no longer actually administer any schools or other services in that town.

I live in Berkshire, which doesn't exist any more except as a postal address. I have a friend who works in a school in Crowthorne which has a postal address of Berkshire, a Bracknell phone number and a Reading postcode. The school, however, is run by Wokingham Borough Council....

Naughty but funny stooshe and right IMO

I remember ILEA, I remember seeing it on something and reading it out as one word, for my teacher to laugh and explain what it stood for.

I remember people who moved 'out' to Thornton Heath too, back when it was 'all fields'

ILEA - Oh yes! Nirvana, if you were a teacher. Fantastic authority to work for. And you got paid more, too. Thatcher abolished it at the same time as the GLC.

I grew up in a London suburb (yes, on a tube line, with a London postcode, an 01 phone number, then an 081 number, then a 0208 number) and it was exactly as someone said upthread. To a foreigner or to someone north of Watford, I said I was from London. To another Londoner/Greater Londoner, I said was from that suburb. To pretend I was not from (Greater) London would have been daft. People who don't live in the great metropolis have never heard of most of the London suburbs, just as the self-obsessed London folk have never heard of most places outside the M25 apart from the major cities.

I've got an SW postcode and still consider Kingston as London as I can get there on my oystercard, same with Twickenham and Richmond. To my mind anywhere in zones 1-6 is London

Parts of what is zone 6 are outside greater london.

I'd consider lots of areas 'Greater London'. I definitely consider Richmond to be in London.

If you are eligible to vote for the Mayor of London then you live in London nothing else makes any sense. When I lived in Surbiton, I received voting papers for the mayor so I lived in London. The address did not have a London postcode though it had a Kingston one. That is my definition anyway and I am sticking to it.

But its so confusing when I tell people I'm from Essex (Barking) & they say "Oh I thought that was in London".
Its a London Borough, has 0208 phone number, Met Police etc etc & is far more London like than country Essex village.

But really, does it matter.

I regard greater london as London. Kingston and Surbiton are therefore London, Epsom which is within the M25 but not part of greater london isn't. So basically 0208 is London. It all merges into one city with no real space between the conurbations.

Are you a Londoner yourself redpipe? If so how do you define it?
Fwiw I live in one of those fringe areas that could go either way, but I'm a home counties gal.

I live in a London borough. We get Inner London teachers pay. Yet our address includes Middlesex.

Within the M25 is Greater London isn't it? Plenty of boroughs that are in counties like Essex Kent and Herts are still called the London Borough of Blah, so I guess technically they are sort of correct. ALthough personally I am on Scarlett's husband's side!