to think these people are ghastly snobs

[AgaPanthers]

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/postcode-war-as-hounslow-residents-fight-for-richmond-address-9095158.html

"Kim Tasso, 53, said: “My daughter goes to a Richmond school, we pay council tax to Richmond council, the police consider us a Richmond address, yet when I put ‘Whitton’ as my address my post arrives two days late, with ‘Whitton’ crossed out by the Post Office and ‘Hounslow’ written in its place."

So why the fuck doesn't she put the correct address on already, so that her post arrives on time.

This is a house for sale on the road in question:

www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/31811240?search_identifier=4cfddd5a1feca73f2fd54ee1a16fb8bf

It certainly LOOKS like Hounslow, and apparently the nearest station is Hounslow, so it should be Hounslow.

So why do these ridiculous people think they live in Richmond? They chose to buy a house in Hounslow, and now they want to redefine it as Richmond?

Anyway, if you are looking for relatively affordable housing around that area, then I suggest you follow in these people's footsteps, and buy in TW3, because you will save a fortune. Just don't go trying to pull the drawbridge up after you've moved in, by redefining it as Richmond.

used to get this a lot in parts of Peckham, people claiming they lived in East Dulwich when they patently didn't. Now Peckham's oh-so-cool that seems to have stopped .

Always make me laugh when people say they live in Clapham Junction. Homeless, are you, dossing down in the station? No? Then you live in Battersea.

exactly Mrs Koala a bit like the Greenford borders of Southall or West Ealing when it was Hanwell.

Well the thing about Clapham Junction Station is that it isn't actually in Clapham, whereas Clapham Station is (hiding somewhere round the back of Clapham High Street).

A taxi driver once told me when he'd picked me up in Acton, that he picked up a young lady in the morning from the same block of flats. He was driving her to the station as she hurriedly was getting dressed and doing her make up, and she looked out of the window at the high st and said a bit disgustedly 'SO this is Chiswick then!? Don't think much of it' and he had laughed and said no this is Acton. Apparently she looked outraged and really cross and said 'He said he lived in Chiswick, i never would have gone home with him if he'd said he lived in Acton!' and hurrumphed to herself that she'd been 'conned'.

I don't know who the bigger snob was, the guy who lied or her for being so swayed by a post code. Always makes me laugh tho. I hope it was true

"There are some nice houses in Hounslow."

Really?

I would be interested. Don't know the area very well. Whereabouts should I be looking.

Definitely up for a nice house for cheap because of the 'wrong' postcode.

MrsOakenshield, Battersea is quite a 'good' area though. Clapham Junction is a grotty (albeit useful) train station. It's not snobbery I think in that case.

If someone told me they lived in 'Clapham Junction' I would assume they were referring to the Winstanley Estate, which is a large and crime-ridden council estate.

This all reminds me of when the council tax bandings were introduced.

My mum worked for the local council and told us that people were calling in to complain that their property had been put in a lower banding and they wanted it reviewed as they were sure they should be in a higher one.

Wanting the local council to sort out their computer systems is fair enough.

Wanting Royal Mail to change your postcode isn't, as postcodes are organised around the practicalities of effective mail distribution. (Especially as when RM does change the postcode, people continue using the old ones for the next twenty years.) They are not directly related to geographical boundaries and never have been. There are parts of Oxfordshire with a Swindon (SN) postcode, presumably either because Swindon is the nearest post town, or because it would have overloaded Oxford to include them as Oxford.

www.mapmarketing.com/maps-for-business-postcode-maps/postcodes-explained/catlist_fnct334.htm

I suggest the set of whingers go and work in a sorting office for Royal Mail for a few weeks.

no, it's not snobbery (unless you want people to think you live in Clapham rather than Battersea), it's just laziness. I lived on Falcon Road, round the back of the station and people were always saying I lived in Clapham Junction, drove me nuts.

(Also, there's no such station as Clapham Station, there's CJ, Clapham High Street, Clapham North, Clapham Common and Clapham South. Yes, I am a total station pedant, I hold my head up high.)

It's years since I was there, so perhaps I am mis-remembering but I'm sure it used to be called plain old 'Clapham' rather than Clapham High Street.

Hounslow is quite a cool place to live in many ways, provided you are not a ghastly snob. There are some really good schools, the local Asian grocers have a genuinely wonderful selection of fruit and other stuff (I always go there rather than Southall for exotic fruit, veg and Indian bread at knock down prices). And frankly, Richmond high street is a joke these days, full of overpriced crap that nobody in their right minds would buy. Parts of Isleworth are gorgeous (although half of it now seems to be described as St Margarets borders by estate agents).

Asda Clapham Junction was renamed in 2010!

And for further London discussion - What about St Ockwell, Pimlico Village, Battersea Park to designate vs Clapham Junction, Kew Bridge vs Brentford etc etc ?!

Given the traffic on this thread is from Londoners (and their south east brethren) is it safe to say that this type of address snobbery is disproportionately likely to happen in the S.East. Maybe due to the housing bubble down there?

I have never really heard of this being so widespread anywhere else or anyone trying to re designate one area as another or tack it onto a more fashionable one.

I always describe where i live/am going as the nearest station (so Turnham Green/Ravenscourt park etc rather than Chiswick/Hammersmith) - as do all other Londoners i know. So i describe my parents as living in Kew Bridge/Gunnersbury when they technically live in Brentford. It's got nothing to do with snobbery and everything to do with geography. If i'm meeting friends for a drink and i said i was staying in Brentford, they may suggest a pub on Brentford Hgh st, rather than the much nearer Kew Bridge. Stations pin point where you will be, rather than a rather large generic place name. 'Brentford' would cover Syon Lane, South Ealing, Kew Bridge, Brentford, Acton Town and Gunnersbury,

oh and Northfields and Boston Manor.

There's plenty of Mancunian address snobbery mentioned too. I'd say it's disproportionately an urban issue, as there'll be more "borders" for people to live on.

There's snobbery everywhere. ExH's family were snobbish about living in Heswall, compared to Little Neston and, god forbid, Ellesmere port.

I live in a 'London Borough', London telephone number, but its in Essex, with an Essex postcode. Confuses the shit out of people. I describe it as either in London, or in Essex, depending on the situation. Neither bothers me, but some people are adamant its one or the other depending on which brand of snobbery they subscribe to.

I have a couple of examples of this, one London, one Northern.

We lived in Clapham for a few years after uni (much like 93.5% of graduates and Aussies). Or at least we always thought we did. We were Clapham North, about five mins from the tube so it seemed likely. Except when we were burgled the Police laughed at us and said burglaries were rife in this part of Brixton. I would not have been paying £1.5k a month rent for Brixton if I'd known better!

I grew up in a pit village, in Derbyshire. School run by Derbyshire Council, tax paid to Derbyshire Council, MP a certain Beast of Bolsover. Our postal address was Nottinghamshire, but with a Sheffield postcode. Admittedly the village bordered each of the counties but it made things complicated trying to explain to a non-local where I was from.

My first instinct was snobbery but then I thought about it. I've been barred from applying for jobs due solely to my postcode (meaning I'm not the right sort of person). I now get why postcode matters. Mind you this doesn't seem to be what is concerning the person in the article.

I think Kew Bridge is fine as a way of narrowing down where you actually mean. Brentford is huge, really. Kew Bridge is really quite some way from other parts of Brentford. And I agree with the station thing - I do that, too.

Edinburgh is full of this too. I've watched with amazement as Barnton (a naice suburb, JK Rowling lives there) has grown over the past 20years...

Although I have a degree of sympathy Both my flat and my parents house seem to sit in no mans land between 2 areas (in both cases either would be perceived to be a "good" address). however whicever you pick someone always takes issue as they perceive it to be the other!

Really lurker I've never come across it apart from an acquaintance of mine who moved to Granton and told all and sundry that Granton was 'up and coming' as it was on the seller's bumph, not realising that 'up and coming' was guff speak for a shitehole. She's still waiting for the coffee bars, patisserie and vintage shops to hit her street.

Well I guess I live in the wrong area of Easter Rd/Leith for it to be an issue, as neither has much snob appeal.

I don't think she should have to pay the rates of Richmond if her house is considered Whitton. That doesn't seem right.

Why not; Whitton is part of Richmond borough? Whitton does not exist as an LA in its own right.