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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Where is London?

494 replies

namechangenumber45 · 31/08/2016 22:53

This is not intended to be a "London bashing thread" so please take question (from northerner) in spirit intended - one of curiosity.

I have been watching the news and an awful update on situation in Penge where a young boy and woman killed. I've never heard of this suburb and couldn't place it on a map - but on looking it seems to be a bit further from what I'd class as "London".

So my AIBU to ask where London starts and finishes?

Have the boundaries expanded? Are there some areas that would be SouthEast a few years ago but are now London?

OP posts:
BlancheBlue · 01/09/2016 13:05

limited so if something is a fact you just ignore it as you don't like it?

muminthecity · 01/09/2016 13:14

I live in Penge. We are all still reeling from yesterday's events Sad. It's a lovely community, there were press swarming around the road the family live on this morning and people were put in force telling them to get lost and let them grieve. We've already raised lots of money for the family too.

We are definitely in London, though pretty much the suburbs I suppose. My address is written as:

123 road name
Penge
London
SE20

muminthecity · 01/09/2016 13:16

Ahh didn't mean to put that much detail in there! Have reported my post.

sirfredfredgeorge · 01/09/2016 13:16

Blanche But it's not a fact, for the purposes of local government, it's a fact (but even then the fact is X is in a London Borough, which is not necessarily the same as saying X is in London), but there are other purposes. The local government one is rarely the most important in normal discussion.

Telling a stranger who asks where I live who collects my bins is less useful than telling them a geographical location, and because London is so large and difficult to navigate across, saying Kent, Essex, Surrey is more useful when you live in many parts.

limitedperiodonly · 01/09/2016 13:17

LurkingHusband were you at any of the events where the GLC celebrated its abolition with a bang not a whisper? I didn't live in a London borough at the time but I travelled up on the tube starting from my local station.

As a child-free person I agree with your other point about child benefit and also things like education. I want other people's children to grow up to do things for me like fix my boiler or perform brain surgery. Or wipe my bum and chat to me when I'm old.

EnthusiasmDisturbed · 01/09/2016 13:18

South East London does not have any of the tube lines

London is wherever there is a London postcode

Being in a borough of London and not having a London postcode is not London

Penge is down the road from Crystal Palace its just in London it's a small next to Beckenham which is Kent

EnthusiasmDisturbed · 01/09/2016 13:22

Bromley isn't London it's suburbia

Parts of the Norwood that are London come under Bromley Council

bibbitybobbityyhat · 01/09/2016 13:24

It's just so awful muminthecity Sad. What a terrible catastrophe. That poor family!

limitedperiodonly · 01/09/2016 13:24

I'm not ignoring it BlancheBlue. I've explained that I know the history of the establishment of the London borough; seemingly as well as you do. But I accept that there are other things that come into play when people think about what the word 'home' means to them. Those feelings can be very powerful without having any pejorative connotation or any practical difficulties. I could be wrong, but you seem unable to grasp that dimension.

GrimmauldPlace · 01/09/2016 13:24

Being in a borough of London and not having a London postcode is not London

You're getting me confused again now. I thought we'd established that the London postcode thing wasn't a definitive indicator of whether it was London or not?

BlancheBlue · 01/09/2016 13:27

lurking you paint a very simplistic picture of Bromley and "fares fair" - the whole issue was part of the central government drive to get rid of GLA (and metropolitan boroughs UK wide) - how much was Bromley pushed to have this "fight"? Department of transport also wanted to get control of LT from the GLA (which it did by 1984). The fares fair policy also exposed big funding gaps in LT and also a hard ball situation about the GLA and boroughs putting more money into British Rail which of course GLA didn't want to do.

BlancheBlue · 01/09/2016 13:30

Being in London has nothing to with postcodes - read the thread!

EnthusiasmDisturbed · 01/09/2016 13:30

If you live in London you have a London postcode

You can live in a borough of London Bromley, Sutton, Croydon but you do not have a London postcode as you are not actually living in London

Bromley is Kent, Sutton and Croydon are Surry

GrimmauldPlace · 01/09/2016 13:32

Enthusiasm I fear you may be wrong. This thread has been quite educational. (if I've understood it all correctly!)

limitedperiodonly · 01/09/2016 13:33

It's a lovely community, there were press swarming around the road the family live on this morning and people were put in force telling them to get lost and let them grieve.

I'm sure it is muminthecity. It is where I live. Why were people out in force? Where they all intimately connected to the people who lost their lives? Did anyone ask the grieving families if they wanted them to appear in force or did they just feel like it?

If someone asks you if you would like to speak to them, it is possible to say: 'I'd rather not'. If they don't go away you can tell them to get lost and if they persist you can call the police.

BlancheBlue · 01/09/2016 13:38

EnthusiasmDisturbed Oh so its funny that all those places you dismiss as not being in London vote for the mayor and GLC reps - they certainly don't vote for any kent or surrey councillors

LittleBoxes · 01/09/2016 13:41

Here's a useful video:

londonist.com/2015/09/do-you-live-in-london

Heathen4Hire · 01/09/2016 13:48

If a red bus goes there, it's in a London borough.

It's very fluid. And baffles my midlander family Grin.

I live near Penge. Dreadful news. We call it "Penj". My husband is from Lambeth, he pronounces it like that, so I just copied him.

EnthusiasmDisturbed · 01/09/2016 13:49

Becuaus they live in London boroughs

Example my address could be

Ms E. Disturbed
132 Mumsnet Road
Croydon/Sutton
Surrey
CR? 111 / SM? 111

Both London borough's use of London travel network/ can vote for London mayor but not actually London

PigletJohn · 01/09/2016 13:50

Red buses do not control borders.

And vice versa.

BlancheBlue · 01/09/2016 13:55

As has been said numerous times in the thread Royal Mail no longer use counties as part of addresses and your post town/county was never a great indicator of actual location anyway.

limitedperiodonly · 01/09/2016 13:57

LittleBoxes thanks for your video which ended with: 'we think we'll let you decide that for yourself' Smile

EnthusiasmDisturbed · 01/09/2016 14:00

Sutton and Croydon are in Surrey

Bromley is in Kent

If you see writing the full address you would put that not London Borough of ......

EnthusiasmDisturbed · 01/09/2016 14:01

are writing ....

BlancheBlue · 01/09/2016 14:02

limited why shouldn't people go out on mass if they want? To pay condolences or lay flowers for example and so what if they tell rude journalists to sod off