Where is London?

[namechangenumber45]

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?

Someone mentioned Orpington earlier, I would never think that was London.

Blanche you really need to let the '63 Local Government changes go. You're sounding obsessed.

Blanche you really need to let the '63 Local Government changes go. You're sounding obsessed.

Here, in the sunny (yes, really. Well today anyway) West Midlands there are still people who bang on about the 1974 boundary changes where the district of "Sandwell" was named. Apparently it was a stitch-up as there was a mayor in office at the time who came from Sandwell which was the most insignificant of the amalgamated boroughs.

It still gets mentioned in the odd radio-phone in (hence my knowing of it).

I made a joke at work once, after hearing it on the morning radio ... it seems feelings still run deep.

littlebearpad Oh pardon me for commenting on a thread with some relevant information - better that than just posting to throw abuse

Many people in London are very protective over their city

And rightly so

Sandwell which was the most insignificant of the amalgamated boroughs.

Explains much LurkingHusband

My most annoying work moment involved a functionary from Sandwell Council's social services dept. It's too boring to go into. It came up with a friend who comes from there. She said: 'Oh God. Sandwell.'

I haven't just posted to throw abuse.

But you have gone on and on about it.

People's home is about a lot more than their local authority.

So you may say Kingston or Croydon aren't in Surrey but most/many of their residents would disagree.

It's like saying Portsmouth isn't in Hampshire. It clearly is but it has a city council rather than being administered by HCC.

The British rail station is Sandwell and dudley? Was that a concession?

The British rail station is Sandwell and dudley? Was that a concession?

Until I took a train to Brum in 2994 I had never heard of Sandwell.

Can't swear to the truth of the story, but when it was just "Sandwell", people really had no idea where it was - hence the "and Dudley" ...

1994

littlebearpad did the bulk of residents of Kingston or croydon send there views into you or elect you as there rep? No? Then statements such as that are just your projection.

No the residents didn't send me their views.

However quite a lot of people have said similar on this thread and you have consistently referred to the 63 Act or asked them if they are living in the 1950s.

Unless you drafted the 63 Act I don't understand why you keep going on about it so much.

I live in zone 5, a red bus ride away from the arse and of the northern line, have an 020 phone number and can vote in the Mayoral elections but no way is this London, it's a sprawling nondescript parochial town that happens to be in a London borough. Having lived in various SE, SW, BR, E and SM postcodes, London proper to me is within zones 1-3, the rest is just a dormitory commuter belt.

It was all so simple when I was a kid. London, Surrey and Kent all met at the roundabout at the top of Crystal Palace Parade and there were street signs to prove it!

The thing is Blanche, no one has actually disagreed with you about the existence of the '63 Act or indeed the fact that there exist greater London boroughs. We all know this.

But there is 'Greater London', and there is 'London proper'. And repeatedly bringing up the existence of the Act really doesn't change the impression that actually, fields don't form part of a super-city. So there's got to be a cut off somewhere. For me, and a significant proportion of people on this thread, that's done by postcode.

I'm a Londoner by birth and for the first 25+ years of my life. I'd rather live in London. But I really don't feel that Croydon counts, frankly.

Did you know that London was always part of Middlesex and legally, this has never been changed, I have never been to Penge, sounds a bit like Mange :-)

ha ha Penge - son thought it sounded like 'Peng'

I work with a guy who hasn't ever got over that Dorset 'stole' Bournemouth from Hampshire at some point in the past.

I live in the London borough of Bromley. Locals like to say it's in Kent but it's been a part of London since the 1960s... I get great pleasure out of saying I live in SE London (not seen as posh at all!).

I think it's only reasonable that you accept my disdain for ending the Fair's Fair policy and saddling London with Boris Johnson Julius02

Don't argue. You live in the London Borough of Bromley and that is your penance.

Yes, London was once part of Middlesex, before it expanded to take in bits of Surrey and Kent as well. But since those times it has totally consumed Middlesex, though not, according to some posters, the parts that dont have London postcodes.

I live in an area with out a London postcode but i got to vote in the mayor election. We're classed as "greater London"

CecilyP Staines is not in London by anyones measure that I know, but is in Middlesex and Surrey by others.

Middlesex wasn't consumed by London, but was disbanded and bits went to London, Surrey, Berkshire & Hertfordshire. If people still think Kingston, Croydon, Sutton etc are still in Surrey, do those people still think Battersea is in Surrey and Deptford is still in Kent? Because that was the case until 1889, when London was just the City and Westminster was in Middlesex.

Limitedperiodonly - I don't understand your post. How on earth did I saddle London with Boris Johnson?? My comment was about snobby locals who can't bear to think they live in SE London (multicultural, perceived as a less desirable area of London, etc). I've only lived here for about 10 years and was really surprised when locals corrected me for saying I lived in SE London and told me Bromley was in Kent. Not according to my council tax!