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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:
maggiethemagpie · 02/09/2016 11:08

I have interesting conversations with my five year old about this. He couldn't understand that his grand parents (islington) were in the same london as his nephew (lewisham), when we were driving between the two

I'm a northerner and this is probably incorrect, but i count 'London' in the widest sense as anything within the M25.

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 02/09/2016 11:13

I should add that the correct postal address for the Hanger Lane Gyratory is
2 Many Lanes
Seventh Circle of Hell
SH 1T

LBOCS2 · 02/09/2016 11:14

Actually Blanche, I've already pointed out that I'd rather be part of London.

muminthecity · 02/09/2016 14:53

What about the London airports? 'London Gatwick' isn't actually in London at all is it?

limitedperiodonly · 02/09/2016 14:56

There's nothing nasty about London from my point of view. I didn't used to live in it; I do now.

Being in an outer London borough isn't necessarily London. It is an administrative area. If people feel as if they are from Surrey or Kent or Essex then they are entitled to say that. Living in an area gives you more of a feel for it that a bureaucrat can ever have. And bureaucrats change things when they feel like it, like I said about Humberside, which once was, but is no more.

Janey50 · 02/09/2016 18:25

I have lived in Greater London all my life (52 years). Don't laugh but up until 15 years I actually thought Penge was in the west country! To this day,I have no idea why I thought this.Confused

Mycraneisfixed · 02/09/2016 19:11

Anywhere inside the M25 is London these days. Even if it's not!

gamerwidow · 02/09/2016 19:26

London Borough of Bexley is also in both Kent and London and has a DA postcode and 01322 postcode in some parts. It's not proper London imo and I would say I Iive on the Kent/London border.

I think only London postcodes are proper London.

limitedperiodonly · 02/09/2016 19:46

Chaz I used to look out of the bathroom window at the Target roundabout at my boyfriend's (now DH) flat in Northolt. If the traffic was backed up to there, I knew it was going to be a bad day and there was no point rushing to get ready.

On a good day the Hanger Lane Gyratory wasn't too bad but then they put in traffic lights. Before the lights, people went when they got the chance, but afterwards the queue would start at the Hoover factory. You'd creep up the approach, get to the red light and see gaps where you could have gone. This was about 1990.

It's probably a completely different kind of hell now.

Notmuchtosay1 · 02/09/2016 19:47

Yes I'd go by postcode too. So SE would be south east London etc. I used to live in Surrey 25 years ago. It was still a London Borough as such. But had KT postcode for Kingston. So it was just greater London.

EnthusiasmDisturbed · 02/09/2016 19:55

I don't know about Wembley parts of that area are not London as friends live close to the stadium

There has to be boundary lines somewhere I live in an area that within a few roads are there different boroughs

cheval · 02/09/2016 20:37

It's a huge borough, stretching from borders of Highgate, up to leafy green belt. Lots of tube stations in between. And London postcodes!

PseudoBadger · 02/09/2016 20:51

What is Cheval, Wembley? It's not a borough?!

PseudoBadger · 02/09/2016 20:52

Wembley is in Brent.

Insabbathstheatre · 02/09/2016 20:52

I thought Penge was made famous by Rumpole's case at the Bailey (The Penge bungalow murders!) - zone 3 - definitely London!

PigletJohn · 02/09/2016 21:00

That's all it's famous for.

Insabbathstheatre · 02/09/2016 21:00

Apologies Piglet you beat me to it!

user1470997562 · 02/09/2016 21:05

I've fond memories of Blockbusters and Woolworths in Penge.

toffeeboffin · 02/09/2016 21:26

Is Pettswood in Kent or London?

user1470997562 · 02/09/2016 21:29

Well exactly Toffeeboffin. What about Orpington and St Mary Cray?

Insabbathstheatre · 02/09/2016 21:34

Didn't Hancock 'live' in Penge ?

Insabbathstheatre · 02/09/2016 21:38

Sorry no he didn't - should never listen to DH without checking!

I can truthfully say Elmers End is BR3 though😊

leannerosecooper · 02/09/2016 21:39

I count areas that come under the London boroughs anything out of that isn't. Eg the areas that vote for the mayor of London etc.

PigletJohn · 02/09/2016 22:06

is Petts Wood a real place? it sounds like it's just before Lover's Lane.

EnthusiasmDisturbed · 02/09/2016 22:07

Will Smith lived in Penge [shock

I have heard some rumours about him but never that one Confused

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