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?

Romford has an Essex postcode, yet you could vote in the Londin mayoral elections, so bang goes that theory. For me, Zones 1&2 are London

I don't know, but I do recall someone on one of the threads about London rent prices, a few years ago, telling me very patronizingly that only Zone 1 and 2 counted as 'London' and that I was absolutely wrong to claim that you could rent a flat for the price I was mentioning, because I was talking about Zone 3, and that was practically Durham.* It did make me wonder how much certain people enjoy claiming that London is The Most Expensive Place Ever Ever Ever and No One Can Afford Anything, rather than, you know, moving slightly further out and putting up with it.

*I may be ad-libbing for effect.

I'm sorry, that really wasn't a deliberate cross post!

I used to think if it didn't have a London postcode then it's not London. But I was wrong. If the local council is London Borough of...then it's London. Think Enfield, Barnet etc.

Romford is in the London Borough of Havering. Not Essex.

That's not bang goes any theory, that's just "I think it is option D not option C"

To be fair. Romford is both in the London borough of Havering and in Essex. The postcode and postal address are both Essex, but it's in a London borough and nearby areas with the Romford postcode are on the tube line and in zones 5/6.

How do you pronounce Penge ?

"Pen" and then the ge ending that is on minge and flange.

Rhyming it with the ending of blancmange would be more pleasant but also a bit Hyacinth Bucket.

I didn't know Romford was in a London borough.

Actually here's the real answer

Start at Charing Cross, walk in any direction, keep going till you can't find a Londoner who is happy to bore on about the details of what's officially London there, you have officially found the point where London ends.

You'll get all the way to Yorkshire before you can't find someone who claims to be "still a Londoner". And only then if you go up in the hills where there are no humans.

I'm so upset about that horrific story, not far from where I live and very near dh's best mate's house.

To answer your question, op, Penge is about 9 miles from the centre of London, but is absolutely very much still London.

I always classify London as the parts which are covered by the A-Z.

Penge/Stonehenge

Is in London borough of Bromley. Some of Bromley has se19/se20 post codes. Some BR. All in greater London. Mayoral elections etc, good transport links (no tube because of clay I think). Penge has particularly good transport links to London Bridge, Victoria and Charing Cross.

I live in a London borough but have neither a London postcode, or 020 phone number but we have the tube and do vote in the mayoral election and public sector workers get London Weighting and not fringe pay.

Penge is the furthest end of London with an SE postcode. Next to Penge but further out you get to Beckenham, which is still in the London Borough of Bromley (as is Penge) but has a BR Kent postcode.
By the way, Penge has an amazing community spirit far surpassing anywhere I have ever known!
However, Beckenham has the best rail links into town and 15 minutes from green fields.
As you were.

Bragadocia

Everyone should pronounce 'Penge' to rhyme with 'blancmange' - it's more pleasing to the ear

I'm now chuckling as I mentally repeat 'ponj ponj' to rhyme with blumonj

Dh is giving me this:

I have no opinion on the London question btw, I live in Rural.

I live near Penge.

London = London boroughs, if you've got an 020 dialling code, if you can vote in the Mayoral election... then in my book you are a Londoner. Our transport is run by TfL (Transport for LONDON), we get London weighting for jobs, and you don't need an Oyster extension from our local station. People say 'you don't live in London because you live in Surrey or Kent' but it's possible to be in both and you can't get much more South London than Thornton Heath or Norbury... yet by some standards they 'don't count'!

Stonehenge is a good rhyme there.

It is SE of Brixton, just next to Crystal Palace.

When deciding which cricket team to support I looked up whether I live in historic Surrey or Kent (knew it would not be Middlesex because I am South of the River and I know my Boat Race river sides).

Havering is the subject of an anti-custody battle between Essex and London. Neither wants it!

That is what I tell my pal who lives there and insists he is a Londoner on the London Borough and Tube station points. I wind him up by insisting he's an Essex Lad.

Trills, yes but the "still a Londoner" will say that first whereas the "still physically in London" will start on the minutiae first.

I hope I haven't put OP off visiting
We are all fascinating in real life I promise! Lol.

I live nearby. I am trying to get Penge-pronounced-like-blancmange PLUS an acute accent over the second e going ("Pohnzhay") but no-one's buying it yet.

Well, not all.

And she did ASK.