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?

Chigwell is Essex . I went to sheesh last week and it's definitely in Essex

Epping is in Epping Forest District Council - more Essex.

London has always had complication and different definitions of areas - for example - met police used to police epsom pre 2000 as the "Metroplitan police district" was wider than London boroughs until then.

The old London passenger travel areas was within 30 miles of Charing cross

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Passenger_Transport_Board#/media/File:LPTA_map.png

Brentwood is Essex but under Essex police not Met police
Just to add to Essex / met police / London not London confusion

Zone 1.

Just kidding. I generally say inside the M25 as a rough guide.

According to Wiki, Bromley Borough incorporates 5 different postcodes (BR, DA, TN, SE and CR) and 3 area dialling codes - just to confuse things further!

piglet john MCC offices opposite Parliament - now used for supreme court

This is a public service announcement on the BBC:

London has been officially lost by Mumsnet.
If anyone has had a sighting of it please contact Boris Johnson who has been looking for his sanity so long that he's forgotten he's lost it...

limitedperiodonly chigwell has been under jurisdiction of Essex police since 2000

To all those PPs who are saying that you have to have a London postcode to be in London. There are parts of the London Borough of Ealing which have UB postcodes. Are you really saying Ealing is not in London?

wasnt always a london borough though was it

Thegirlinthefireplace Thu 01-Sep-16 00:04:03

I live in Bromley and I'm fully aware I live in a Londin borough and not Kent, although the pp is correct that people who have live here are often either ignorant to,or,refuse to accept that fact. Deciding to randomly put Kent in your address doesn't make it so.

I used to have a pretty good figure and more money - I don't now! Just because I USED to be something doesn't change today's reality!!!!

Who's old enough to remember the snobbery about whether your phone number began with 0207 or 0208?

071 or 081 more like

It is important to some people and I don't think they should necessarily be written off as snobs. I remember people being upset that Middlesex had ceased to exist in 1965. Where they lived hadn't changed, but they felt it had.

People were similarly attached to the Ridings of Yorkshire and didn't feel particularly happy about being in Humberside. I don't know why because I don't know the area. But I'm sure they had their reasons and it can't have been just because they were all snobs.

I always address Christmas cards to my friend's mum as Chingford, Essex, because I know it's important to her. They always get there.

Btw Richmond is an odd area, since it's so big. The furthest parts of Richmond are more or less "the country" and feel very rural. But Richmond stretches all the way up to Hammersmith Bridge. I used to live in Richmond and there was a Zone 2 tube station a 5 minute walk away, I'd def count that as London.

Historically Kent began at Kent House station at the South end of Penge, so Penge was in London but anything south of Penge was in Kent. This is also (broadly) where SE postcodes end and BR postcodes start. So Bromley is a London Borough, and in Greater London, not the Kent County Council Area so politically in London. But historically and geographically it remains within Kent.

Definitely Dame - and 0181/0171 (081/071).

I don't think 020 came in until I was most of the way through secondary school.

(Sheepish confession) I am a little bit snobbish over having an 0207 number.

Has it Blanche? I really should move with the times.

I'm from Watford, living in Yorkshire. It's 20 odd miles to the centre of London. I used to think this was a long way, till I moved North and all towns and cities seem to be about 20 miles from each other, and are " just up the road"!
What makes me laugh,( or,rather,irritated) is that the Harry Potter "experience" is said to be in London, when in fact it's just outside Watford, to the north! It's in Hertfordshire!....but then Luton Airport is classed as a London airport, and that's Bedfordshire! Very odd.

Are you sure about that Sara? Peckham is 0207. As is New Cross...

(They are definitely more central, to be fair. Just perhaps less desirable. Although Peckham is making great strides in being more desirable, and people hardly ever get shot in New Cross any more )

littleprincess lol I know exactly where you are talking about - ex Riverview gardens is me

I think I was in secondary school too and my dad teasing a friend who had 0208 and not 0207. I can STILL remember that phone number from 30 years ago!

I think in 50 years everything south of Manchester will be part of Greater London, consuming ever-more counties, and then eventually London will be like that city-planet from the Asimov Foundation novels.

Either that or implode entirely. I hope not.