London

[puttingbbts]

This is about London so no comments on how crap and expensive it is from non Londoners.

Aibu to get annoyed when people describe places that aren't London as London?
Sidcup and Bromley are in Kent!
Croydon is in Surrey!
Stratford is Essex!

Living in these areas is suburban. It's not living in London is very different it's suburban living.

Yes the tube map is huge just because it's on the tube doesn't make it London the metropolitan line goes to something like zone 6 I think it's further away than Brighton is the other way.

The correct postal address for Croydon does not include "Surrey" Sometimes online forms insist you pick a county but it's not part of the official address. Ditto Bromley and Kent

is this all about how much your TfL season ticket costs

Yes

or is there any other point to it at all?

None whatsoever. :)

Living zone 4+ generally gives you more home for your money, be that mortgage or rent, but with an easy commute into central London. Not rocket science.

MalletsMallets

Welwyn Garden City??!! WTAF?? That's jokes

The post office do not use postal counties for any places now, so anyone who puts their address as Bromley, Kent or Croydon, Surrey is wrong anyway.

but this Zone talk, is this all about how much your TfL season ticket costs, or is there any other point to it at all?

Essentially, yes.

The zones are arranged radially from the centre though, so it does give a rough idea of how far in/out somewhere it, but essentially they don't really exist for any reason other than to determine travel fares.

I'm a born & bred South Londoner.

Until last year was living in an SW postcode which was zone 3 on the local tube. When I moved house within the same London Borough I've ended up with a 'non London' postcode. Still within 15m walk of the same tube, still in a London Borough etc and just one road >> way I'd've kept my SW postcode. Fail to see how I'm any less of a Londoner now than I ever was tbh.

Zones are ok, but for real snobbery value lets talk postcode!

I think a reasonable test of what is London, rather than Greater London, is: would a black cab be legally obliged to take you home? If memory serves, they are not allowed to refuse any fare that's within 6 miles of Charing Cross Station (despite often being told, "can't go south of the river this late, love").

OP - your personal feelings about a place don't have any impact upon whether or not it is in London . So, you can keep saying that 'Stratford is not in London' as much as you like but it doesn't make it true are you three?.

Black cabs have to take you 12 miles now or up to an hour in greater London

I only refer to living in Zone 2 on MN - rather than saying the borrough that I live in. Otherwise it's not really relevant.

Black cabs have to take you 12 miles now or up to an hour in greater London

Shows how long it is since I've been able to afford a black cab!

20 miles from Heathrow

RagingSquirrel I had an SW postcode too, loved SW London.

I live in a London Borough. Zone 6. I have an Essex postcode and if I cross the road, I'm in Essex. I'm almost on the edge of a forest but a 25 minute journey from St Pauls Cathedral.

I feel like a Londoner, but I refer to 'proper London' as The City.

Wrt to the taxi distances, I live in Angel and I taxi from Soho would take at least 30 minutes. You'd never get from the West End to Stratford in an hour by road.

When thinking about "proper" London, I also think would I be happy to stay there as a tourist. Stratford yes, High Barnet, no way.

Come to Bristol.

Once upon a time, about a thousand years ago, some folks decided to settle and create a city called Bristol. This was fine for several hundred years until some bright spark invented "councils" and the local bigwigs decided Bristol was grown up enough to be a council all by itself with its friends Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south.
All went smoothly until the 1970s when after one too many babychams the councillors thought it would be a good idea to create Avon. This involved disbanding the county of Bristol and nicking a bit of Gloucestershire and a smidgeon of Somerset. Lots of money was spent on county boundary signs , new letter heads and all that palaver.

Still with me?
Soon the councillors got fed up with their new toy and decided that Bristol should be a City and Council again and to get rid of the bits of Gloucestershire and Somerset that they'd taken to form Avon.
However Gloucestershire and Somerset didn't want those bits back so it was decided to make new little counties. So now Bristol is surrounded by North Somerset; Bath and North East Somerset (aka BANES ); and South Gloucestershire ...just to confuse you with the originals.
I live in BANES. Some BANES residents have Bristol postcodes, dialling codes and Bristol Water bills....but our council is based in Bath!
We also have emergency services with Avon in their titles but Avon hasn't existed for at least 20 years.

LOL at Stratford being "out in the sticks", it's about 3 miles from Canary Wharf! Fair enough to dislike the place, but it doesn't make it not London!

We live in Zone 4 because my family all live locally, and it takes DH 20 minutes to get to work in Liverpool Street, as opposed to over an hour if we lived in the Home Counties.

Middlesex hasn't existed since 1965

I'm sure I used to live in Middlesex.

RagingSquirrel
Are you around Tooting? When I was looking there, I was amazed at the price difference between the roads that had SW postcodes vs the ones with CR postcodes, even though, as you said, they are only a few roads away from each other

More proof Bromley et al aren't London:
When you go to the websites for of chain restaurants, and look at their locations, they will list all the London ones together.
Bromley/Beckenham/Uxbridge/Richmond/other suburbs are never listed under London!
www.askitalian.co.uk/locations/list/
www.cote-restaurants.co.uk/cote/location

www.strada.co.uk/italian-restaurant

(This is a lighthearted thread, right? There are some people getting verrrry wound up here...)

I used to live in East London 30 years ago. Stratford was the back end of beyond. Bromley was definitely suburbia.

Can I fuck you up even further OP by telling you I live in zone 7? Pay as you go Oyster at the station, London buses and everything. Hertfordshire postcode though

When you go to the websites for of chain restaurants, and look at their locations, they will list all the London ones together.

www.hobbycraft.co.uk/london

(Not RTFT so I'm sure someone else has already said this, but...)

Stratford is zone 2 now. Which is definitely in London.