To be annoyed at people who live in a London Borough but insist they don't (i.e Im in Surrey, Kent etc)

[Rosehip10]

As in people in places such as Richmond, Kingston (insisting they live in Surrey) or places such as Bromley (insisting they are in Kent).

These places may used to have in a different county but have been part of greater London and a London Borough since 1965.

Is is snobbery? They usually drone only about postal towns which also no longer exist.

I had a colleague who used to say that he lived in “a small market town just north of London”. (Enfield)

And another one who “loved living in Kent as it is so rural and lovely to get out of the city every evening”. (Beckenham)

DappledThings - I am not a machine. When I ask for an address, I want to know the county, because, strangely enough, I do not understand locations from postcodes. I am infinitely more likely to work out whereabouts someone lives in the country if they tell me what county they are from.

Most people in London aren't from the UK so they'll hardly have an attachment.

Whilst it’s a high percentage, it’s not a majority...

I think it is Bolivia where they don’t have any formalised version of the address, it’s just be something like
The big house with a blue door
Near the tree
Opposite the market
Small town

Walkaround How often are you being given people's addresses without knowing vaguely where they are from?

It would be very strange indeed for someone to say "I'm from CTXX", they would say "I'm from TownName in Kent". But that's not the same as giving someone your factual address to write to.

How often are you being given people's addresses without knowing vaguely where they are from?

When you look up a company or store location online?
Selling something on eBay?

When you look up a company or store location online?

Selling something on eBay

Can't imagine wanting to make the emotional connection Walkaround was describing in either of those circumstances. I've never used ebay but I did address something DH had sold the other day. He sent me what the buyer had claimed was his address. Obviously I checked it first and corrected it. If I was interested in where this actually was I could have seen it then

@Ilnome exactly. Where i live now i'm happy to let the born and bred locals correct me on the local idiosyncracies "oh, i see so that place name has a silent m, o, h, i and p? Alright then." Wouldn't dream of "correcting" them in their own backyard.

DappledThings - relatively often.

In any event, in the context of this thread, the OP was not actually complaining about how people address letters, but about how people describe where they are from. If you were chatting to someone and asked as a matter of interest where they lived, you wouldn't expect a postcode out of them. And I think you would have to be quite easily irritated to think they were some kind of a weird snob if they said, eg, they were from Bromley in Kent.

Can't imagine wanting to make the emotional connection

No, but I might need to know if the branch is in Gillingham in Kent or Gillingham in Dorset.

See the case of the snooker player who went to the wrong Barnsley. I doubt he made an emotional connection but it might have helped had he known he should have been heading to Yorkshire.

Or maybe you do expect strangers to give you postcodes when you ask them where they are from, DappedGrey?! I can't imagine factual data taking priority in my casual conversations, however.

In any event, in the context of this thread, the OP was not actually complaining about how people address letters, but about how people describe where they are from
I know. I've only been commenting on counties in addresses which was a sidetrack of the thread. I agree entirely that using counties in a description of where one is from is helpful and normal

I wonder about all these people who Dappled finds have got their addresses wrong all this time.
Don’t they question where all their post has been going all these years?

I regularly get phonecalls at work from people who think they are ringing somewhere in Dorset of the same name (several hundred miles away). When I explain what county I am in, they leave me alone! I don't think they would respond as quickly to a postcode.

And it is quite a fun sidetrack I must say, Dappled.
Thank you for taking it in good humour.

I can't imagine factual data taking priority in my casual conversations, however.

Me either, and I take therefore no offence at the mangling of my username! My comments are purely about the use of actual postal addresses and only have been.

I guess we were largely talking at cross purposes, then, Dappled! Still, I do think postcodes are imperfect. Having to argue the toss with the Post Office over my parents' correct postal address, just because it is on a corner, didn't help my view of postcodes, tbh.

I wonder about all these people who Dappled finds have got their addresses wrong all this time.
Don’t they question where all their post has been going all these years?

Ha! I don't think their incorrect address would mean they don't get my letter. I just take a bizarre amount of satisfaction from knowing I've addressed it entirely correctly. And equivalent annoyance at people not getting my address entirely correct.

Glad to be diverting Pancake. It's certainly diverted me from feeling sorry for myself with indigestion after my first meal out in months!

I didn't know Middlesex didn't exist anymore!

If we're defining by postcodes then Kingston Vale is SW15.

However if you walk to the south along the river from Bentalls, you will reach the Surrey border - where is this, out of interest?

However if you walk to the south along the river from Bentalls, you will reach the Surrey border - where is this, out of interest?

Just past Laithwaites...

Dappled - should the postal town be included in the address?

We're CR2 with an 0208 number. I just tell people I live "London borders" if they ask. Seems to cover all eventualities.

Oh, and apologies about the mangling of your name, Dappled - I'd just read a comment about shovelling manure and obviously still had my mind on horses!

Dappled - should the postal town be included in the address?

Sorry please ignore that. I sent it to soon and have worked out the rest of it

Enfield has London postcode areas and EN postcode areas. If postcodes are the gold standard, what is the non N part of Enfield if not London. Because Middlesex does not exist...