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.

YABU. There is lots of cross over with boroughs and postal addresses on the outskirts of London though. We have a SW postcode but are in Croydon Borough.

DA 6 = not london eg; greater london.
It is not a London post code. They begin W,E,,S or N

Also my DM would say if you are not on the tube, it's not London.

My parents are in the London Borough of Hillingdon, with a Ruislip phone number and and Uxbridge post code. Used to be Middlesex. Yet they are on the tube. They say Greater London. "Not too far from Heathrow" explains it for foreigners

My "rule" such as it is, is if you have a postcode that starts N, SW, SE, E or W or you're on the tube, you get to say you Live in London, even when it's Upminster or Amersham.

After that: Here Be Dragons.

I live in a London Borough, but my address is postally Kent. There's no underground in my borough.

I tend to tell people "southern edges of London".

All people in said London borough vote in the London Assembly and Mayoral elections - they do not vote in the Surrey/Kent county council elections.

@hopefulhalf

There are end of the line tube stations in Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire

There’s no need to put counties in postal addresses. Kingston isn’t in Surrey anymore - it was but if you look at the county boundaries it isn’t. It’s a London borough.

I used to live in Epsom and always considered Kingston, Sutton, Croydon etc as part of Surrey. No-one spends the day in the Bentall Centre and comes home going “oooh I’ve had a lovely day out in London”!

I have no idea where I live. London borough, London travel zone, Surrey postcode, postal address with one suburb town but nearer the train station and high street of the next suburb town.

It's weird to me that people think it's snobbery to say you live in Surrey (when in a London borough) as I have had the reverse; people thinking you are trying to claim to live somewhere more exciting (London) than you do. I suspect it's a demographic/age thing. I would rather say I live in London, my mum would prefer Surrey!

Reigate and Guildford Grammmars are fee paying schools not Grammars as most people mean (a bit like Manchester Grammar).

“There used to be two descriptors - "Concrete Kent" and "Rural Kent" to separate them!
Bexleyheath is a very long way from Canterbury!”

This made me laugh, I’m from Bexleyheath and always say I’m from Kent , but not Kent Kent 😂

I don’t think Richmond is full of people wishing they lived in ‘proper Surrey’ . If there’s snobbery it’s the other way around - Londoners do not view Richmond as ‘London.’

It works both ways

I live in a E post code Borough, I am happy to say I live in London, it says London on my birth certificate, my address etc.

The BBC, national newspapers and my In Laws keep saying x Essex and not x London.

I find it the opposite! I live in RBK and say I’m in SW London. People laugh and tell me to stop pretending I live in London and that actually I am in Surrey 🤷‍♀️

I always thought unless you have a London postcode you’re not London.

Wrong on 2 counts, there is part of Essex with an E4 postcode that isn’t even in Greater London, while part of Lewisham in the old LCC area has a Kent postcode.

As much as you’re annoyed by this, others are annoyed by the reverse - teasing people for saying they’re in London when it’s not “London proper”. Laughed when I saw Hillingdon mentioned above. DH grew up there and I doubt anyone would say they were from Hillingdon to appear to be posh!

@Rosehip10

My husband is a barking postman, address would be

Buller Road
Barking
Essex
IG11 9UA

I have friends who live in the London Borough of Merton. If I want to annoy them I remind them that their postal address is Surrey. They definitely see themselves as Londoners.

But much of Merton is SW19 and SW20!

I think it's a generation thing too. I definitely want to be thought of as London, but postal address is Surrey. I deny Surrey mostly as we have Met police, London buses, a vote for the London mayor and there is a "welcome to Surrey" sign as you drive out of the borough!
Barely anyone in my (central) London office know where Sutton is though! I usually describe it to them as "Southwest London, Surrey borders".

If the postcode doesn't start with
N
NW
SE
SW
E
EC
W
WC
then it's not 'proper' London

Plus, as loads of other posters have pointed out, there are lots of grey areas

YABU

I live in London (E1 postcode), recently met up with a friend who had moved to London, turns out they have actually moved to Brentwood!

Also you can surely forgive people for saying “part of the postcode” when the county is always there. HMRC, banks...in fact EVERYONE who has ever sent us a letter has put our county on the address. It might not be technically necessary but it’s the done thing.

It’s not just London. Plenty of people living Stockport try to insist they are part of Cheshire as it’s in their address, but Stockport is its own borough of Greater Manchester and entirely separate from Cheshire. See also parts of Trafford.

When ordering online, it often insists on a county for LB Merton, which can't be got round! The council.offices have a Sutton postcode, despite being almost on top of a tube station...