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.

Then SW11 Battersea to SW19 Wimbledon.

Battersea SW11 then Barnes SW13?

I believe it's true - I just think it's a bit haphazard - like the rest of the post code system - which is what makes it interesting.

The thing is, a lot of people, even Londoners, would say "Kingston isn't proper London", it's basically surrey" so as a pp said they cannot win.

You don't live in Middlesex, no one does. Because it doesn't exist.

Yes it does. It is the area within the historic county of Middlesex.

It is no longer an administrative area, but the place that people are talking about when they refer to Middlesex still exists.

You might as well say bishy barnabees don't exist.

I think something that is being missed is that most people only want to provide their address once. Nobody wants to say "I'm actually here, but my postal address is this", particularly if you are a business trying to communicate your location.

It's really confusing if the contact address on your website says you are in a town six miles away.

I think the number of people who have a vague idea that Middlesex, Essex, Sussex and even Wessex are somewhere in southern England is larger than the number of people who care desperately about local authority boundaries.

I suppose you could put 'Twickenham, London', but that isn't 'correct' either. Either way, as long as the house number, street and postcode are correct, post will be delivered.

I think something that is being missed is that most people only want to provide their address once. Nobody wants to say "I'm actually here, but my postal address is this", particularly if you are a business trying to communicate your location.

I don't understand this. If you are trying to advertise your business why would you want to tell people your full address? It would be a really clumsy way of talking about your business whereas you might well want to advertise yourself as being in East Kent or Bromley or even Middlesex if you think people will like it. But at some point you will need to also provide your address if you want to be allow people to post things to you. They are different things, it makes total sense to me to use both.

Same as a personal conversation. We moved to Kent. We told lots of people we were moving to Kent, told them it was close to Canterbury it would be weird in casual conversation to provide our actual address but I sent it to everyone in case they wanted to send us a Christmas card.

If you are trying to advertise your business why would you want to tell people your full address?

So they know where you are if they want to visit your cafe or shop?

But at some point you will need to also provide your address if you want to be allow people to post things to you.

As long as the road details and postcode are correct, post will reach your address.

@merrymouse I still think you're talking about two different purposes. General location to get people interested, specific location from postcode for visiting/posting.

Search engines for and trade businesses will work on postcodes, anything more like a cafe is going to be operating and advertising locally so you're going to know what county it's in anyway.

If it's a company operating only by post for ordering then as long as it's in the UK it makes no odds where it is.

If you are trying to advertise your business why would you want to tell people your full address?

I was looking for a certain kind of plants for my garden. I googled for that plant and a specialist nursery came up. I didn’t know the village or postcode but because the county was included I realised that it might be near my mother so I could go there to buy my plants the next time I went to visit.

There are many small towns and villages in the uk with the same name. If I’m looking for a company to supply a certain product including the county in the address tells me if it’s Gillingham in Kent or Dorset for example and therefore tells me if it’s worth me going to them rather than getting something posted.

I was looking for a certain kind of plants for my garden. I googled for that plant and a specialist nursery came up. I didn’t know the village or postcode but because the county was included I realised that it might be near my mother so I could go there to buy my plants the next time I went to visit.

Ok, I'll give you that one! Maybe I'm just more familiar with postcodes and could tell you from most of them roughly what area they cover from the first two letters. Plus people tend to search on google which will automatically include a map result.

Just seems vanishingly unlikely that people would search for something and find it by county.

Plus in your nursery example I would still expect most searches to come up with results like:

Blooming Nursery, Townville, Kent
Plants R Awesome, Little Greening, Sussex
etc and then you'd click through to see the precise address is
Plants R Awesome, 199 Compost Road, Little Greening, SUNNYTOWN, AA11 1AA and be able to go and find it.

anything more like a cafe is going to be operating and advertising locally so you're going to know what county it's in anyway

Most businesses provide their address on their website and plenty of businesses operate nationally and internationally. Why would you hide where your business is?

I still think you're talking about two different purposes

Yet happily your business can provide one address which will serve both purposes. Why make life complicated? I'd understand if Royal Mail were claiming that including a county or excluding a post town caused massive problems and slowed down the post, but they don't.

Yet happily your business can provide one address which will serve both purposes. Why make life complicated

I would have thought Plants R Awesome, Little Greening Sussex was more eye-catching than Plants R Awesome, 199 Compost Road, Little Greening, SUNNYTOWN, AA11 1AA and therefore more likely to draw people in who want to go to Little Greening in Sussex. Admittedly I know nothing about advertising!

I am going to sleep now. Probably to dream of tidy and consistantly applied address formats

Dappled it's not about being eye-catching, it's about providing information. Most people don't visit garden centres because the address is eye-catching.

Your address just needs to be clear, and simple.

"Plants R Awesome, Little Greening Sussex" is a little cryptic if you want people to visit and buy plants.

Plants R Awesome, 199 Compost Road, Little Greening, Sussex, AA11 1AA explains your location (without confusingly suggesting that Little Greening is near Sunnytown train station which is infact 6 miles away) and also, like it or not, works perfectly well as a postal address.

Most people don't visit garden centres because the address is eye-catching.

I meant eye-carching as in providing helpful summary information. If I was looking for a nursery and skimming a load of results and apparently the county was important to me then a short version would be more likely to stand out so I could select that one then check more closely.

But then I still can't envisage the situation. I had to search for a locksmith yesterday. I searched for locksmiths near my current location.

I searched for specialists camping shops as well and the search automatically included a map result so i could see where they were. The actual precise address was only useful when I needed a postcode to go there.

If I was visiting Dorset and wanted a nice hotel I'd search for hotels in Dorset. The algorithm would provide me with hotels in Dorset and another map. I wouldn't need to see "Dorset" listed.

I've not RTFT. I live in Bexley. I'm very proud to say that I live in the London Borough of Bexley unlike all my brexit voting immigrant hating neighbours and would describe myself as living in SE London, but when I write down my address it's Bexley, Kent. The same way people a couple of miles away write Abbey Wood, London. Filling in forms you often have to write the district as well as the town and London is incorrect. It's definitely Kent postally even if the Royal Mail don't use that system now.

when I write down my address it's Bexley, Kent. The same way people a couple of miles away write Abbey Wood, London

Both of those addresses are wrong.

Plants R Awesome, 199 Compost Road, Little Greening, Sussex, AA11 1AA explains your location (without confusingly suggesting that Little Greening is near Sunnytown train station which is infact 6 miles away

How does it though? Of you are familiar enough with the area to have heard of Little Greening then you know roughly whereit is in comparison to Sunnytown already. Of you haven't heard of it the n knowing it's in Sussex doesn't help you know its proximity or not to Sunnytown anyway

I live in Bexley. As far as I'm concerned I live in London but my friends who live in zone 2 and the post office disagree.

Of you are familiar enough with the area to have heard of Little Greening then you know roughly whereit is in comparison to Sunnytown already.

Because websites are also for people who aren't familiar with the area.

Of you haven't heard of it the n knowing it's in Sussex doesn't help you know its proximity or not to Sunnytown anyway

Sunnytown's closeness is completely irrelevant - if it's a postal town it's just a random village or town where Royal Mail might once have had a sorting office. The problem is it's misleading to imply that it is nearby.

@DappledThings I agree, but in a badly coded web form I would use Kent rather than London as historically that was correct. Otherwise I would have to put Bexley, Bexley which bonkers.

I agree, but in a badly coded web form I would use Kent rather than London as historically that was correct

That's true. If there's a mandatory dropdown I chose Kent and am annoyed. If it's mandatory free text though I put N/a.

Ok merrymouse I still can't really envisage how a web search for anything, that always includes a map, can give you better information by providing a county but it obviously matters to you.

The problem is it's misleading to imply that it is nearby.

But why does that matter? If you feel misled by being told it's near Sunnytown then that can only mean anything to you if you know Sunnytown is I Sussex already. Otherwise it's irrelevant. So then you also already know where Little Greening is or you don't and have to look it up anyway. Sussex is vaguer information.

Pretty much all websites provide a small bit of text at the bottom or on a separate page for contact details anyway so do provide location info in two different places.

Just to thrown the cat amongst the pigeons, people claiming that the administrative area of Middlesex was abolished 50 years ago and shouldn't therefore be used on an address are clearly unaware that it was a postal county until 1996

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_counties_of_the_United_Kingdom

Postal county areas were decided by the post office and often didn't align with the administrative county area. As with postal towns, this could obviously cause confusion and the introduction of postcodes made them surplus to requirements.

I suspect that Royal Mail ignores post towns as much as they ignore counties, but just don't like to cause a fuss. The furore of 1869 when people in Hackney were finally told that the the NE postal district had been classified as 'E' since 1867 is probably still haunting them.

I still can't really envisage how a web search for anything, that always includes a map

Web searches and websites do not all include maps and even if they did information is not always provided via the internet.

If you feel misled by being told it's near Sunnytown then that can only mean anything to you if you know Sunnytown is I Sussex already.

It's misleading if it implies that the nearest station to Little Greening is in Sunnytown.

Sussex is vaguer information.

East Sussex or West Sussex is not vaguer than a post town - it just refers to a larger area.

I suspect the number of people who have heard of Cumbria is larger than the number of people who could confidently say that the CA postcode doesn't refer to Cardiff or Cambridge.

Away from the London issue, I know the owners of a B&B near Alton, Hampshire. On several occasions they've had bookings for people wanting Alton Towers in Staffordshire. 200 miles away.

The county as an entity still has an important role.