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.

This old chestnut?! The technical term for places like Bromley is 'in the former historic county of Kent'. But it is indisputably London for council tax etc, yes. Although not when you want funding for anything. It's complicated and yet boring, OP, like so many things.

Why does it bother you so much?

I live in one of the afore mentioned areas, which is a London borough. However, our postcode is not London, our phone number does not have a London code and even the national news service can't decide whether we are East London or Essex!

Unsuspecting the reason so many people in this area refer to themselves as living in London, stems from the unfortunate association with 'Essex Girl' that was around a few years ago. Ironically, the most typical 'Essex Girl' I know is my SIL who was born and brought up in Cheshire and moved to Essex when she married my Db.

• I suspect, not unsuspecting.

I live in Bromley and my address is Bromley, KENT

No, your address is:
1 Road Name
BROMLEY
BRX XXX

Haven’t RTFT but Isn’t Kingston the best example, as in it’s in a London Borough, yet Surrey county council’s main county hall is in Kingston. So, perfectly confusing and complex all round.

You can't win if you live in Bromley. If you say it's in Greater London (it is), some halfwit will say it's in Kent. And vice versa.

This. A thousand times this. People are fucking bonkers about both sides of this subject - you’re not London because you have a KT postcode, you’re not Surrey because you vote for the Mayor, BURN THE WITCH.
I cannot fathom how people get so het up about this or can even bother to have an opinion unless their self-identity is incredibly fragile and tied up in notions of misplaced exclusivity.

Haven’t RTFT but Isn’t Kingston the best example, as in it’s in a London Borough, yet Surrey county council’s main county hall is in Kingston. So, perfectly confusing and complex all round.

It was too hard to move it to the other side of the river after the redistribution.

(We also have the Guildhall which is all ours.)

I grew up in Enfield. It’s most definitely a London Borough. It has an EN postcode as well as a N post code in some areas.

TFL doesn't count as we have London buses and non-London buses. We're in Zone 6 but we're definitely not in London (only a few hundred yards away though).

Even the ‘if it’s got a tube it’s London’ doesn’t work. I’m zone 2 and have to allow 40 minutes to get to the nearest tube by public transport.

Just Google London postcodes, Bromley is in kent and Kent is not in London, Basildon is in Essex and Essex is not London, it is a diferrent county

I was born at Kingston hospital and I've always said I was from Surrey, now I can say I was born in London.. yay

Don’t understand the point

Kingston is in the borough of Kingston, which is Surrey. People can say they live in Surrey or south west London - and usually do say either depending on who is asking.

Also there are a couple of good grammar schools in Kingston, Surrey - the tiffins in parochial.

*in particular

I'd say if you're phone number begins with 020 that counts as a London address.

I know a few people who do the opposite- live in the Home Counties but tell people they live in London because it “sounds better”. One of them lives in Bedford ffs

I also live in a London Borough. However, the address and phone number are not London postal districts or London telephone area codes. If you type any address of a town into Royal Mail postcode finder, it doesn’t list the county. Eg Tunbridge Wells doesn’t say Kent, it just gives a TNx xxx postcode.

I'm in Kent, Canterbury. Used to live in Bromley which depending on who I spoke with was either Greater London or Bromley. I don't think it matters, still stuck with rubbish underground and even worse south eastern railways.

So what

To take one of the examples mentioned above, this page from the Bromley council website points out that postally, Bromley is in Kent and the administrative changes made in 1965 have made no difference to this www.bromley.gov.uk/info/200064/local_history_and_heritage/379/history_of_the_bromley_area/2

Well our phone number has always been 0208 (or 0181 back in the day.)

I understood the boundary to be set out by the GLC rather than postcodes or tubes or how much green belt you have around you.

I'm in zone 3 but South London, so no tubes.
If the amount of chicken shops per square mile are any indicator of True Londonness, I've hit the jackpot.

I would always say 'Kingston, Surrey' as it gives a more specific location than 'Kingston, London', which doesn't sound right.

People use the historical county names as a matter of course. Nothing wrong with it.

YANBU

This has got me thinking!

I live in SE London but would never say that I live in Kent...I never say London unless I'm abroad and talking to people who don't know the London boroughs etc

Where we live it's the London Ambulance service and we pay council tax to the London Borough of Bromley

So I'd say that we're pretty much damnit part of London!

@LadyOfTheCanyon

Ha ha yes those chicken shops!