For those of you who know the area

[20wedding19]

My husband and I have recently bought our first property.
It is near Welling High Street. So it is in The London borough of Bexley but some say it is in Kent
Welling station is in zone 4. So simple question. Would you say Welling is in Kent or London please?

A NI friend of mine when asking for my new London address started saying "BT" for the start of the postcode and when I said no it was SE and why did she think a London address would have a Belfast postcode she replied that she thought BT stood for Britain as she had only ever seen BT as the start of a postcode

That's the maddest thing I've ever heard. What makes it even madder is that NI isn't in Britain, it's in the UK. That's why, on the front of your passport, it says Great Britain AND Northern Ireland.

So if she was right, and BT stood for Britain, NI wouldn't have a BT postcode.

Utterly bonkers? Is she still a friend? I'd find that level of stupidity hard to get over

A friend of a friend really. Not still in touch. She had grown up in NI, went to university there and was visiting some of us university friends in London, possibly her first time out of NI. It was quite a moment.

it would also only have made sense if the whole world used the same format. So a French postcode would be FRXX XXX and an Australian one AUXX XXX etc!

Not that it matters...

www.postcodeaddressfile.co.uk/products/postcodes/postcodes_explained.htm

The first part of the postcode is the Outward Code and it signifies "the area and the district to which the mail is to be delivered".

And also www.postcodeaddressfile.co.uk/products/postcodes/postcodes_explained_page2.htm
"The Postcode area being the first one or two alpha digits of a Postcode is usually chosen as a mnemonic representation of the area it represents, examples include "B" for Birmingham, "MK" for Milton Keynes, "SL" for Slough".

It’s always been seen as Kent with a Kent postcode but it is classed as Greater London as it’s bexley and not in the direct Kent area like ashford for example

It’s always been seen as Kent with a Kent postcode

And again, there is no such thing as a Kent postcode. There are postcodes that cover areas exclusively in Kent. There are postcodes that cover areas in Kent & E. Sussex. There are postcodes that cover areas in Kent and London. But Kent does not have it's own postcode.

yabu for not naming the area in the thread title.

020 area phone number + in a london borough so definitely London.

Harrow is not in Brent. Harrow is in Harrow, believe it or not.

I live in Beckenham, and I’m forever getting post with Kent on it. It’s not been Kent since the boundaries changed in the 1960s. I pay council tax to the London Borough of Bromley, and when some little scrote attempted to steal our car, we had a visit from a Metropolitan police officer. We’re not in Kent

Beckenham is definitely Kent. It's far too posh to be a south east London borough

I used to live a few miles from welling. My car insurance always used to send paperwork to:

House number/Street name
London
Kent
Postcode

Even though I entered London in the application 🤷🏻‍♀️

As someone who doesn't live in England, I'm interested - don't people want to be seen as living in London?

Greater London but your postal address will be Kent. Same for Sidcup, Bexleyheath, etc. I don't live that far from there and did, when first married, live in a tiny house in Blackfen, Sidcup. I hated it :-). However when you buy your first house you have to take what you can afford. Was glad to move eventually, a few miles makes a lot of difference.

Lifecraft is correct, you are strictly speaking in the County of Greater London but nobody ever puts that on a letterhead. You'd just put Welling, Kent DAwhatever.

If you have children, Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School is very good.

Welling at one time was notorious for the National Front, BNP, etc. I don't know what it's like now.

Good luck to you.

fligglepige Fri 17-Jan-20 11:13:46
As someone who doesn't live in England, I'm interested - don't people want to be seen as living in London?
..
Oh a lot do figglepige. When I was living in Blackfen, Sidcup, I really hated having a Kent postcode, always felt myself to be a Londoner which I am. Then we moved to Royal Borough of Greenwich and have a London postcode but we're right on the border of Bromley.

There are Bromley people who think of themselves as Kentish and Bromley is London Borough. Things like that really shouldn't matter but it does to pedants.

Greater London but your postal address will be Kent.

No it's not. Anyone who puts Kent in her postal address is wrong.

you are strictly speaking in the County of Greater London

You've invented a new county now.

Greater London is not a county. It's the area covered by the 32 London boroughs.

When I was living in Blackfen, Sidcup, I really hated having a Kent postcode

Just as well you didn't have one then. Because there's no such thing. You had a postcode, just like everyone else. The first 2 letters of your postcode covered some areas in London, and some areas in Kent. You were in London.

Fascinating thread. I agree that these arguments are not exclusive to the south east/London. I grew up in a village which had a Bradford postcode but Leeds telephone number. The rates (this was pre council tax days) went to Leeds.

My mother was adamant we lived in Leeds not Bradford, and could get quite fierce about it

At least everyone was very firm about us being in West Yorkshire.

"Greater London is not a county. It's the area covered by the 32 London boroughs."

Once upon a time there was a "County of London", and bits of the counties were cut off and moved into it in the late 1800s when it was created.

So for some areas east of Greenwich someone would be more up to date to say "I'm in the County of London" than "I'm in the County of Kent". They've not been in Kent since the 19th century, where as at least they were in the County of London until the 1960s.

But they'd still be wrong.

Once upon a time

The trouble is, for some people, once upon a time I lived in Kent or Middlesex means they are still convinced they live in Kent of Middlesex. They just can't deal with change.

They probably go into the travel agent and ask what brochures they've got for East Prussia.

Beckenham is definitely Kent. It's far too posh to be a south east London borough grin

It’s really not, not down the Elmers End end.

I’m 5 minutes from welling and class it as London

Thank you Lifecraft. My postcode was DA15 something then. My husband used to say, "Son't be daft, It's London", but it didn't seem like that to me. London time ago, I was young and daft I suppose. Don't care about such things now.

Oh, Greater London is a county; I used to have a job involving completely legal documents and always had to put the county which is where I learned about it.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_London

BestOfTimesBlurstOfTimes Fri 17-Jan-20 19:05:31
Beckenham is definitely Kent. It's far too posh to be a south east London borough grin

It’s really not, not down the Elmers End end.
...........
Yes and the Penge end. Bits of Beckenham are nice though, same with anywhere. You travel two or three streets away and find yourself in a different world. Can't say I've ever thought of Beckenham as 'posh' but it's all relative.

Middlesex hasn't existed since the 1960's....
Shit, I went to Middlesex university in the 90s.
Is this why my degree isn’t worth the paper it’s written on?

Middlesex hasn't existed since the 1960's....

Shit, I went to Middlesex university in the 90s. Is this why my degree isn’t worth the paper it’s written on?

Breaking news. It's possible for an institution to be named after a place that used to exist, but no longer does.

Also, shock horror, Siamese cats still exist, even though Siam is now Thailand.

Calm down Lifecraft