To think if you live in a London Borough you live in London

[MariahLynn]

Saw this on twitter and thought about it twitter.com/yougov/status/1319226163278057472?s=21

Why does this create such controversy?

Surely If you live in a London Borough you are part of London.

I can’t see how anyone can live somewhere which has red buses, can vote for London mayor, pays council tax to a London Borough and maintain they live in Essex or Kent or Surrey.

Is it about pretending to be posher?

There are overlaps where it's a London borough but you're in the county of say Kent. Eg Bromley. You don't have a London postcode, so you don't live in London.

Pinner and Harrow are in Middlesex.
If a resident of these places tried to tell me they lived in London, I would laugh at them.

I can't conceive of either of them being anywhere other than part of London. They're suburbs. Well within the M25 and with all the other voting for the London Mayor etc.

twilightcafe are you from the past? It's been a London borough since 1965, and I live here now

There is no overlap. Bromley is not in Kent and hasn't been for 55 years. It's in the London borough of Bromley!

That’s not true Frestba. You can’t be in the county of Herts/Surrey/Kent (which are administered via borough councils mostly) and also in a London borough, which is its own unit of administration.

These thread always go the same way. Why is it so hard to understand that facts might be different from feelings?

Also compare Eltham SE9 to Beckenham BR3

Beckenham is actually closer to London (Charing cross) as the crow flies than Eltham but has the Bromley postcode. Both have a suburban character.

Saying Eltham is London and Beckenham isn’t doesn’t make much sense.

LONDON Borough of Bromley.

At school in the 1980s, despite our loo paper being printed all over with the then GLC (Greater London Council) we were always told when writing formal letters that our address was to be written as:

No 23 Street name
Upminster
Essex
RM14 XXX

So even though we'd been London boroughs for 20 years and the Essex part was obsolete, clearly no one told our teachers

Disclaimer: I didn't live in Upminster, we didn't have that kind of money!

I grew up in one outer London borough, Harrow, and when I was a child in the 70s we still put Middlesex on our address, but my parents don't anymore. And my uncle who lived in Richmond then put Surrey on his. But no one here does that anymore. We are definitely in London and have Tier 2 restrictions to prove it.

@flaviaritt. but no one claims watford is in London ( except harry potter world)

@throwaway100000

In my experience born and bred Londoners understand why, gentrifiers/outsiders don’t

Exactly. If you are born and bred in London you know what parts are London. Doesn't matter if someone from Brentford, Croydon, Stanmore etc insists they are Londoners. They aren't Londoners. I would not put Northolt, London when writing an address as it isn't in London.

Also when people say they are from London and they live say in Epping. They sound silly. Why not just say you are from Essex?

As someone who lives in Streatham, I'd definitely count Croydon as London but in my mind there's literally no part of me that thinks Reading is in London!

I grew up in Harrow in the 80s and 90s and everyone would say it was in Middx even if it didn't technically exist anymore. Was surprised when I started seeing London Borough of
Harrow on council vans etc.

I live in a London borough, just barely though, I pay my council tax to a London borough but my postcode is a kent postcode. It is a bit odd.

Half of my road is London and half is Kent. So we are now shoved up a tier in restrictions but if I lived 30 or so houses further along, I would still be on the minimal lockdown.

Strange times.

Romford is Essex

As someone from Havering, I’d say people from there tend to identify quite strongly as being from “Essex”. In my experience, it’s definitely not about sounding “posher” or “better”. Our address was “Essex”, our accents are “Essex” and the people who are most adamant that they are from Essex are, if anything, a bit “prolier than thou”.

I now live in a place with a “Middlesex” address and find that around here people are much more likely to view themselves as Londoners. I wonder if that’s because Middlesex no longer exists in any meaningful way? Or maybe there just isn’t a Middlesex identity in the way there is an Essex identity.

My parents were from London 'proper'. When I was a child and we moved to Havering they considered it the countryside, and very definitely not London in any respect!

At the moment I live in Greenwhich Borough with an SE postcode. However what’s interesting is so many places mentioned up thread are further into London than me.

I’m in plumstead which is 11 miles from Charing Cross.

Croydon, Barking, Sutton, Bromley are all closer to London by distance than where I am. But yet I have the SE postcode

@AriettyHomily

I'm zone 4, London borough of Bromley. Definitely not 'London'. Those that live in London would laugh if I said I live in London

Me too. My post code is BR2. Not a London postcode. Not in London. If I claimed to live in London people would ask if I'd moved 🤣

But you do live in London if you live in Harrow or Richmond. You are a Londoner. I've always lived in London, even though my parents are just on the other side of the Hertfordshire border and Watford was where we went shopping when I was a child. You use London transport and vote in London elections and live under London COVID restrictions. When you have a night out you probably go into central London and many people work in central London. It doesn't matter that historically London was much smaller - now it is much bigger and all those areas are London.

@PeonyTruffle

I live in a London borough, just barely though, I pay my council tax to a London borough but my postcode is a kent postcode. It is a bit odd.

Half of my road is London and half is Kent. So we are now shoved up a tier in restrictions but if I lived 30 or so houses further along, I would still be on the minimal lockdown.

Strange times.

@PeonyTruffle are you the New Eltham end of sidcup by any chance?

I would normally say I live in Surrey, or I might say London/Surrey border. If pressed I might say “it’s a London borough, but only technically”.

I do actually know the facts of where places are though. It’s no good saying Romford
Is in ESSEX and using capitals. Doesn’t make it true.

@mrsmummy1111

Nope, close though :) I am Bexley (which on paper would be why we are 'london') and the other end of my road is Dartford which is officially Kent.

All a bit silly really

[quote timehealsmost]@flaviaritt. but no one claims watford is in London ( except harry potter world)[/quote]
And The Grove.

As someone born and bred in London, I understand the system perfectly correctly and Brentford, Croydon, Stanmore and Northolt are legally defined as being part of London boroughs. Epping though is in Essex.