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?

I think you'll find Croydon is London. South (East) London in fact. South Norwood (SE25) is part of Croydon. Croydon is a London Borough. A large borough at that, but still one within London.
As is Thornton Heath, Mitcham, Norbury, Addington etc.

@Hobbes8

I grew up in a non-Londony bit of London, about half a mile from the border of Herfordshire. There’s a tube station, it’s in a London Borough, but it also has a Harrow post code, a Watford telephone number, and a Middlesex postal address. So I can see why people find it confusing.

More importantly though, who are the 7% of Londoners who think Reading is London? That’s the real mystery.

Hello from Bushey!

Reading?!?!?!

If there's a tube station, red buses and you pay your council tax to London councils. Then you're in London.

Not many tube stations in South London though, even the proper bits!

@MiddleClassMother

If there's a tube station, red buses and you pay your council tax to London councils. Then you're in London.

Most of south London doesn't have tube stations! And as discussed on this thread there are places with tube stations (e.g Watford and Epping) which are not in London. There are red buses in parts of Kent and Surrey (and probably other places beyond the London borders). It's only the last criterion (paying council tax to a London borough council) which determines whether the place is actually in London or not.

Surely Borough defines whether you are in London or not, purely by virtue of the fact that if you’re in a London borough, the London Mayor has jurisdiction over your area, ergo you are in London?

MiddleClassMother

But if you're using tube stations as the definition what about Amersham and Chesham? They are in Buckinghamshire, 20+ miles outside of London.

I grew up in London. I travelled anywhere in London on red buses, run by London Transport, for 10p. I knew that it was the Greater London Council that had made this possible. My school's name board clearly read, "London Borough of Sutton" above the school's name.
In the early 80s we knew we lived in London.
My parents, brought up in the same village, still saw (and see) it in its pre-1974 guise as Surrey. They had fought to keep the postal designation of "Surrey" (so stupidly long addresses) and cling to that.

And as BlackLambAndGreyFalcoln points out most of South London doesn't have the tube.

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

There are places outside of London with a ‘London’ postcode. In some parts, the ‘London’ postcodes end in zone 3.

And anyway. I’m pretty sure they’re a 70’s invention for the purpose of sorting mail.

No

My flat is in a London borough it’s in Surrey and has a Surrey postcode

Wish it was in London flat would be worth more

Many places in suburbia just feel different to London

@DadDadDad

Why can't London have fields and woods?

Because it's a city. By definition, urban.

Officially I live in the LONDON borough of Bromley. However, I also live in the middle of the green belt and a short walk from fields of sheep and cows, and aspire to live in Kent

@TeachesOfPeaches

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 grew up in Harrow, London in the 70s. So not "everyone".

Even people I went to sixth form (Brookshill) from Hatch End and Kenton all would have said they were Londoners.

The only people I can imagine might not say that are the people that lived on the private road up from South Harrow tube

Watford, Chesham, Amersham - definitely not London, it it helps.

Oh, and Ceres Road, Plumstead SE18 - Definitely London.

What about Highgate Wood and Hampstead Heath?

If your council tax bill says London borough of... as mine in zone 5 does than you are in London.

Yanbu. If you look up Greater London on google maps it shows the border. Same for Essex, Surrey etc. If your bins are collected by a London borough you are in London. If by a Surrey borough (Tandridge etc) you are in Surrey

@finnmcool

What about Highgate Wood and Hampstead Heath?

All London - even if driving over them can feel like the back of beyond. And Harrow Hill like a quaint seaside town ...

DGRossetti, sorry that was to ohalrightthen saying about no fields and woods in London

Agree. London Borough = London. IME those in Greater London pretending they’re not tend to be a bit older, as London sounds common whereas the counties around it sound a bit posher. For younger people it’s the other way round.

Most of south London doesn't have tube stations!

I find SW fine but not SE

Not as straightforward as that OP. The outer London boroughs only became London boroughs for admin purposes. Where I live it’s referred to as both London and Surrey. Some prefer the London and some Surrey because they’ve lived here since before it became a London borough.

I never get why people outside London give a shit though. Not as though it affects them.

And neither is “posher” than the other.

@Ohalrightthen urban areas have woods.

Off the top of my head, woods and trees are found in these areas of Actual London:

Hampstead Heath
Queens Wood
Epping Forest
Richmond Park
Hyde Park
Highgate Woods
Stanmore Common
Hadley Wood
Letts Wood
Wick Woods

I’m sure others will think of others.

Romford was defo Essex when I was of clubbing age!