What about numbers, and the London area code?

[mm22bys]

It really annoys me when I see a London phone number written as 0207 123 1234 or 0208 123 1234.

As pedants, you would already know this, and I may be preaching to the converted, but isn't the London area code 020, so the number would be 020 7(or 8)123 1234.

When I see a number written "wrongly", I want to change it!

Does this get anybody else's goat up?

Yes yes yes!

It drives me mad, but it seems to have become common usage now.

YES! It drives me completely NUTS. It also annoys me when I give my number over the phone as 020 7xxx xxxx and the person at the other end reads it back to me as 0207 xxx xxxx. I also find it annoying when people insist that you have to dial the whole number, when you don't have to dial the 020 if you're phoning from an 020 number.

I blame BT, when the first changed the numbers (from 0171 or 0181) businesses wanted to know how they should print it on their stationery and BT couldn't give an answer so people just guessed.

It really annoys the f*ck out of me too!!

I find the opposite annoying! 020 7 666 555 arghhhhh! Unnecessary spaces. I don't care of it's correct. It's beyond pedantic (and I am a monumental pedant!)

Drives me nuts as well!
I blame the fact that within a few years went from 01 to 0181 to 020 and the 8 in front of your previous number.
DH's company still have 01 on their signage!

do you say the 0 as zero or as an 0 though ?

Oh yes. I get number pedantry too. It also irritates me when people say mobile numbers "wrong".

They should be written as five digits and then six digits.
Certainly the code should be said as one burst and then however you say the next six numbers is up to you depending on how you remember your number.
e.g 07847 888870
either double eight double eight seven oh
or triple eight, eight seven oh

(This isn't my no by the way, have got it off t'interweb)

Oh, I hate this. When talking to a fellow Londoner, with no need for any 020ing, I leave my number as 7xxx xxxx. Then people ask "is that 0207 or 0208?". Grr.

I've stopped bothering to do that Barry, any time I've ever done it I've always had to give the number again starting with 020 while being patronised by some silly twit on the other end of the phone.

Agree on the phone numbers but shouldn't mobiles be the same as landlines ie 079 1234 4567 ?

Also whilst on the subject of numbers, how about years ? I hate people saying two thousand and seven etc. Shouldn't it be twenty-o-seven ?

Glad I'm not the only one!

Hi Bran ....

no the numbers should be 0207 xxx xxxx,
like the old days..
i often wondered if bt had shares in stationary companies..from 01 to 071 to 0207....

i say '0' for number, sometimes zero it depends!

Hi mm22bys. Have you had the cough and temperature virus yet? Lanterns was virtually empty on Monday. ds went down with it on Tuesday and only went back today.

Lets jump on HairyIrene and beat her up until she admits she's just saying that to wind us up.

DS2 has had it. He's been coughing for weeks, and has had a temperature on / off since last Thursday night. I've taken him now to see four different GPs, the last one told me it was a virus, but I didn't believe them till a worker in a playgroup I went to on Wednesday told me that there are two viruses doing the rounds, a vomitty one (sorry if spelt wrong!) and this coughing one.

DS1 was off sick most of last week too with an ear infection.

The coughing is really taking it out of DS2 - he is just sleeping nearly all the time...

Hope your DS fully recovers very soon...

"them" should be "her"!

This annoys me too. The code is 020, not 0207 or 0208.

Don't know about London numbers as I don't live there ... but ...
I agree with Olivia about mobile numbers. It should be 07979 123456. Dh's follows the pattern 07971 212345 and he always says 0797 1212 345 and it really bugs me!

I live in Leicestershire and what confuses me about the codes here is that I don't know of any 0116 number that doesn't have a 2 as the next number. So why isn't the code 01162? I know it's petty but it bugs me!

heh

I find it irritating when someone breaks the number into pairs, groups of 3 or 4 or 5 numbers are easier to remember than 01 20 71 23 45 67 etc

That's the French way of doing it. I find it quite stylish.

Hi the numbers for London changed to denote inner and outer London and used to be 0181 for greater London and then 0171 for inner London. As the numbers of telephone numbers expanded 0171 became 0207 and 0181 became 0208 this is why it is sometimes written by us oldies that have been here since the 70s. I am sure it was single digits in before that. So the 7 and 8 did denote a difference

Wow, this is a very old revival of an ancient thread!

But I agree with OP, it is annoying. And it doesn't matter what the format was previously; it's about what part of the number is the area code. If you are already within an 020 area you can just dial 7XXX XXXX, 8XXX XXXX or even 3XXX XXXX. The number should then always be written with the 8 digits separate from the first three. When it was 0171 then 0171 was the correct place to break it as that was the area code.