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Pedants' corner

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Original poster

London phone numbers

156 replies

SoupDragon · 01/12/2007 23:13

I've just been processing ticket applications for a PTA event and am sooo annoyed with the number of people who say their phone number is 0208 654 blah blah blah. No it's not. It's 020 8654....

Petty and pedantic, yes, but it's simply incorrect to put it as 0208.

Bah!

OP posts:
Original poster
SoupDragon · 01/12/2007 23:49
OP posts:
ScottishMummy · 01/12/2007 23:53

sweep away soupy you it's ineffectual im still here whilst you are making assumptions about where i reside and snorting about prefixes

WendyWeber · 01/12/2007 23:54

Uxbridge (eg) is still in Middx, as far as the PO is concerned (rather that than hideous Hillingdon any day, of course) - so are places like Ruislip & Northwood afaik - alhtough the postcode itself should be enough, some people don't know the postcode they want (cf 01 phone numbers ) so putting a non-existant county instead actually helps...

Original poster
SoupDragon · 02/12/2007 00:00

Right, I'm off to bed to seethe about phone numbers and assorted other petty and pointless things

OP posts:
FluffyMummy123 · 02/12/2007 00:02

Message withdrawn

ScottishMummy · 02/12/2007 00:03

you are losing it still ineffectual still here maybe all the soup put ye off yer stroke

WendyWeber · 02/12/2007 00:03

exactly cod - those of us who live in the World Outside London (such as it is ) are realistic about dialling codes.

ScottishMummy · 02/12/2007 00:06

it does not really matter at all. here is a tip Call to make - do it. phone ringing - answer it. anything else to do with prefixes sad

LadyMuck · 02/12/2007 00:09

Never mind that - Soupy the Royal Mail website is down, and now I don't know my address?!?

hatwoman · 02/12/2007 00:15

I am so with soup dragon on this! the definition of a code is the bit you need to dial if you are outside the area. in the old days there was an inner london code and an outer london code. If you lived in outer london and wanted to call inner london you had to dial the code. now there is one code - for all of London and it's 020. it's nonsense to say that as far as non-londoners are concerned its 0208 or 0207. nonsense

hatwoman · 02/12/2007 00:17

but I'm with ww on the mobile phones. 5 digit code plus 6 digit numnber - don;t know if that's techniclaly right but it sound right. [i feel my last post should have had a on it. btw]

Tinker · 02/12/2007 00:17

hatwoman - us non-Londoners don't care really

WendyWeber · 02/12/2007 00:18

No it isn't

(Is this a 5-minute argument or the full half hour?)

NoviceKnitter · 02/12/2007 00:30

Hello Pedants. I should be spending more time in pedant's corner, clearly. I'm with you all the way on the 020 7/8 thing. With mobiles too except I think the proper way is:
07XXX XXX XXX.

Anyone come across the new and very weird 020 3XXX etc. Very disconcerting. I think there's also an 020 1XXX. (Is "an 020" grammatically correct?)

Original poster
SoupDragon · 02/12/2007 10:49

You're the sad one, ScottishMummy.

OP posts:
hatwoman · 02/12/2007 16:39

NK - 020 1??? what manner of number is this? has it been passed through parliament? has it got planning permission?

I did go past a shop the other day (in outer London) that had 01 as its code. I wonder how long since that sign's been changed - iirc it's ben through 081, 0181 and 020.

I was thinking about this last night (as you do) I am convinced that there are thousands of Londonders (a good portion of those who say 0208 or 0207) who dial the code when calling from inner to outer or vice versa. if they think the code is 0207 (or 0208) then they must think they have to dial it from outer/inner london. strange

prettybird · 02/12/2007 22:11

I work in the telecoms indstry - that's why I know about the number ranges that are allocated

On the pdeantry of place locations, I'm with Ladymuck. Certain dataveses still insist on puttng Glasgow in Lanarkshire, which it is not. Indeed, it can casue probelms, as delivery companies will send things to their Lanarkshire depot, which then doesn't have a clue where certain locations in east Dunbartonshire or Renfewshire or Stirlingshire - all of which have Glasgow postal addresses - are.

In fact the City of Glasgow itself (as opposed to its suburbs) is effectively its own county.

WendyWeber · 02/12/2007 23:15

Manchester is often still put into Lancashire!

hatwoman · 02/12/2007 23:15

LadyMuck - I get that too. people who insist I don;t live in London because I live in Kingston. well sorry but it's a london borough, (one of only 2 royal boroughs) it's zone 6, it has 020 numbers and yes, Surrey County hall might be 50 yards from my house but Surrey county council admits to being one of those councils whose county hall is not actually in the county. [do people in Croydon want to be in Surrey? ] I like to dissociate myself as much as I can...

Kewcumber · 02/12/2007 23:21

it is sooooo 020 Wendyweber I'm disappointed in you.

I live in Surey AND a london borough. In fact part of the borough I live in is in London, part in Surrey and part in Middlesex. Counties and London boroughs are not mutually exclusive.

Kewcumber · 02/12/2007 23:22

(though I do agree that Croydon shouldn't be allowed to describe itself as Surrey - just not right)

SquonkaClaus · 02/12/2007 23:24

"in the old days there was an inner london code and an outer london code."

It takes me all my time to remember that it's no longer 01

LyraSilvertongue · 02/12/2007 23:28

Hatwoman, I'm in Kingston too. Maybe I know you...

hatwoman · 02/12/2007 23:30

I hardly know anyone in Kingston...I'm not very sociable

WendyWeber · 02/12/2007 23:32

Sorry, miss

Are you disappointed in tinker too?

(Middlesex really doesn't in any form except addresses though - it was dissolved in 1965 and went all over the place, into 9 London Boroughs and also Berks, Herts and Surrey)

I went to school in actual Middlesex