Addresses in London ( a short rant) [Archive]

Wyn

23-08-2005, 21:09

What's your objection? Is London one place or a series of "villages"?
It's a shame. Place names are really interesting and give an idea of where that person lives (or where they think they live anyway which is just as fascinating in its own way)....
Where I live, my postcode defines me as dwelling in Camberwell (Southwark) despite the fact that I pay my Council Tax to Lambeth and my local shops are in Brixton, yet my affluent neighbours define themselves as Kennington residents when marketing their homes.

JTG

23-08-2005, 21:17

I could easily put my address down as just Bristol but I like putting St Pauls down, it's where I live and gives other people an idea of where it is I live too. BS2 covers St Pauls, Montpellier, Kingsdown and others, just saying 'BS2' gives no clue at all as to where it is I live.

Then again, with people's mobility these days it's hardly surprising there's less interest shown in which particular locality they live in. Postcodes are an invented device to allow the mail to be delivered easily, localities have names, history and character :)

Isambard

23-08-2005, 21:40

Because for POST it is largely irrelevent. UK addresses are 2 1/2 to 3 times + as long as the rest of Europe DESPITE the UK's better postocde system. :rolleyes: If you're getting in a taxi, maybe you need it.

Chz

24-08-2005, 14:30

Depends where you are, I guess.

When I lived in Deptford, I labelled my post "Deptford SE8 xxx". Because Deptford has been a town/village for hundreds of years. When I lived in Archway, I just put "London". Same now that I live in Balham (though my postcode would say "Upper Tooting"). Why? Because they both originated as London suburbs. As settlements, they've always been London.

Not that there's anything official about that, it's just the way I do it. So far as Royal Mail is concerned, you could put "Timbuktu" on it so long as the post code and street address are correct - that's all they pay attention to.

Juice Terry

24-08-2005, 14:41

Crispy

24-08-2005, 14:52

Thats one of my pet hates actually, people or more usually businesses that have addresses so long they hardly fit on an envelope.

A Twat
Wankers Ltd
Tosspot House
Cumstain Hill Business Park
Upper Yawn Road
Minge
Idiotshire
DU23 7XW

This gets even worse when writing to government departments.

Mrs. Miggins
Under-seceratary for pie crusts
Pastry-based snack foods division
Department of Trade and Industry

etc

nogoodboyo

24-08-2005, 14:56

I like the fact that my address is only two lines (if you put the code straight after "London").

Possibly it's an ex-courier thing of navigating by postcodes anyway. You'd never have a package for, say, Bank - it would be an EC4.

isvicthere?

24-08-2005, 14:56

Because it's redundant. WOuldn't posties spend more time/effort ignoring the extraneous line leading to more errors?

01247 48398429 - just misread one digit and you've got no chance!

And as for the lottery, misread one digit and it could cost you £15 million. :)

Donna Ferentes

24-08-2005, 14:59

MysteryGuest

24-08-2005, 15:18

ABSO-FUCKINGLUTELY to Juice Terry and Crispy! Those fucking public sector addresses are infuriating! :mad: Worst offenders seem to be local councils ime.

Meanwhile, the problem is, "London villages" don't always match the postcode, especially near the boundaries of those villages. So you might get somewhere that the addresser reckons is in Camden but actually has an NW3 postcode on the map.

I really like compact, neat addresses - I always leave out the "village".

<fond memories>Best address I ever wrote was to a bloke in Norway who had his own PO Box. It was just his name/[town name]/N-xxxx/Norsk, where xxxx was a 4 digit number, presumably referring to the PO box. Marvellous stuff. :cool:

When I published my own fanzine I hired a British Monomarks box. They're cool too, as they all take the form BM [your own personalised name!]/London/WC1N 3XX. For me it worked out cheaper than getting a PO box with mail forwarding too. They're based in 27 Old Gloucester Street, WC1N 3XX and you could pick up mail or have it sent on at (as was then) 2p a shot.

Yours sincerely

MysteryGuest
Head Groovemaster
International Sexosonic Corporation
Western Civilisation Division
Pimp Penthouse
Central Tower
98th Floor
West Wing
MysteryMansions
23 Lovely Street
Rainbow Village
Gorgeoustown
London
E23 1EE

William of Walworth

24-08-2005, 21:21

When I register new members' addresses on the library computer, or when I send letters within London, I nearly always add the place. Gives me a sense that it's not just one big faceless city with a load of numbers attached.

SPOT ON!!!

I do this all the time with our readers' details as well. I used to be a Postman years ago (temp contract only though, Xmas plus a couple of extra months), and thus know nearly all the London postcodes and their districts by heart.

Whenever I write a London address myself I never write 'London'

Just 'Walworth SE17' etc. etc. ....

JWH

24-08-2005, 21:34

I bet you extraneous information people really fuck up the fields when that data actually gets used!

Nemo

28-08-2005, 22:39

I bet you extraneous information people really fuck up the fields when that data actually gets used!

Can do, although in my (limited) experience, getting the postcode wrong or omitting it entirely are far more likely to fuck it up.

JTG

29-08-2005, 08:10

Well I'm glad Donna and Will know what I'm on about. It's about a sense of place, an attachment to where you live and a desire to give that place a bit more humanity than a mere postcode will ever have.

JWH

29-08-2005, 08:24

as opposed to getting a letter to its destination!

JTG

29-08-2005, 08:52

as opposed to getting a letter to its destination!

But we have already established that the presence or otherwise of the district matters not as long as the postcode is there.

So I am now arguing that it is better to put the district on because I'm a romantic old sod.

drag0n

29-08-2005, 13:11

What's your objection? Is London one place or a series of "villages"?

Where I live, my postcode defines me as dwelling in Camberwell (Southwark) despite the fact that I pay my Council Tax to Lambeth and my local shops are in Brixton, yet my affluent neighbours define themselves as Kennington residents when marketing their homes.

Sounds much like where my parents are tho they're abit further from Kennington.

I put the postcode and leave the name for that reason. The boundaries arent clear and the postcode will get it delivered.

zenie

29-08-2005, 13:52

Sopunds like where I lived

SE17 (So Walworth) behind Kennington Park AND Camberwell New Road with SE5, SE11 and SW8 being spitting diff.

Always just said 'I live in Oval' and people would get the idea. :rolleyes:

William of Walworth

30-08-2005, 22:05

Where I live, my postcode defines me as dwelling in Camberwell (Southwark) despite the fact that I pay my Council Tax to Lambeth and my local shops are in Brixton, yet my affluent neighbours define themselves as Kennington residents when marketing their homes.

They lie through their teeth!! :rolleyes: ;)

spanglechick

30-08-2005, 22:36

mmm - I think it depends - unlike Chz, When I used to live in that bit of Balham that has a Tooting postcode, I always wrote Balham on my address, because Balham is nice and has lovely bars and restaurants and delis, and Tooting is a bit grotty. Now, however, I live in the infinately scummier Selhurst, and so i've gone for dropping the "village" part of the address altogether. Not something I like to advertise, you know...?

Donna Ferentes

30-08-2005, 22:37

Presumably the "village" bit would be an invention of the estate agent in the first place?

Phototropic

30-08-2005, 23:40

I often wonder just how many people in my area try and pass their addresses off as Dulwich. The postie must spot quite a few liars.

beeboo

01-09-2005, 14:55

But we have already established that the presence or otherwise of the district matters not as long as the postcode is there.

nah, don't agree. Just got a load of important mail through the post which had taken ages to get to us because the postcode was wrong. I don't know how they got it wrong (its financial stuff and they've never had the wrong postcode for us before).

Luckily we had the area on the address so the posties had redirected it (as our road name is not unique in London).

At least with a wrong the telephone number the person who is calling knows they haven't got through to you - with mail no-one knows when something has gone missing.

JTG

01-09-2005, 15:57

nah, don't agree. Just got a load of important mail through the post which had taken ages to get to us because the postcode was wrong. I don't know how they got it wrong (its financial stuff and they've never had the wrong postcode for us before).

So if the postcode was wrong, that doesn't invalidate my point that for postal purposes as long as the correct postcode is there, the area doesn't matter.

Poi E

01-09-2005, 15:59

I often wonder just how many people in my area try and pass their addresses off as Dulwich. The postie must spot quite a few liars.

I know someone who does exactly that. Ah, in a few years it will all be greater Peckham anyway :cool:

This area thing is funny. People still religiously write "Middlesex" on letters. The county vanished decades ago.

sunflower

01-09-2005, 16:06

I often wonder just how many people in my area try and pass their addresses off as Dulwich. The postie must spot quite a few liars.

Ha ha this reminds me of my cousin who has just bought a flat in 'Blackheath' but according to my auntie its actually in Lewisham. I think this kinda post code/area blagging goes on a lot in London. :D

lang rabbie

01-09-2005, 16:20

This area thing is funny. People still religiously write "Middlesex" on letters. The county vanished decades ago.

No, it was a "postal county" until as recently as 1996.

People who don't live in the actual towns of Enfield, Harrow or Uxbridge have been resistant to using EN, HA or UB postcodes respectively - in exactly the same way other that bits of Greater London outside the London postal districts have clung on to Essex, Kent, Hertfordshire and Surrey in their addresses.

JTG

01-09-2005, 16:36

I can't see a gaping hole around north and west London so it would seem that Middlesex has reappeared even if it did 'vanish decades ago'.

Counties exist forever, governments can't abolish them.

JWH

01-09-2005, 17:41

what are you talking about? a county is just a governmental administrative subdivision.

JTG

01-09-2005, 18:00

No it isn't. Not for people who relate to them they're not. England doesn't exist as a governmental administrative area, does that mean it doesn't exist?

No romance some people.

JTG

01-09-2005, 18:09

For somewhere that doesn't exist, Middlesex seems to be doing awfully well in terms of having hospitals, a university and a county cricket club named after it. Amongst other things.

JWH

01-09-2005, 18:23

I dunno, there's plenty of schools called Christ the Saviour, so that doesn't prove anything...

Donna Ferentes

01-09-2005, 20:13

For somewhere that doesn't exist, Middlesex seems to be doing awfully well in terms of having hospitals, a university and a county cricket club named after it. Amongst other things.Not that the county cricket club are doing awfully well. Might even lose to Gloucestershire tomorrow. Relegation looms.

Mrs Magpie

01-09-2005, 20:54

for postal purposes as long as the correct postcode is there, the area doesn't matter.Well, you'd think so, wouldn't you...when I lived on the Loughborough Estate in Brixton, my post (with correct SW9 postcode) would often arrive after a little sojourn to Leicestershire.....

Isambard

01-09-2005, 23:12

For somewhere that doesn't exist, Middlesex seems to be doing awfully well

You be careful on Middlesex young man or as a "born and bred" Middlesexian (whatever) I'll have to spank you! :p

All this "Back to Middlesex" bollocks is a Tory ploy to flee the "Loony Left" of Ken Livingstone.
I'd rather have Ken than Cuttler, Porter, Archer, Norris.

Bus 207, the best in the West! :cool:

Poi E

02-09-2005, 10:08

No, it was a "postal county" until as recently as 1996.

People who don't live in the actual towns of Enfield, Harrow or Uxbridge have been resistant to using EN, HA or UB postcodes respectively - in exactly the same way other that bits of Greater London outside the London postal districts have clung on to Essex, Kent, Hertfordshire and Surrey in their addresses.

Ok almost a decade ago. Good example of English regionalism, all that harking back to days of yore, the idealised countryside etc.

JTG

02-09-2005, 18:12

Ok almost a decade ago. Good example of English regionalism, all that harking back to days of yore, the idealised countryside etc.

Or indeed giving the areas they live in their correct name.

Poi E

05-09-2005, 09:12

Or indeed giving the areas they live in their correct name.

And that would be the boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Enfield, Haringey, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, and Richmond upon Thames.

JTG

05-09-2005, 18:43

And that would be the boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Enfield, Haringey, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, and Richmond upon Thames.

Yes. All wholly or partly in Middlesex :)

William of Walworth

05-09-2005, 18:47

Bus 207, the best in the West! :cool:

The last Conductor** in the West :( :(

**You'd have to go back a few years to remember when the 207 stopped being a Routemaster .....in fact I don't exactly remember when that was myself .... :confused: