Originally Posted by DanRodson

Bo-Jangles I WORK for The Royal Mail HO, I dont tell you how to do your job so don’t tell me how to do mine! I will explain to you how these areas do indeed officially fall under “London”, so let me break it down for you. I have actually met and asked both Moya Greene and Donald Brydon about this, because it is something I had always wondered. And both of them said pretty much the exact same thing. They said that Postcodes and Postowns are just a code used by the Royal Mail in order to allow post etc. to travel from A to B. When invented they tried to be roughly geographically accurate in applying them, although not in all cases, for example Aberystwyth has a SK Shrewsbury, Shropshire Postcode, Shrewsbury is an English county, whereas, the Welsh county according to Law is Powys (just like London Borough of Bromley / Bexley being a kind of county). But if Aberystwyth has a Shrewsbury, Shropshire Postcode, does that make it in Shrophire, England?

Back in the early 19th century when London was pretty much just the City they actually expanded the "London" Postcodes out a lot further and there was also NE and S for Northeast and South London respectively, this stretched out pretty much all the way to Orpington, which meant that Bromley, Chislehurst, Bexleyheath etc. all had SE Postcodes back then, but they were still Kent. This was a time when Lewisham, for example, was still Kent and Peckham still Surrey. Sometime later they decided to retract them again, and abolish NE and S (which are now Newcastle and Sheffield), I am not sure of the reason, to what they are today. Then in the late 19th Century, the County of London was created, which took in Lewisham, Peckham etc. and that was when they officially became London. However, there were still places with “Directional Postcodes” that were outside of this County of London. For example, Ealing had a W Postcode but was still Middlesex and Walthamstow had an E Postcode but was still Essex. In 1965 Greater London was created which took in the remaining “London Postcode” area, (except for Sewardstone). This was when Ealing and Walthamstow, Bromley, Chislehurst, Bexleyheath and even Biggin Hill officially became a part of London. The Government wanted us to change the Postcodes and Postowns of all these areas then, but we refused, not on the grounds of we didn’t think that it was valid or justified (in fact we supported this act), but more because of the inconvenience that it would cause on the people of such a large area and of the enormous cost to all the local businesses in these areas, they would have had of changed all their business cards, advertising signage etc. and we didn’t have the money to pay for it for them, so they remained unchanged.

Having said that we removed all county references in the mid-nineties, so according to us, it is just designated Bromley, England. Another, way of making that point is that The London Borough of Bromley is in hierarchical terms a county. At the the top level you have the United Kingdom, then one down from that you have England, one down from that you have the 9 Regions: The North West, The North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, The West Midlands, The East Midlands, The East of England, The South West, The South East and London or Greater London (they are the same thing at regional level). Then one down from that in the South East Region you have 9 counties: Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East and West Sussex, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Kent, Surrey and The Isle of Wight. On the same level (i.e. one down from the London Region), you have the 32 London Boroughs and the City of London i.e. The London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, or The London Borough of Croydon. Therefore saying The London Borough of Bromley in Kent, like you see sometimes, is as stupid as saying Essex in Kent; i.e. they are hierarchically on the same level (they are one piece of the jigsaw that makes up their respective Regions, in Kent’s case The South East; in Essex’s The East of England; and in The London Borough of Bromley’s, London). So, therefore, they share a border, and one cannot be “inside” the other because it just doesn’t make sense in the way our country is broken up. Pistolpete2 I have told KCC about this. I have also asked them if Bexley and Bromley are on there, then why not Greenwich and Lewisham?

But getting back to The Royal Mail bosses, basically they said that unless you work for the Royal Mail, you have no business using Postcodes and Postowns unless sending something in the post etc. as they are NOT geographically accurate to modern day Britain (not just London) and that is specified on our website. So, basically you shouldn't be using them to say where you live, your local Government information is a lot more reliable. We only use them the way they are now as it allows us to provide the best, fastest and most efficient service. We would change it to Bromley, Liverpool if it meant post could be sent quicker, but this would not mean that Bromley had suddenly become Scouse, because there would be no change in Government to say so!

For The Royal Mail they are, and were invented for, the sole purpose of delivering letters, that’s it, that was all we invented them for. However, that does not stop people “fogeyising” our creation, (Estate Agent’s are the prime suspects for this), and trying to use them for something that they were never intended for i.e. an accurate geographical reference. But we cannot physically stop them, because of freedom of speech! I suppose in an exaggerated way it is akin to Albert Einstein’s work on splitting atoms, he only intended it to be an amazing scientific discovery but the Nazi’s, American’s etc. “fogeyised” his creation by using it to create the nuclear bomb. And that is why he famously said “If I had known that the Germans would not succeed in constructing the bomb, I would never have lifted a finger.” Our creation of Postcodes and Postowns is similar to that, although obviously not as extreme!

I hope this clarifies some of the confusion that people have been having, as this information has come straight from the horses mouth so to speak, as Moya Greene and Donald Brydon basically OWN Postcodes and Postowns and therefore they are the only ones that have the right to say in what ways they can and cannot be used; of course they cannot physically stop people, companies and organisations from spouting off information which is officially incorrect because of freedom of speech! But these people should just be ignored, as they do not really know what it is that they are talking about, or are biased and therefore modifying the facts to suit themselves (which basically means that they are pretentious), and hope that people will listen to them. Or have simply “grabbed the wrong end of the stick” (Bo Jangles, robin1234 and Droidling this means you)! Either way if you understand what I have just mentioned, then you will not fall into their trap.

Originally Posted by Droidling

Nice link Pete,just putting in my transfer request in as we speak ...

Originally Posted by Miss Clinique

I lived in Maidstone before coming to Canada. If I were you I would look at the villages around Maidstone, they are so nice, people are friendly, close the the coast, and the tunnel for trips to France.

Originally Posted by Droidling

Mentaljob

Originally Posted by DanRodson

Pistolpete2 it doesn't matter what Chislehurst "feels" like, Richmond "feels" like Surrey (even though that too was transferred in 1965), and Peckham feels like Beirut but they are both technically now London! the article you provided says: "Look on a map for Chislehurst and you'll find it suspended amid woodlands, lanes and commons in the great morass of south London", so whatever. And robin1234 you are a ****ing idiot!

Originally Posted by Pistolpete2

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012...to-chislehurst

Tom Dyckhoff:

"One gets the impression Chislehurst still thinks it's in Kent."

Originally Posted by DanRodson

Pistolpete2 it doesn't matter what Chislehurst "feels" like, Richmond "feels" like Surrey (even though that too was transferred in 1965), and Peckham feels like Beirut but they are both technically now London! the article you provided says: "Look on a map for Chislehurst and you'll find it suspended amid woodlands, lanes and commons in the great morass of south London", so whatever. And robin1234 you are a ****ing idiot!

Originally Posted by DanRodson

Bo-Jangles I WORK for The Royal Mail HO, I dont tell you how to do your job so don’t tell me how to do mine! I will explain to you how these areas do indeed officially fall under “London”, so let me break it down for you.....................