Talk:London postal district

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To-do list for London postal district:

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The district was retracted at some point. It is currently 241 sq. miles = ~8.75 miles radius but was originally 12 miles radius. What happened and when? Need some information/citation. W and SW were split into two districts each (Western+Paddington) and (South Western+Battersea). When did this happen? Give a detailed account of which areas were in NE and S and which were transferred where. Clearly explain the recent sub division of high density districts such as W1 and SW1. When exactly did it happen? The sub-districts were established before 1917, but the numbering dates from then: try to find some information about when the sub-districts were first established and how they changed. The district was initially divided into "town" (sometimes given as 3 miles radius, sometimes 6 miles) and "suburban" (up to 12 miles). When did this begin/change/end?

Contents 1 Archived talk 2 What do SE, WC etc. stand for? 3 This article has the wrong title 4 Letters after the number in the postal district? 5 Greenwich 6 Newham 7 Postcode district stubs (again)

[edit] Archived talk

• /Archive 1

[edit] What do SE, WC etc. stand for?

I'm puzzled about the indication in the "List of London postal districts" table that SE stands for South Eastern, WC stands for Western Central and so on. I grew up believing these stood for South East, West Central and so on. And East 17 even named themselves after the E17 postal district.

The article did once indicate these stood for South East, West Central etc. but they have since been changed during a rewrite. I suspect they were changed to accord with the British Postal Museum Information sheet on postcode history.

However, I do really wonder whether the British Postal Museum have got it wrong. In fact, I'm pretty sure they're wrong. (Or maybe I'm just wrong - these early-acquired beliefs can be hard to shake! - or maybe the terminology has changed over the years.) For example, This Google search of the Royal Mail site does seem to indicate it's West Central, not Western Central.

Anyway, if no one comes up with a good reason for leaving it as it is, I'll go ahead and change this article and all related articles to show South East, West Central and so on. --A bit iffy 16:54, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

The reason for the names is simple. The areas had - and still have - no geographic meaning. Western Central was the name of the chief sorting office for the area. The Northern district office at Islington - hence N1, Eastern district office is at Whitechapel - hence E1 for the area around it. Post codes are related to the delivery office - so, quite often are split across boroughs and indeed counties. In that context Northern, South-Eastern, etc makes sense. Kbthompson (talk) 18:40, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] This article has the wrong title

The area described is the London Postal _Area_, which is/was in turn sub-divided into Districts and Sub-Districts, as can be seen in information of official origin including:-

http://www.londonancestor.com/po/1map-t.htm - 1930 map, HMSO

and sundry non-official source. I suggest that it is well past the time that this should have been corrected. —Preceding unsigned comment added by MBRZ48 (talk • contribs) 02:13, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Letters after the number in the postal district?

Some postcodes I've seen have a letter after the number, e.g. SW1P, EC2M, W1W. This seems to occur so frequently I'm not sure it's just an error, but this is not covered in the article. Can anyone explain, please? Postcodes (talk) 10:01, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

I can certainly explain what is happening. The London Postal Districts are so deeply ingrained that it isn't considered practical to deal with postcode shortage there in the same way that they deal with it elsewhere (elsewhere, they subdivide the district, and give part of at a new number, as in BS12 -> BS12 & BS32). So, they retain the historical district, and add an alpha suffix.

Each sector can contain a maximum of 4000 individual postcodes (10*20*20) Mayalld (talk) 10:29, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Greenwich

[1] Some streets are not in the postal district. MRSC • Talk 19:02, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Newham

Newham includes some IG postcodes, and is not wholly "E". These occur only around the southeast boundary with Barking and Dagenham, where new development has taken place. Mivona (talk) 13:21, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Postcode district stubs (again)

I am concerned that a number of postcode district stubs have been recreated, it would appear for no other purpose than to provide inbound links to {{LondonSE}}. These stubs fork what is already contained in articles such as SE postcode area and the districts themselves. We've had extensive discussions about what to do with these stubs Talk:London_postal_district/Archive_1#Suggested_way_forward_for_postal_stubs and the consensus, aside from interference by sockpuppets, was to concentrate on the postcode area articles. Additionally the vote Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/London N1 was compromised by an army of sockpuppets of User:Runcorn, noted here Wikipedia:Deletion review/Log/2007 May 31. MRSC • Talk 13:15, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

I know nothing about User:Runcorn and I do not read Talk:London_postal_district/Archive_1#Suggested_way_forward_for_postal_stubs as saying no London postcode districts should have articles. Many people think about London area by postcode and the articles are either useful in their own right, or at least as pointers to other articles about the local area. For example, SE postcode area is too broad. --Rumping (talk) 18:19, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

It's not a lot of use creating article stubs that contain information that is already held in tabular form in the SE postcode area article - where individual postcodes are related to their geographical constituents. Estate agents may think in post codes, but as they're unrelated to geographical or political realities, they're a little useless for writing wikipedia articles. This is not to deny the existence of postcodes, but they exist for the purpose of delivering letters. Grouping the articles by head district reduces duplication and does not involve any loss of information. Cheers Kbthompson (talk) 18:51, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

There was no suggestion made that you know User:Runcorn. Although as you come to mention it, your editing pattern is incredibly similar. So much so that your first edit mirrors his last, and those made immediately before and after. MRSC • Talk 22:00, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

I have never touched London N14. My edits have been consistent with Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/London N1 (which is why I started with London N1 and Talk:London_postal_district/Archive_1#Suggested_way_forward_for_postal_stubs, indeed in the later case, with your proposal. --Rumping (talk) 11:51, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

Disregarding the compromised accounts in the AfD discussion, there was still support for keeping the postcode articles from established editors. It is not the case that the consensus was to merge them to area articles. Postcodes are not just used for delivering letters or by estate agents. They have a wider use and identification for all sorts of purposes. Evelyn Waugh, for example, used to walk up the hill to post letters, so they would be stamped NW3 and not NW11. Ty 20:53, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Maybe the good gentleman should have moved to Shoreditch, where he would have had access to five postal districts, sending to three different district offices in the space of a few streets ... Kbthompson (talk) 00:26, 3 March 2008 (UTC)