"Tom Anderson" wrote in message
rth.li...


I do wish people would stop referring to East London as Essex. As someone
who is actually from Essex, it is highly distressing.


What's more distressing - coming from London or Essex? I was born in
Wanstead which, in 1964, was in Essex. If I'm asked what county I was born
in I can reply either "Essex" or "London", although I would say I was *from*
Surrey or Sussex because that's where I've spent nearly all of my life.

Historically, East London *is* Essex. Similarly all of London to the south
of the Thames is Kent or Surrey. Surrey County Council has its HQ at
Kingston-upon-Thames and Surrey County Cricket Club is based at The Oval,
neither of which are in the present day county of Surrey. The rest of
London - including the cities of London and Westminster - is in Middlesex,
still used by some people on postal addresses. Middlesex Guildhall still
stands in Parliament Square - I think it now houses the Supreme Court.

It's not worth getting distressed about.

D A Stocks