"Roland Perry" wrote
Tom Anderson remarked:
I don't see how the former is helpful. If you want to write them a letter,
then the postcode is sufficient, and the addition of Essex is completely
superfluous. If you actually want to go there, the addition of Essex is
actually unhelpful, because if you have modern maps and are not aware that
there's a bit of London which thinks it's in Essex, you'll be looking on
the wrong page. Unless you just look up Ilford directly, in which case the
county designation again is completely superfluous.

It's very helpful to have a steer that "IG" is in fact in the old county
of Essex, and not Cornwall.

As a matter of interest, where did 'IG' come from? In my view, its
derivation is the least obvious of all the postcodes. I can work out all
the other slightly obscure ones e.g. SP=Salisbury Plain, DG=Dumfries &
Galloway etc., but the only suggestion I've ever heard for IG is Ilford &
Gants Hill, which seems unlikely.