On 19 July, 20:52, "Tim Roll-Pickering" T.C.Roll-
wrote:
Mizter T wrote:
No - the official Royal Mail requirement to include postal counties
continued past the creation of Greater London. I'll try and find the
date when the requirement was dropped.

It was in 1996.

Most English postal counties *did* change in the local government
reorganisations of the 1960s & 1970s, with the following exceptions:

* London was not changed due to stretched finances in the 1960s.
* Middlesex continued to be used except for Potters Bar which was move to
Hertfordshire.
* Herefordshire and Worcestershire were kept separate.
* Humberside was split into North Humberside and South Humberside.
* Greater Manchester was not introduced in the 1970s because of potential
confusion with the "Manchester" postal town.

The E4 postcode is part of the London postal district. "Greater
London" has absolutely *no meaning* whatsoever in a postal address
sense - cast-iron fact.

Not totally. Since 1996 the county field has been optional and people have
been able to use what they like, and "Greater London" (or even just
"London") is a valid county entry.



The Royal Mail advice long before 1996 was that the county was not
needed for obvious large towns and cities, if at all, and that would
surely include London. In fact, the county could be inferred to be
optional by the fact that they focussed on the importance of the post
town and postcode.

You seem to have implied that something was required after LONDON
until 1996, but it definitely wasn't. I can't remember checking the
Royal Mail advice before the mid 1980s, but the advice then seems to
have been almost identical to now except that they've stopped even
mentioning the county. I can't remember it being insisted on.