John B wrote:

It seems to me that you have to get quite close to central London, at
least
south of the river, before the locals regard themselves as living 'in
London'.

Hmm. Kingston definitely; Croydon and Sutton less so (or at least, I
don't think Croydonians view themselves as in Surrey - whether they
view themselves as Londoners is another question...)

The main reason is almost certainly down to the survival of the counties in
the mailing addresses. A postal county was never needed for CROYDON, so
people have had much less of a reason to include "Surrey" in their
addresses, whereas until 1996 "Surrey" was needed for KINGSTON.

(That said, BROMLEY and TWICKENHAM also didn't require counties - what's the
view there? And aren't there some DARTFORD addresses within the Greater
London boundaries?)

Before 1965 Croydon was a county borough (then lacking Coulsdon and Purley
which formed an Urban District) so Surrey County Council had less of an
impact there. My experience of the Sutton attitude is different but it's
possible opinion within the borough is divided.

Yes indeed. Surrey CC HQ was supposed to move to the outskirts of
Woking in the mid-2000s, but the project got cancelled after the
council threw a hissy fit (allegedly 'because of a poor settlement the
[Tory] council received from the government' - which makes perfect
sense, because obviously selling up a town centre site in Kingston
wouldn't pay for a brownfield site outside London. I'm guessing the
council bigwigs just didn't fancy the extra commute down to the place
they're actually supposed to be running...)

I recall Kingston University was due to get the county hall - possibly it
was the plan for the university to get it below the going rate with the
government making up the difference?