John B wrote on 21 July 2009 00:11:34 ...
On Jul 19, 9:16 pm, wrote:
there is a London postal district. It
consists of all postcodes that begin NW, N, E, SE and SW.
Not exactly. There are also EC, W and WC.

...which reminds me: it's only since moving to an office in EC1 in
Islington that I realised there are EC postcodes that aren't in the
City. Are there any bits of the City that aren't in EC?

Yes, a few. For example, the London Silver Vaults in Chancery Lane are
at WC2A 1QT but are in the City. The area between Houndsditch and
Middlesex Street, e.g. Petticoat Square, is in the City but has an E1
postcode.

I know you can't expect the PO necessarily to keep up with boundaries
that were created years after its own creation, but bloody hell - were
they really too inept at the time of starting the London-post-district
system to try and stick vaguely to boundaries that had been defined
very clearly for over 500 years...?

They were establishing a system to improve the efficiency of their
business. Why should they stick to 500-year-old boundaries which no
longer reflected the expanded metropolis? More modern features such as
railways are often more important in defining natural distribution areas
than ancient boundaries.

--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)