In message , at 22:29:32 on Mon, 8
Dec 2008, Tim Roll-Pickering remarked:
Letters addressed to:

Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, IG1 1DD
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, Redbridge, IG1 1DD
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, London, IG1 1DD
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, Redbridge, London, IG1 1DD
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, London Borough of Redbridge, IG1 1DD
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, Nevernever Land, IG1 1DD

...will all get to the same place.

In Essex
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 22:31:43 on Mon, 8
Dec 2008, Andrew Heenan remarked:
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, Essex, IG1 1DD
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, Outer Mongolia, IG1 1DD
Neither of them are correct. Both of them would get delivered correctly.
One has additions which are helpful (to the public if not the Post
Office's automatic sorting machine), the other is comedy.

Incorrect, actually.

Since the day that Tony Benn introduced postcodes, adding the 'county' has
been a waste of ink. It's utterly redundant to the sorting process and the
postman on his round.

So what you meant to write was "Correct, actually". The additions of
either Essex or Outer Mongolia not helping the Post office's automatic
sorting machine.

But for people who live the other end of the country, and haven't the
faintest idea what "IG" stands for, adding "Essex" is quite helpful, and
adding "Outer Mongolia" is puerile comedy.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at
22:33:26 on Mon, 8 Dec 2008, 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.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at
22:34:14 on Mon, 8 Dec 2008, Tom Anderson
remarked:
It's true if "fast" means "non-stop from Shenfield".

That isn't a useful definition of "fast" in this context.

Actually, in this context, it's the *only* useful definition.

You may think it useful, but it's actually completely wrong and
unhelpful. I might accept "semi-fast", although the nearer you are to
Southend the less this applies.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at
22:29:59 on Mon, 8 Dec 2008, Tom Anderson
remarked:
I don't know if you remember, but we were talking about Crossrail, and
connecting with it

I thought we were talking about the likelihood that a person from
Southend would travel to London via Shenfield (rather than to Fenchurch
Street), if the line became Crossrail and all the trains became
all-stations stoppers.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 22:36:08 on Mon, 8
Dec 2008, John Rowland
remarked:
The next train to leave Prittlewell, the 2048, calls all
stops to Shenfield,

And you call that "fast"?? Sheesh.

You would if you lived in Billericay.

I'd call it semi-fast - but not if I lived in Prittlewell.
--
Roland Perry

On Dec 8, 10:31*pm, "Tim Roll-Pickering" T.C.Roll-
wrote:
MIG wrote:
Maybe it's one of those self-definition things that they have on equal
opportunities questionnaires. *People in Ilford feel themselves to be
Essex people and face the same prejudices and barriers in life as
Essex people. *Or something like that.

A sweeping statement - have you told that to the people lobbying for the
postcode to be changed to E20 so that businesses there don't appear to be
outside London?

Nah, that's Walford. I was parodying a "self-definition" idea that I
don't go along with. Most distinctions between people aren't worth
making. Knowing who runs the local government might be worth noting.
Therefore Ilford is in London and that's the end of it.

On Dec 8, 9:43*pm, Roland Perry wrote:
In message
, at
12:41:36 on Mon, 8 Dec 2008, MIG remarked:

Brentwood is the first station in Essex on that line, as I recall.

Correct. And as the only station in Essex which wouldn't have fast
trains to Stratford [1], they would be particularly hard done by.

That's the current situation I think.

*[1] This is probably not true.

Wildly untrue. None of the stations between Shenfield and Southend have
fast trains to London, for example.

It's true if "fast" means "non-stop from Shenfield".

That isn't a useful definition of "fast" in this context.

They all have trains that go non-stop from Shenfield, and some
non-stop from Billericay.

Some trains, perhaps. I think one an hour misses Romford.

Brentwood is currently only served by trains that do all stations off-
peak and substantial number of stations in the peak. *It wouldn't be a
change to get a similar service under Crossrail.

But I remember it when most of the Brentwood trains were semi-fast.

As I was describing somewhere else in this thread a few daze ago.
Brentwood was served by the Southends (and Southminsters sometimes)
which did all stations to Romford, then Ilford and Stratford, and the
all-stations started in from Gidea Park.

Then the all-stations were extended to start from Shenfield and the
Southends were moved to the fast tracks, so Brentwood got a more
frequent but slower service (as did Harold Wood). Gidea Park got a
reduced service.

"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.

"Tim Roll-Pickering" wrote ...
It was actually in 1996 the requirement was dropped, long after Tony Benn.
Indeed some of the 1972 Local Government Act changes were incorporated
into the postal addresses - "Avon" was a particularly unpopular one.

I know nothing (and could care less) about governmental 'requirements' -
whether they 'required it' or not, it has been superfluous since the
seventies.

I suspect the 1996 change merely codified the day to day reality of the
previous thirty-odd years.

That's the level of efficiency I've come to expect form government
bureaucracy.
--

Andrew

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