London postal district
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History
Origins
The first system of ten sectors identified by letters was devised under the aegis of Sir Rowland Hill and introduced in 1858; the numbered subdivisions were a war-time measure and date from 1917. The 1917 subdivisions remain important, because they form the first part of the two-part modern postcode (so N1 1AA is an address in the old N1 district), and because they continue to be used by Londoners to refer to their districts.The London postal districts are organized by sectors, as follows, and then numbered alphabetically within their sectors.
- In central London, WC and EC (West Central and East Central).
- In the rest of inner London, N, NW, SW, SE, W and E.
- In parts of outer London the districts are subdivisions of 63 other post towns and were introduced at the same time as the other UK postcodes.
District sequence
The numbering system appears arbitrary on the map: for example, NW1 is close to central London, but NW2 is a long way out. This is because, within each sector, they were numbered by first assigning the number 1 to the closest district to the centre, and then the rest of the numbers were assigned alphabetically by the name of the location of the postal delivery office. There are a number of exceptions to this rule: those postal districts SE19-SE27 follow a similar rule around Crystal Palace with SE19 itself being the area central to Crystal Palace; and the new town of Thamesmead is assigned SE28, created after the current postal district system. Due to its high density, it was deemed that Thamesmead should be assigned a new postcode rather than staying a part of the lower-density SE2 district.
The London postal districts were created solely to help sort and deliver mail and therefore rarely coincide with the boundaries of London boroughs (and were created before even the older, smaller metropolitan boroughs).
Relationship to London boundary
The initial system of was designed to extend to roughly 12 miles radius from the centre of London, and consequently the postal districts covered an area much larger than the London County Council boundaries of 1888. 44 of the 119 districts were outside the County of London boundaries such that places such as Leyton in Essex, Ealing in Middlesex, Totteridge in Hertfordshire, West Heath in Kent and Barnes in Surrey were covered by the London postal area.
In 1965 the creation of Greater London caused London's boundary to expand to include these places officially as well as postally, however the new boundary went far beyond these postal districts to include places that were not in the London postal area. Royal Mail did not follow this change and expand the postal area to match. It now has a policy of only changing postcodes if there is an operational advantage to them and has no plan to change the postcode system to match up with London's boundaries.
Places in London's outer boroughs such as Enfield, Ilford, Romford, Bromley, Richmond and Croydon are therefore covered by parts of twelve adjoining postal areas (EN, IG, RM, DA, BR, TN, CR, SM, KT, TW, HA and UB).
Significance
It is common to use postal districts as placenames in London, particularly in the property market: a property may be described as being "in N11". They are a convenient shorthand for social status, such that a 'desirable' postcode may add significantly to the value of property, and property developers have pressed for the boundaries of postal districts to be altered so that new developments will sound as though they are in a richer area. Some groups on the fringes of the London postal districts lobby to be excluded or included in an attempt to decrease their insurance premiums (see SE2) or raise the prestige of their business (see IG1). This is generally futile as the Royal Mail only changes postcodes in order to facilitate the delivery of post.
NE and S
There are no London postal districts labelled "NE" or "S". These were in the initial division but were later removed as they were considered unnecessary.
Following a report by Anthony Trollope in 1866 most of the NE district was transferred to the E sector; the rest was left without a letter designation until the introduction of the IG and RM postcodes almost a century later (though only a part of the area covered by these new codes was in the old NE London district). The S sector was divided between SE and SW in 1868.
The NE and S codes have since been applied to Newcastle Upon Tyne and Sheffield respectively.
Trivia
All Head District Sorting Offices, except London South East, were connected by and had stations on the Post Office Underground Railway.
The BBC soap opera EastEnders is set in the fictional postal district of E20.
Sewardstone in Essex is the only place to be outside the Greater London boundary but within the London postal area.
List of London postal districts
All London postal districts are correctly prefixed with the post town 'LONDON'.
| London postal district | London East Central |
| EC1 Head District | EC2 Bishopsgate | EC3 Fenchurch Street | EC4 Fleet Street |
| London postal district | London West Central |
| WC1 Head District | WC2 Strand |
| London postal district | London North |
| N1 Head District | N2 East Finchley | N3 Finchley | N4 Finsbury Park | N5 Highbury | N6 Highgate |
| N7 Holloway | N8 Hornsey | N9 Lower Edmonton | N10 Muswell Hill | N11 New Southgate | N12 North Finchley |
| N13 Palmers Green | N14 Southgate | N15 South Tottenham | N16 Stoke Newington | N17 Tottenham |
| N18 Upper Edmonton | N19 Upper Holloway | N20 Whetstone | N21 Winchmore Hill | N22 Wood Green |
| London postal district | London North West |
| NW1 Head District | NW2 Cricklewood | NW3 Hampstead | NW4 Hendon | NW5 Kentish Town | NW6 Kilburn |
| NW7 Mill Hill | NW8 St John's Wood | NW9 The Hyde | NW10 Willesden | NW11 Golders Green |
E1 Head District | E2 Bethnal Green | E3 Bow | E4 Chingford | E5 Clapton | E6 East Ham | E7 Forest Gate | E8 Hackney | E9 Homerton | E10 Leyton | E11 Leytonstone | E12 Manor Park | E13 Plaistow | E14 Poplar | E15 Stratford | E16 Victoria Dock | E17 Walthamstow | E18 Woodford
| London postal district | London West |
| W1 Head District | W2 Paddington | W3 Acton | W4 Chiswick | W5 Ealing |
| W6 Hammersmith | W7 Hanwell | W8 Kensington | W9 Maida Vale | W10 North Kensington |
| W11 Notting Hill | W12 Shepherds Bush | W13 West Ealing | W14 West Kensington |
| London postal district | London South East |
| SE1 Head District | SE2 Abbey Wood | SE3 Blackheath | SE4 Brockley | SE5 Camberwell | SE6 Catford | SE7 Charlton |
| SE8 Deptford | SE9 Eltham | SE10 Greenwich | SE11 Kennington | SE12 Lee | SE13 Lewisham | SE14 New Cross |
| SE15 Peckham | SE16 Rotherhithe | SE17 Walworth | SE18 Woolwich | SE19 Upper Norwood | SE20 Anerley |
| SE21 Dulwich | SE22 East Dulwich | SE23 Forest Hill | SE24 Herne Hill | SE25 South Norwood | SE26 Sydenham |
| SE27 West Norwood | SE28 Thamesmead |
| London postal district | London South West |
| SW1 Head District | SW2 Brixton | SW3 Chelsea | SW4 Clapham | SW5 Earls Court |
| SW6 Fulham | SW7 South Kensington | SW8 South Lambeth | SW9 Stockwell | SW10 West Brompton |
| SW11 Battersea | SW12 Balham | SW13 Barnes | SW14 Mortlake | SW15 Putney |
| SW16 Streatham | SW17 Tooting | SW18 Wandsworth | SW19 Wimbledon | SW20 West Wimbledon |
Map of London postal districts
Outer districts
The postal districts of neighbouring postal areas cover the rest of Greater London:
See also
External links
- Additional information
- *[Establishment of London postal districts -- mailing list discussion]
- *[British Postal Museum Information sheet on postcode history]
- Maps, photos, and other images
- *[London postcode map]
- *[intoLondon.com] has a [
- //www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/1859map/" target="_blank">Map of London in 1859 with NE and S districts shown
]- *[Map of districts in 1900]
- *[intoLondon.com] has a [
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