London postal district

The London postal district is the area in England, currently of 241 square miles (620 km²), to which mail addressed to the LONDON post town is delivered. The area was initially devised in 1856 and throughout its history has been subject to periodic reorganisation, contraction and division into increasingly smaller postal units. It was integrated into the national postcode system of the United Kingdom during the early 1970s and now corresponds to the N, NW, SW, SE, W, WC, E and EC postcode areas. The postal district has also been known as the London postal area and as the inner area of the London postal region.

History

Origins

Map of the original London postal district in 1857

The Post Office in St. Martin's Le Grand

By the 1850s, the rapid growth of the metropolitan area meant it became too large to efficiently operate as a single post town. A Post Office inquiry into the problem had been set up in 1837 and a House of Commons committee was initiated in 1843. In 1854 Charles Canning, the Postmaster General, set up a committee at the Post Office in St. Martin's Le Grand to investigate how London could best be divided for the purposes of directing mail. In 1856, of the 470 million items of mail sent in the United Kingdom during the year, approximately one fifth (100 million) were for delivery in London and half of these (50 million items) also originated there.

The original London postal district was devised by Sir Rowland Hill in 1856 as a circular area of 12 miles (19 km) radius from the central post office at St. Martin's Le Grand, near St Paul's Cathedral in central London. As originally devised, it extended from Waltham Cross in the north to Carshalton in the south and from Romford in the east to Southall in the west. Within the district it was divided into ten large areas which operated much like separate towns. Each was constituted "London" with a suffix (EC, WC, N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, and NW) indicating the area it covered; each had a separate head office. The system was introduced during 1857 and completed on 1 January 1858.

Changes to NE and S

The NE and S divisions were abolished following a report by Anthony Trollope. In 1866 NE was merged into the E district, transferring places such as Walthamstow, Wanstead and Leytonstone. Also at this time the outer boundary was retracted in the east, removing places such as Great Ilford from the postal district altogether. In 1868 the S district was split between SE and SW. The NE and S codes have been re-used in the national postcode system and now refer to the NE postcode area around Newcastle upon Tyne and the S postcode area around Sheffield.

Numbered divisions

In 1917, as a wartime measure to improve efficiency, the districts were further subdivided with a number applied to each sub-district. This was achieved by designating the area served directly by the head office in each district "1" and then allocating the rest alphabetically by the name of the location of each delivery office. Exceptionally, W2 and SW11 are also 'head districts'. The boundaries of each sub-district rarely correspond to any units of civil administration such as parishes or boroughs; despite this, they have developed over time into a primary reference frame. The numbered sub-districts were later used as the outward code (first half) of the postcode system implemented during the 1970s. There have been a number of ad-hoc changes to the organisation of the districts, such as the creation of SE28 from existing districts because of the construction of the high-density Thamesmead development.

High-density districts

Owing to heavier demand, some high-density postcode districts in central London have been subdivided to create new, smaller postcode districts. This is achieved by adding a letter after the original postcode district, for example W1P. Where districts are used for purposes other than the sorting of mail, such as on street signs and maps, the original unsuffixed districts often remain in use instead. The districts currently subdivided are E1 (E1W), N1 (N1C, N1P), EC1, EC2, EC3, EC4, SW1, W1, WC1 and WC2 (each with several subdivisions). In addition, there are solely non-geographic suffixed districts for PO boxes in NW1 (NW1W) and SE1 (SE1P).

Relationship to London boundary

Greater London, the London boroughs, and the postal district (red)

When the initial system was designed, the official London boundary was restricted to the square mile of the small, ancient City of London. The wider metropolitan postal area covered parts of the counties of Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, Essex and Hertfordshire. In 1889 a County of London was created which was somewhat smaller than the postal district. Around 40 of the sub-districts created in 1917 were outside its boundary with Leyton in Essex, Ealing in Middlesex, Totteridge in Hertfordshire and Wimbledon in Surrey served by the London postal area but outside the County of London.

In 1965 the creation of Greater London caused London's boundary to expand to include these places for local government as well as postal purposes. However, the new boundary went far beyond these postal districts. Royal Mail was unable to follow this change and expand the postal district to match because of the prohibitive cost. Places in London's outer boroughs such as Harrow, Barnet, Enfield, Ilford, Romford, Bexleyheath, Bromley, Hounslow, Richmond, Croydon, Sutton, Kingston and Uxbridge are therefore covered by parts of twelve adjoining postcode areas (EN, IG, RM, DA, BR, TN, CR, SM, KT, TW, HA and UB), formerly in five postal counties. Royal Mail now has a policy of changing postcodes only if there is an operational advantage to doing so, and has no plan to change the postcode system to correlate with the London boundary. In 2003 the then Mayor of London expressed support for revision of postal addresses in Greater London.

The London postal district currently includes all of the City of London, Camden, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth and Westminster. Almost entirely included are Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham, Newham and Waltham Forest, except for a few streets. Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Harrow, Hounslow, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Redbridge and Richmond upon Thames are partly in the postal district. Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Hillingdon and Sutton are completely outside the postal district. Sewardstone in the Epping Forest district of Essex is anomalously the only place to be outside the Greater London boundary but within the London postal district.

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", especially where a postal district is synonymous with a desirable location but also covers other less prestigious places. 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 district 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 Royal Mail changes postcodes only in order to facilitate the delivery of post.

Presentation

All London postal districts were traditionally prefixed with the post town 'LONDON' and full stops were commonly placed after each character, e.g. LONDON S.W.1.

Use of the full stops ended with the implementation of the national postcode system. In addition, integration of the London postal districts into postcodes means that the postal district should now appear on a separate line, in line with other postcodes in the national system.

List of London postal districts

The postcode district names refer to the original delivery office. Some postcode districts have been further subdivided. The postcode area articles give the full coverage of each district.

Postcode area District Postcode districts and names E Eastern 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 Docks and North Woolwich E17 Walthamstow E18 Woodford and South Woodford E20 Olympic Park EC Eastern Central EC1 Head district EC2 Bishopsgate EC3 Fenchurch Street EC4 Fleet Street N Northern 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

Postcode area District Postcode districts and names NW North Western 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 SE South Eastern 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 Norwood SE20 Anerley SE21 Dulwich SE22 East Dulwich SE23 Forest Hill SE24 Herne Hill SE25 South Norwood SE26 Sydenham SE27 West Norwood SE28 Thamesmead

Postcode area District Postcode districts and names SW South Western 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 Battersea SW11 Head district SW12 Balham SW13 Barnes SW14 Mortlake SW15 Putney SW16 Streatham SW17 Tooting SW18 Wandsworth SW19 Wimbledon SW20 West Wimbledon W Western W1 Head district Paddington W2 Head district W3 Acton W4 Chiswick W5 Ealing W6 Hammersmith W7 Hanwell W8 Kensington W9 Maida Hill W10 North Kensington W11 Notting Hill W12 Shepherds Bush W13 West Ealing W14 West Kensington WC Western Central WC1 Head district WC2 Strand

Map

Template:Attached_KML/London postal district

LONDON post town map, showing postcode districts in red and post towns in grey for E, EC, N, NW, SE, SW, W and WC London postcode areas, with links to nearby BR, CM, CR, DA, EN, HA, IG, KT, RM, SM, TW, UB and WD postcode areas.

Detailed map of postcode districts in central London

London postal region

The E, EC, N, NW, SE, SW, W and WC postcode areas (the eight London postal districts) comprised the inner area of the London postal region and correspond to the London post town.

The AL, BR, CR, DA, EN, HA, IG, KT, RM, SM, TW, UB and WD postcode areas (the 13 outer London postcode areas) comprised the outer area of the London postal region.

The inner and outer areas together comprised the London postal region.

External links

Additional information

• Establishment of London postal districts – mailing list discussion
• Postcodes, British Postal Museum and Archive

Maps

• Clickable map of London districts from the Museum of London
• Map of London in 1859 with NE and S districts shown
• Map of districts in 1900
• Map of London district names and numbers, from the 1963 edition of Bartholomew's Reference Atlas of Greater London

LONDON POSTCODES AND DISTRICTS

               Central London EC Postcodes - "The City"             District or Area 

EC1 Finsbury

EC2 Liverpool Street

EC3 , Monument

EC4 St Paul's

               Central London WC Postcodes - "The West End"               District or Area 

WC1 Bloomsbury,

WC2 Holborn

               E Postcodes - East London           District or Area 

E1 Aldgate

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

Later suburbs?:

E16 Canning Town

E17 Walthamstow

E18 Woodford

               SE Postcodes - South East London            District or Area 

SE1 Waterloo, South Bank, Southwark, Borough, Bermondsey

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 Crystal Palace?

Newer suburbs (not sure why crystal palace comes first)

SE20 Anerley

SE21 Dulwich

SE22 East Dulwich

SE23 Forest Hill

SE24 Herne Hill

SE25 South Norwood

SE26 Sydenham

SE27 West Norwood

New suburb:

SE28 Thamesmead

               SW Postcodes - South West London        District or Area 

SW1 Belgravia

SW2 Brixton

SW3 Chelsea

SW4 Clapham

SW5 Earls Court

SW6 Fulham

SW7 Knightsbridge/Kensington

SW8 South Lambeth

SW9 Stockwell

SW10 West Brompton

SW11 Wandsworth

Later suburbs also in alphabetical order:

SW12 Balham

SW13 Barnes

SW14 Mortlake

SW15 Putney

SW16 Streatham

SW17 Tooting

SW18 Wandsworth

SW19 Wimbledon

SW20 Wimbledon South

W Postcodes - West London District or Area

W1 Mayfair

W2 Paddington

W3 Acton

W4 Chiswick

W5 Ealing

W6 Hammersmith

W7 Hanwell

W8 Kensington

W9 Maida Vale

W10 North Kensington

W11 Notting Hill

W12 Shepherd's Bush

W13 West Ealing

W14 West Kensington

               NW Postcodes - North West London       District or Area 

NW1 Camden Town

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 Hampstead Garden Suburb (built after postcodes were devised)

N Postcodes - North London District or Area

N1 Barnsbury,

N2 East Finchley

N3 Finchley Central

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

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