The London postal district is the area in England, currently of 241 square miles,^[1] to which mail addressed to the LONDON post town is delivered. The area was initially devised in 1856^[2] 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^[3] and now corresponds to the N, NW, SW, SE, W, WC, E and EC postcode areas.^[4]

History

Origins

By the 1850s, the rapid growth of the metropolitan area meant it became too large to efficiently operate as a single post town.^[3] The original London postal district was devised by Sir Rowland Hill in 1856 as a circular area of 12 miles radius from the central post office at St. Martin's Le Grand, near St Paul's Cathedral in central London.^[2] 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.^[2] The system was introduced during 1857^[3] and was completed on 1 January 1858.^[5]

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 and in 1868 the S district was split between SE and SW.^[3] 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.^[4]

Numbered divisions

In 1917, as a wartime measure to improve efficiency, the districts were further subdivided with a number applied to each sub-district.^[3] 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.^[3]

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 part of SE2 because of the construction of the high density Thamesmead development.

Relationship to London boundary

The initial system was designed at a time when the official London boundary was restricted to the square mile of the small, ancient City of London. The area it covered ('the metropolis') consisted of 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 officially as well as postally, however the new boundary went far beyond these postal districts. Royal Mail were unable to follow this change and expand the postal district to match because of the prohibitive cost.^[6] Places in London's outer boroughs such as Harrow, Enfield, Ilford, Romford, Bromley, Richmond and Croydon are therefore covered by parts of twelve adjoining postcode areas (EN, IG, RM, DA, BR, TN, CR, SM, KT, TW, HA and UB). Royal Mail 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 the Greater London boundaries.

The London postal district currently includes all of the City of London and the City of Westminster, all of the boroughs of Camden, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Wandsworth; very nearly all of Greenwich, Lewisham, Newham and Waltham Forest; parts of Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Harrow, Hounslow, Kingston, Merton, Redbridge and Richmond. Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Hillingdon and Sutton are entirely 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 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.

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.
• The pop group East 17 took their name from the postcode for Walthamstow.

Presentation

All London postal districts were traditionally prefixed with the post town 'LONDON' and full stops were commonly placed after each figure.

e.g. LONDON S.W.1.

Use of the full stops ended with the implementation of the national postcode system. More recently, the Royal Mail have specified that the post town and district should each appear on a separate line in order to increase the effectiveness of their OCR equipment.

List of London postal districts

See the postcode area articles for a full list of the places the districts cover.

Postcode area	District[1]	Postcode districts
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 Dock • E17 Walthamstow • E18 South Woodford
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
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 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
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 Vale • W10 North Kensington W11 Notting Hill • W12 Shepherds Bush • W13 West Ealing • W14 West Kensington
WC	Western Central	WC1 Head district • WC2 Strand

Map of London postal districts

Outer districts

The postal districts of neighbouring postcode areas cover the rest of Greater London:

Postcode	London district	Post town
BR1	Bromley	BROMLEY
BR2	Bromley, Keston	BROMLEY, KESTON
BR3	Beckenham	BECKENHAM
BR4	West Wickham	WEST WICKHAM
BR5	St Mary Cray	ORPINGTON
BR6	Orpington	ORPINGTON
BR7	Chislehurst	CHISLEHURST
CR0, CR9	Croydon	CROYDON
CR2	South Croydon	SOUTH CROYDON
CR4	Mitcham	MITCHAM
CR5	Coulsdon	COULSDON
CR7	Thornton Heath	THORNTON HEATH
CR8	Purley	PURLEY
DA1	Crayford	DARTFORD
DA5	Bexley	BEXLEY
DA6, DA7	Bexleyheath	BEXLEYHEATH
DA8, DA18	Erith	ERITH
DA14, DA15	Sidcup	SIDCUP
DA16	Welling	WELLING
DA17	Belvedere	BELVEDERE
EN1	Enfield	ENFIELD
EN2	Enfield Town	ENFIELD
EN3	Ponders End	ENFIELD
EN4	Cockfosters	BARNET
EN5	Barnet	BARNET
HA0, HA9	Wembley	WEMBLEY
HA1, HA2	Harrow	HARROW
HA3	Wealdstone	HARROW
HA4	Ruislip	RUISLIP
HA5	Pinner	PINNER
HA6	Northwood	NORTHWOOD
HA7	Stanmore	STANMORE
HA8	Edgware	EDGWARE
IG1	Ilford	ILFORD
IG2	Gants Hill	ILFORD
IG3	Seven Kings	ILFORD
IG4	Redbridge	ILFORD
IG5	Clayhall	ILFORD
IG6	Barkingside	ILFORD
IG7	Hainault	CHIGWELL
IG8	Woodford Green	WOODFORD GREEN
IG11	Barking	BARKING
KT1	Kingston	KINGSTON UPON THAMES
KT2	Norbiton	KINGSTON UPON THAMES
KT3	New Malden	NEW MALDEN
KT4	Worcester Park	WORCESTER PARK
KT5	Berrylands	SURBITON
KT6	Surbiton	SURBITON
KT9	Chessington	CHESSINGTON
RM1	Romford	ROMFORD
RM2	Gidea Park	ROMFORD
RM3	Harold Wood	ROMFORD
RM4	Havering-atte-Bower	ROMFORD
RM5	Collier Row	ROMFORD
RM6	Chadwell Heath	ROMFORD
RM7	Rush Green	ROMFORD
RM8	Becontree Heath	DAGENHAM
RM9	Becontree	DAGENHAM
RM10	Dagenham	DAGENHAM
RM11	Emerson Park	HORNCHURCH
RM12	Hornchurch	HORNCHURCH
RM13	Rainham	RAINHAM
RM14	Upminster	UPMINSTER
SM1	Sutton	SUTTON
SM2	Belmont	SUTTON
SM3	Cheam	SUTTON
SM4	Morden	MORDEN
SM5	Carshalton	CARSHALTON
SM6	Wallington	WALLINGTON
TN14	Cudham	SEVENOAKS
TN16	Biggin Hill	WESTERHAM
TW1	Twickenham	TWICKENHAM
TW2	Whitton	TWICKENHAM
TW3	Hounslow	HOUNSLOW
TW4	Hounslow West	HOUNSLOW
TW5	Heston	HOUNSLOW
TW6	Heathrow	HOUNSLOW
TW7	Isleworth	ISLEWORTH
TW8	Brentford	BRENTFORD
TW9	Richmond	RICHMOND
TW10	Ham	RICHMOND
TW11	Teddington	TEDDINGTON
TW12	Hampton	HAMPTON
TW13	Feltham	FELTHAM
TW14	Hatton	FELTHAM
UB1	Southall	SOUTHALL
UB2	Norwood Green	SOUTHALL
UB3	Hayes	HAYES
UB4	Yeading	HAYES
UB5	Northolt	NORTHOLT
UB6	Greenford	GREENFORD
UB7	West Drayton	WEST DRAYTON
UB8	Uxbridge	UXBRIDGE
UB9	Harefield	UXBRIDGE
UB10	Hillingdon	UXBRIDGE

See also

• List of postal codes in the United Kingdom

References

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

*Museum of London has a clickable map.

*Map of London in 1859 with NE and S districts shown

*Map of districts in 1900

*

•  • [ e] London postal district
Postcode areas: E • EC • N • NW • SE • SW • W • WC Postcode areas covering parts of Greater London: BR • CR • DA • EN • HA • IG • KT • RM • SM • TN • TW • UB