Originally Posted by Blondie X:
“Its a long running discussion. Some people will see it as Essex due to it not having a London postcode, other see it as London for the reasons on wiki. Even people who live there can't agree”
Indeed - the Royal Mail never intended the London Postal Area, or any postal area, to define 'where' somewhere was but for some reason some people identify strongly with the postcodes, even if everything is 'London' in terms of current counties, administration and services, like Ilford is.
The London Postal Area has never matched up with counties and administrative areas - before 1965 and the creation of the London Boroughs, lots of places that were in Essex, Middlesex etc. had 'London' postcodes, such as Ealing or East Ham, and before that the postal area used to extend out as far as Romford and Potters Bar. Even now there's a bit of Essex outside Greater London that has the postcode E4. The Royal Mail should really change the London Postal Area to match Greater London but it might meet resistance now if it tried.
Anyway my point was that Faces nightclub is quite anomalous in that it doesn't really feel like part of the area it's in, and it's most infamous clientele seem to arrive by the taxi-load from further east.
Actually I've always thought Gants Hill is quite a pleasant area. It's seen a lot of immigration of course, which some people might think of as a bad thing. There are some lovely roads near Valentine's Park (which is very nice itself - they filmed the Great British Bake-Off there one year).