If you think local government boundaries are bad, try dealing with people who
think in postal districts. I had to call a Homebase shop once to find out why I
had waited in vain for a delivery. I happened to live about equidistant between
two stores.
When I gave my address, the manager person asked what postal district that was,
then told me triumphantly that I had got the wrong store, because the store in
my postal district was ... I had to point out that I knew which store I had
visited, and I had not posted myself to it, I got off a bus
there because it was conveniantly situated on my way home.
Regarding boundaries, once places became built up there were bound to be
oddities - our old house when I was a kid had a boundary plate on the side
wall, between Manchester and Salford. (some people assume the two cities were
separated by the river Irwell, but that was only in th e city centre. A teacher
told us about this drunk who regularly fell a kip each night on the bridge,
near Salford bus station. A passing Salford policeman would move him over to
the Manchester side. An hour or so later the Manchester policeman would come by
and would move the drunk back. Bit later the Salford guy came by again .. . and
so on. Happy innocent days).
Back to London, there may not be easy places to put boundaries. Each old
borough
and district spread out until it met the other. If you take a main road like
Kilburn High Rd. as boundary (as it is between Brent and Camden and was between
Willesden and Hampstead before that, unless I'm mistaken) then you bisect
Kilburn. But people will still say they live in Kilburn whatever side of the
road they live - except some yuppies who wanted Kilburn High Rd tube renamed
Mapesbury, the local government ward, because they thought it sounded better.
Funnily enough just down the road is Brondsbury rail station which really is
confusing, and Brondsbury was a fashionable location on the estate agents books
recently, but most people would think of it as nearer Kensal Rise. Now if you
were to start talking about how tube and rail stations got their name - like
Dollis Hill for instance, which is not on the hill, - and why saying a house is
" near such and such station" depends if you're buying or selling .. .