In article ,
Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:
John Rowland wrote:

Do I live in Essex? I'm just down the road from Ilford.

Are your stilettos white?

I never wear such things!

Don't blame you. The bloody things are crippling!

Roland Perry wrote:

I've never ever include ranges of numbers in the address, and cannot
conceive of any logic (except vanity) for their inclusion.

It's mainly for the convenience of people walking down the road looking
for No 144, and counting front doors. In some cases it'll be because a
site spread from (say) No 132 in both directions, and people with the old
address are helped by the new front door saying more than just "No 128".

It's also handy because sometimes overlapping sites try to maintain the
separate numbers as different addresses for different departments. This
invariably doesn't work and a range address can make it clear the place
hasn't moved.

On Mon, 8 Dec 2008, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 22:31:43 on Mon, 8 Dec
2008, Andrew Heenan remarked:
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, Essex, IG1 1DD
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, Outer Mongolia, IG1 1DD
Neither of them are correct. Both of them would get delivered correctly.
One has additions which are helpful (to the public if not the Post
Office's automatic sorting machine), the other is comedy.

Incorrect, actually.

Since the day that Tony Benn introduced postcodes, adding the 'county' has
been a waste of ink. It's utterly redundant to the sorting process and the
postman on his round.

So what you meant to write was "Correct, actually". The additions of either
Essex or Outer Mongolia not helping the Post office's automatic sorting
machine.

But for people who live the other end of the country, and haven't the
faintest idea what "IG" stands for, adding "Essex" is quite helpful, and
adding "Outer Mongolia" is puerile comedy.

As i pointed out, it could also be very unhelpful. At least with Outer
Mongolia, you know it's wrong, and will have to look it up, but with
Essex, you might be fooled into thinking it really is in Essex, and start
tootling off town the A134 in largely the wrong direction.

But okay, let's rule out Outer Mongolia as silly. I'm happy to do that.
Presumably, you would then accept, on the grounds of helpfulness you've
outlined, that writing "London" would be better than "Essex"?

tom

--
The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday
thinking. -- Albert Einstein

On Tue, 9 Dec 2008, Andrew Heenan wrote:

Letters addressed to:
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, IG1 1DD
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, Redbridge, IG1 1DD
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, London, IG1 1DD
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, Redbridge, London, IG1 1DD
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, London Borough of Redbridge, IG1 1DD
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, Nevernever Land, IG1 1DD

As will 128, IG1 1DD

I've never ever include ranges of numbers in the address, and cannot
conceive of any logic (except vanity) for their inclusion.

The council thinks my house, which is number 50, is number 48/50.
Presumably, if they didn't use ranges, they'd address my post to 48. At
least with the range i stand a fighting chance of getting my council tax
bill!

tom

--
The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday
thinking. -- Albert Einstein

In message , John Salmon
writes

As a matter of interest, where did 'IG' come from? In my view, its
derivation is the least obvious of all the postcodes. I can work out
all the other slightly obscure ones e.g. SP=Salisbury Plain,
DG=Dumfries & Galloway etc., but the only suggestion I've ever heard
for IG is Ilford & Gants Hill, which seems unlikely.

I always understood it was linked to Ingatestone as being in the middle
(roughly) of the area.
--
Steve Fitzgerald has now left the building.
You will find him in London's Docklands, E16, UK
(please use the reply to address for email)

On Mon, 8 Dec 2008, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 22:29:59
on Mon, 8 Dec 2008, Tom Anderson remarked:

I don't know if you remember, but we were talking about Crossrail, and
connecting with it

I thought we were talking about the likelihood that a person from
Southend would travel to London via Shenfield (rather than to Fenchurch
Street), if the line became Crossrail and all the trains became
all-stations stoppers.

I trace the genealogy of this subthread back to this post by Mr Thant:

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....b0af8b19dab5cb

Via the following chain of replies:

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....5d269add451629
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....57ecfb3007e146
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....efee24afe9270a
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....efb7791e178f85
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....c93a777e2eb7aa
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....6937b72ddbad7e
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....cb4cb407687f05
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....677b0ea2bc0926

And my reading of that thread is we were discussing the relative merits of
Shenfield and Stratford as termini for Crossrail by considering how
quickly people from Essex could get there. What's relevant to that is the
speed with which they can get from Shenfield to Stratford on their own
trains. The speed of getting from the start to Shenfield doesn't really
come into Shenfield vs Stratford.

If we were talking more generally, then you'd be absolutely right that a
service from Southend calling all stops to Shenfield wouldn't be fast in
an absolutely sense.

tom

--
The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday
thinking. -- Albert Einstein

On Mon, 8 Dec 2008, John Rowland wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:
On Mon, 8 Dec 2008, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at
16:03:04 on Mon, 8 Dec 2008, Tom Anderson
remarked:
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, Essex, IG1 1DD

It would be equally correct to write:

Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, Outer Mongolia, IG1 1DD

No, because it makes no sense.

Neither of them are correct. Both of them would get delivered
correctly.

Although the latter would take a few weeks longer.

Actually, since the Mongol empire's postal system was bought out by
Deutsche Post, all its mail gets routed via a warehouse in Rotterdam
anyway, so it probably won't make much difference.

tom

--
The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday
thinking. -- Albert Einstein

On Dec 9, 3:30*pm, Steve Fitzgerald ] wrote:
In message , John Salmon
writes

As a matter of interest, where did 'IG' come from? In my view, its
derivation is the least obvious of all the postcodes. *I can work out
all the other slightly obscure ones e.g. SP=Salisbury Plain,
DG=Dumfries & Galloway etc., but the only suggestion I've ever heard
for IG is Ilford & Gants Hill, which seems unlikely.

I always understood it was linked to Ingatestone as being in the middle
(roughly) of the area.

Surely Ingatestone postcodes are CM and are separated from IG by RM in
between?

In message , at
15:14:01 on Tue, 9 Dec 2008, Tom Anderson
remarked:
Presumably, you would then accept, on the grounds of helpfulness you've
outlined, that writing "London" would be better than "Essex"?

No, because I probably already know it's inside the M25, but telling me
it's Essex narrows it down to a small segment of the conurbation
(roughly, between the river and the M11).
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 15:30:29 on Tue, 9
Dec 2008, Steve Fitzgerald ] remarked:
IG is Ilford & Gants Hill, which seems unlikely.

I always understood it was linked to Ingatestone as being in the middle
(roughly) of the area.

Huh? Ingatestone in firmly inside the "CM" postcode, as is Brentwood.
--
Roland Perry