Where do YOU live?

I had this conversation this morning with someone, and the answer was very pleasing, however I get the impression that it is one of the most controversial questions you can possibly ask someone of SE23.
Your postcode is SE23, the generalisation of this postcode is “Forest Hill”. Of course the postcode has two rail stations, Forest Hill and Honor Oak… Park! Honor Oak Park, sorry sorry, I know how important that last word is to some! We all know that it’s the law to ensure you say the entire place name.

Anyway, it would seem that daring to tell someone who defines their area as HOP that they live in FH is a crime worse than most. Kiwi’s have got used to being called Aussies, but God forbid mixing HOP and FH!

Goodness no, I don’t live in FH, I’m in the much classier and nicer part of the same postcode, joined by the same short main road…

This isn’t a new gripe of mine, I have had it for years. Personally I live in Forest Hill, a popular area of South London. On a lovely wide tree lined Street, and can’t think of any other part of SE23 I would want to live in. Nowhere else offers quire the same balance.

When it comes to choosing areas to frequent, I am not fussy, the environment and atmosphere is all that bothers me, not it’s postcode, street name, or preferred area name.

In short, I dont get the fuss. Same shops and services the same sort of distance apart. Same people, bus routes, policing, social issues etc… But God no I don’t live THERE, I live here! Its much nicer.

Meh!

When I moved here a decade or so ago, all estate agents tended to refer to the area as a whole as Forest Hill.

When I met people they invariably thought I meant meant Forest Gate and I hardly met anyone who knew about Forest Hill, let alone some place called Honor Oak.

Fast forward 10 years and the are terms like ‘the village feel of Honor Oak’ being referred to. The area is much more known now due to the Overground coming in and there is much more reference to living in Forest Hill or HOP.

I feel Honor Oak and Forest Hill are distinct areas that meet at unspecified points

I will typically now say I live in Honor Oak, near Forest Hill, near Dulwich and continue until there is a flicker of recognition in the person I am speaking to.

I think you need a beer

It doesn’t really matter what somebody chooses to call a location and we are all entitled to our own definitions, while respecting other people’s definitions, particularly of their own home.

What does matter is the definition of the town centre and the proximity of a business to key transport links and other shops. For example if you were to open a shop in Kirkdale you would have completely different demographics of visitors to a shop opposite Forest Hill station, and the same applies to the Brockley Rise/Stanstead Road junction in comparison to Honor Oak Park station. Footfall matters, proximity of parking matters, routes to school matter, and proximity of other key attractions like Horniman and the swimming pool all matter to businesses - much more than to residents.

In terms of where I live in Forest Hill, I’ve lived on both sides of the railway, and I’ve been to three schools in Forest Hill/Sydenham. I’ve got my own favourite places to live in Forest Hill and the only real difference I see between to two sides of the railway is the hills. I love looking out of my window with a horizon that reaches to Dartford or Wembley rather than across the street, although the walk home can be a bit tiresome. And I also like having Sainsbury on my route home from the station. But I spent many years happily living in Perry Vale.

There are other situations where boundaries do matter, such as setting up a civic society or a neighbourhood forum. There is no point claiming to represent people who do not associate with the area, but it is also far better not to exclude people who live just outside your defined area of interest. I would be happy to discuss such issues further on or off line if it is of any interest to other people.

Sounds like the last time I got a late-night cab home from the West End. Eventually it dawns on them: “Sarf of the river? Aw, I’m just clocking off, mate. End of me shift!” [Cabbie speeds off round the block hoping to pick up a fare that’s going somewhere civilised - like Stoke Newington.]

Lol, I do the same when speaking to someone out of the area, but use Forest Hill and Crystal Palace as references. The vacant looks on their faces stop me going any further.
As for the beer, urrgh, vile stuff, haha.

Michael, I get it totally from a boundaries point of view, Councillors, doctors, schools etc all need them. But as far as Joe public goes, and the occasional snobbery of “I don’t live in Forest Hill” pulls disgusted face, that is the part of it I am talking about.
Invisible lines making businesses and services not considered local or part of, even though it’s round the corner.
I agree there are differences on the sides of the railway lines. High Street, bank, supermarket, on one side, mainly residential on the other, with schools, smaller shops etc on the other.
But this quite visible boundary has somehow been turned into the better and worst sides of Forest Hill. So SE23 us apparently further divided busy another boundary.

I just find it annoying, that’s all. Hey we are one big community (but you live in the crap part) lol.

I’m not sure people are taking this in the way it is intended, but hey how, it got people talking, and me understanding why some people use these terms.

In short, I don’t really care what parts people live in, certainly don’t care about what people think about this part, it’s just annoying to see the stigma some people attach to the divides. Knowingly or unknowingly

Good morning SE23… All of it

Haha sounds very familiar indeed. Thank heavens for Uber eh.

*walks off quietly, hoping not to have started another argument *

I always say Honor Oak as I am by far closest to HOP station and I think that is as good a way of describing it to someone as anything

If someone asked me if I lived in Forest Hill I’d say no, I Live in Honor Oak. Because that’s where I live. If you read something more into that like I’m disparaging Forest Hill by not living there I’m not sure there is anything I can do about that. I have to be honest ive never experienced this snobbery or divide that you talk about, just people trying to explain where they live in geographical terms that make sense to them.

Good logic, I like that.

Perception and interpretation are indeed key to things like this. As I say, there is nothing wrong with being proud of where you live, or just being accurate about it, we all know that HOP is part of SE23, so it is logical to do so.
However there are certain instances where some people will make more of living in one part of SE23 than others. I am not for one second saying you have done such a thing.

If you read enough threads and have enough conversations, it becomes obvious which groups use HOP as status or a step up from others.

I don’t expect a single person to reflect and change their mannerisms, that would make things dull.

This is just a general observation, and a question to see reasons for use of the invisible divide
No offence intended.

My answer to the original post would simply be:

I live & trade in Forest Hill SE23 & absolutely LOVE it

Well that of course it COMPLETELY understandable. Catford indeed! Eeew lol

We used to do similar (well still do in fact) to a friend who lived one street from Peckham Rye, every time he said East Dulwich, we would joke and say you mean Peckham right… He gets very defensive lol

I live in SE26 - midway between Sydenham station and Forest Hill station. Typically I say I live in Forest Hill, partly through my own snobbery, but also we’re closer the shops etc in forest hill than Sydenham.

often people get confused with Forest Gate…

I once had a guy jump of a bus at Westbourne Drive, run over to me and ask for a unfamiliar street name. When rushed me for an answer , he mentioned he had 10 mins to get to a job interview… In Forest Gate.

Perception and interpretation indeed. I live in Honor Oak. I used to live in Forest Hill and have no feelings of snobbery about this.

I do not have any sort of feeling of place relating to postcodes. These determine where your postie starts their round (if just talking about the first part). Place names such as Forest Hill and Honor Oak describe places which are also communities. Honor Oak is not just SE23 but Forest Hill is, purely because the sorting office just happens to be sited there.

Honor Oak Park is a an area of green with a road and a station named after it. The station is only called that to distinguish it from Honor Oak station which sadly no longer exists.

Am sure many will disagree re place names and am ok with that, it is one’s personally interpretation where you live. Heck, have met people from Hengrave Road who think they live in East Dulwich (née Peckham LOL). Am more irritated by the postcode obsession though - it is widespread in London and much snobbery to be found with it, mostly related to house values IMO.

I wasn’t gonna mention postcode snobbery. It used to be about gangs and coming from the wrong endzzz! But now it’s a whole different game! Lol

I like the way this discussion is going. Most informative. Thanks all for participating.

Why is there no ‘u’ in Honor?

As far as I know it’s an old spelling of the word.

I was discussing this with someone the other day as it happens, and this Wikipedia article shed some light on the subject (in fact it even gives Honor Oak a special mention!)

I’d say Honor Oak Park because I’m 5 minutes from the station and much further from Forest Hill. I moved here 2 years ago and didn’t even know HOP was considered a ‘posher’ area than Forest Hill generally?

Again makes perfect sense to me. Thanks for sharing.
As for the areas and their differences, HOP is generally seen as more up and coming. As this happens the terminology changes slightly, but to most, we are all still in the same postcode really.
The high street in HOP has certainly developed into a trendy spot recently, less traffic than the equivalent in FH.
I also see that Honor Oak cars is no more.
Possibly told that a mini cab service wasn’t worthy of the name Honor Oak? Lol!

I tend to disagree, I think FH is more up & coming than HOP but I may be bias

Erm FH Rules OK!

There are far worse boundaries to be on the wrong side of. I once lived on a boundary, I could jump the fence at the bottom of my garden to pass from my house to an almost identical neighbouring house that was worth 20k more than mine for no other reason than my postcode was SE18 and his was SE3. We both lived a good mile from our respective epicentres, but that didn’t matter, it was the difference between having a postcode from Woolwich or Blackheath. I’m still bitter, can you tell?

Meanwhile, on the other side of Blackheath, overlooking the heath itself, there are many grand houses who have Lewisham postcodes. I can tell you that those people suffer from high blood pressure due to autofill content on home delivery web sites putting them, quite literally, in their place.

I may be a hoity-toity Honor Oaker (what what), but the real privileged folk are the Brockleyites with their single-digit London postcode, lucky devils.

Living just an inch into the wrong neighbourhood can be a serious issue. Spare a thought for this poor Kansas household, which (through a technical glitch), is associated with over 600 million IP addresses. It sits in the default location in the MaxMind geo-IP database - so any IP address that can’t be resolved to a precise location, resolves there.

The household has their front door smashed in regularly by the authorities looking for drug dealers, child abductors etc.

They’re suing MaxMind, and who can blame them!

Yes so jammy having a differently numbered sorting office.

Honor Oak has definitely come up faster than Forest Hill but then it has had catching up to do. The rateable values are considerably less for Honor Oak.

@anon5422159 answers this well but there is a more succint explanation from the talk page for Honor Oak on Wikipedia:

It is a very reasonable question and I have lost count of the number of times that I have explained this. Could this be a candidate for a FAQ (thread) item?

Would make sense

lol, you can take the boy out of Southend, but you ca’t take Southend out of the boy, innit m8 !

As for the single digit postcodes, working in an industry that works with postcodes, you can;t beat a 7 character postcode for simplicity, unless of course Royal Mail issue it to a new building with apartment numbers the same as the street. Then the mailing lists get mixed up and somehow you move addresses!

There are properties with SE23 postcodes which are in Southwark. There are also properties in Sydenham which are in the Borough of Bromley.

Confusing at times isn’t it. I was aware of those. I guess as different boundaries are drawn up by different authorities, they will all make their own decisions.
There was a video about the boundaries of London as a whole going round, that gets even more confusing.

Talking of confusing boundaries, this is without a doubt one of my favourite explanations over. Took me a while to find this, so hope it is appreciated lol.

@anon64893700 thats quite interesting, although (pedant alert) these days the 030 prefix is also a London number (edit - or so I thought… probably needed some more research before I posted) but Im sure its not just limited to 020. Hmmm - why did I get confused about that?

edit again: ahh it was 0203 ! I got confused between that and 030 replacing 087 numbers

Things have changed a bit since it was made, but still very interesting all the same. The different definitions of “London”
lol @ the confusion @comoed

A little closer to home (a lot in fact) is this little gem.

Four boroughs almost on one road. Walk to the end of it and there is a fifth…
Croydon, Lambeth, Southwark, Bromley, and at the end of the Parade, Lewisham.

How bizarre. We live in Honor Oak, near Blythe Hill Fields, and I was under the impression that it was marginally less smart than Forest Hill…

Very interesting how each persons view differs.
Thanks for the reply, my mind boggles at so many opinions of the same small area lol.

In my view, both areas are very similar and I wouldn’t say one is more “up and coming” than the other, whatever that means. I live in HOP and personally prefer it to Forest Hill mainly due to the volume of traffic and associated pollution from the South Circular Road. Having said that, our own high street certainly has its fair share of traffic at morning and evening rush hour.

It’s all a bit of a mess, isn’t it? The area I would describe as Forest Hill (which doesn’t agree with Google Maps) is just east of the Horniman, as north as Forest Hill Road, and southwards towards Kirkdale, and then everything south of the South Circular with an SE23 post code in the south east quadrant. Honor Oak (to me) includes all points north and east of the South Circular (i.e. Brockley Park, Lowther Hill, Duncombe Hill) and the railway lines (ending at the eastern boundary where SE6 begins - i.e. the other side of Blythe Hill Fields), plus the whole section to the west of the tracks north of ‘Forest Hill’ which includes Brenchley Gardens, WGT etc which are part of LB Southwark. Northern boundary is probably about the crossroads of Stondon Park and Honor Oak Park Does this sound about right?

Sorry - I didn’t get this quite right - Honor Oak also probably includes the Grierson Road ladder as far as the Crofton Park rail line and Stillness/Marnock area.

I’d agree with your boundaries Irmani, and like you I’d also perceived FH to be the slightly more prestigious of the two. I live on Brockley View looking out over Blythe Hill Fields and was amused to hear the opposite side referred to as “Catford Heights” the other day

I think HOP high street feels nicer than FH around the South Circular.

Am not sure if it stretches as far as the rail line, surely Crofton Park there, but Grierson Road ladder yes. I think the easiest way is to imagine a circle drawn round One Tree Hill so that would include Forest Hill Road, the golf course, half of Devonshire Road and Honor Oak Park. I see the Honor Oak pub as being on the cusp of Honor Oak/Forest Hill.

I have to be honest. When I first started this thread I really didn’t expect such detailed conversation to emerge from it all, but am really glad it has a good old fashioned local discussion going on.
Really is interesting to see people’s thoughts on the matter.

This is a good read. I live by Blythe Hill Fields - part SE23 part SE4 and part SE6. I live on the SE6 side but am closer to the amenities of HOP. Even so I say I live in Forest Hill to people who don’t know the area because no one knows HOP either. Once Catford is actually known I will say Catford, but will say “Upper West Catford” just to be clear I don’t live in Catford proppa. I long for the day I can just say Blythe Hill and non local people will know where I mean. We don’t have our own train station but we have a great pub, a restaurant, a post office, a caf, a dry cleaners, a hairdresser, a William Hill and a gorgeous park. Blythe Hill Village surely???

Love it, here’s to Blythe Hill Village, gets my vote.
Glad to see someone else enjoying this thread, and adding yet another set of variables to the discussion.
Love Upper West Catford. Why the devil not, everyone else splits towns to suit them.

I don’t know if I live in Forest Hill or Sydenham. We’re in Forest Hill ward, and I was told by the community policing unit that we are covered by the Forest Hill team, but it’s SE26. We orient ourselves more toward FH and mainly shop and eat out there, travel from FH station, etc. Not sure if it’s pretentious to say FH, though, if perhaps it’s really Sydenham.

Hope it’s ok to be on SE23 forum when we live a few streets away from SE23!

Why the devil not eh, at least it’s a defined boundary, which you have chosen a side to belong to

Good choice I say.

SE26 crosses three boroughs, Bromley and Lewisham as you mentioned, also Southwark.

I live on Tyson Road - I think we’re exactly half way between HOP and Forest Hill. I have no idea where I live But I always go to HOP station so maybe I’ll go for there. I find few people have heard of either - especially if they’re from North London (huh!)

I used to live on Tyson too many years ago. Very close to the borders some have identified for sure. Always good when you are not that bothered really lol

General conversation:

Them: “Where do you live?”
Me: “Forest Hill.”
Them: “Oh, that’s in North London, isn’t it?”
Me: “No, that’s Forest Gate. Forest HILL is in South East London; we had a sink hole.”
Them: “…”
Me: “Dulwich, I live near Dulwich.”
Them: “Oh, I’ve never been, but I hear that it is nice.”

I actually say “Honor Oak Park; its between Dulwich and Lewisham”. Of course I mean geographically, but you could interpret it in a different way!!

Lol very nicely put @Andy just about sums it up really.

Its a different angle if youre talking to a Canadian from Toronto.

Torontonian: where do you live?
Me: Forest Hill
T: Ohhhhh. Fancy.
M: Not Forest Hill Toronto.

http://www.torontoneighbourhoods.net/neighbourhoods/midtown/forest-hill

Hahaha, sounds familiar, apart from the Catford bit lol. All valid ways to describe where you live.

I often call HOP people 'Smugs" because they do seem to be peculiarly smug about living there.
Frankly I don’t get it-I live in Forest Hill near the Horniman and I think my area does genuinely offer more.
More shops, park,Library museum swimming pool and a short bus ride or walk to east dulwich and Lordship Lane or a lovely walk to Crystal Palace or Dulwich Village.
HOP just feels very ‘suburban’ by comparison and a bit dull

I live in Honor Oak, used to live in Forest Hill and have also lived in all sectors of London except the East End. This whole area is special, and I happen to think Honor Oak especially so. Yes it is quiet compared to many parts of London, as is Forest Hill frankly, but it is remarkably green for being so well connected and has some great places to eat. Am also a resident of London too, so it is very far from being dull.

If that makes me smug then so be it, but I must have a few million others for company.

When I describe where I live and the person has not heard about Forest Hill I would say I live 15 min run to the centre of Crystal Palace Park.

No matter which route I take to the park, it takes me 15 min.

There is a certain irony to your post!

\ full disclosure - I live in HOP.

I tell people I live sort of south of Dulwich Picture Gallery. Kind of.

Yeah. South Dulwich. That’s where I live.

I lived in The Hornimans! Now I live in The Sticks.

I live in Foho🌈

i generally describe where i live by the time it takes me to get somewhere. So people at work (canary wharf) I say honor oak, south east london, about 30 minutes door to door. People not at work i say, honor oak, south east london, about 15 minutes to london bridge. And fellow parents of small children i say honor oak, near the horniman, about 10 minute walk.
Which seems to suggest all i like to do is leave HOP but i love it and don’t think i’ll ever live anywhere else now.

Half way between Dulwich and Catford seems to cover it

I live halfway down Cranston road. I used to say I lived in forest hill but I rarely go there now as my commute is from crofton park. Technically I’m perry vale north, but is that really an area?
I also recently heard that the Brockley rise parade of shops (no.41 / LoveLe nails…) was going to be developed and stretched further towards crofton/Brockley and it was going to be renamed Brockley Hop. Could be totally unfounded rumours, but I quite like the name… can you imagine trying to explain that one?!

Like that Stefan, I’ll use that from now on

I tell people I live in Forest Hill, if they need more explanation I tell them it is the centre of the universe and feign ignorance about where they live (and then often refer to their neighbourhood as on the way to the M1 - before demonstrating that I’m actually quite familiar with their area). I’m no longer prepared to accept that North Londoners are allowed to be ignorant about South London.

I’m a bit more generous to people from outside London, but they are always happy with the explanation of London or South London - they don’t need to know more than that. It is only people from North London who require three points of reference for anything beyond the tube system and still don’t understand.

I live in Forest Hill. You got a problem with that?

Having spent years never hearing of Forest Hill, I now feign indignance when someone has never heard of Forest Hill.

If they’ve never heard of Honor Oak Park I am far more forgiving.

Don’t be! This just reinforces people in London feeling ok about being ignorant. Actually, have noticed some North Londoners starting to recognise the area. I know people who never voluntarily left NW6 but even they visit sometimes now. The tube system effect @Michael refers to is very real.

I’ve thought of another boundary that no-one has mentioned… are we all in Zone 3?

Hush you…

@moderators This wasn’t me that posted as @foresthillarts & Forest Hill Arts is myself & @emmad of @GemsPerformingArts but there may be another one I don’t know anything about.

Here’s @emmad singing about Zone 3

Them: “Where do you live?”
Me: “Forest Hill.”
Them: “Oh, that’s in North London, isn’t it?”
Me: “No, that’s Forest Gate. Forest HILL is in South East London; we had a sink hole.”
Them: “…”
Me: “Dulwich, I live near Dulwich.”
Them: “Oh, I’ve never been, but I hear that it is nice.”

EXACTLY THIS!

I say Honor Oak Park because of the Forest Gate confusion, but I’d actually prefer to be considered Forest Hill. There is a bit of HOPsmugness in some quarters here, whereas FH seems more boho.

Them: hey, where do you live?
Me: between forest hill and honor oak park in south east London
Them: I don’t know either of them. What’s the nearest station?
Me: forest hill or honor oak park
Them: what line’s that on?
Me: overground line
Them: oh a train!
Me: sort of but not a train train, it’s actually the tube but it’s over ground. so it doesn’t go underground, it doesn’t go in a tube, but it’s still the tube. D’ya see what I mean?
Them: no.
Me: yeah, me neither actually.

I was trying to explain to a colleague who has lived in Central London for around 7 years where Forest Hill was. I kept listing off our well-known neighbours — Dulwich, Crystal Palace, Peckham, Bermondsey… There was only a spark of recognition when I got to London Bridge.

I used to say, after trying everything else, 12 minutes from London Bridge on a Hill with a Forest. They still didnt have a clue but it sounded like I lived in Narnia so left it at that.

What a great SE23.life tagline that would be!

image.png761×534 172 KB

I think that is a perfect description. Perhaps the railway bridge should have a mural of some cupboard doors and fur coats - changing to fir trees, before cars emerge in the magical land of Forest Hill. Then if we could have a goat-man painted on a shop front the illusion would be complete.

But watch out for @Pauline and her Turkish Delight!

Wait. She has Turkish Delight?

Go on, do it.

It’s her pet name for her Nerf gun. Beware

I was born in Bow moved to Shoreditch then onto Hackney spent some time in Essex then Cambridge short spell in Hove actually, onto Weybridge…and now SE23 given my presence in the early years has resulted in extreme gentrification you can look forward to the effect on FH

Let’s get something straight shall we, those people who claim they live in Honor oak park, don’t, they are misguided, they live in Forest Hill because it is in SE23. Honor oak Park is just the name of ONE road that happens to have a station of the same name, that also happens to resides there, but it is still in Forest Hill. I can understand people who may talk abou Devonshire road as living nearer the HOP end, thus making HOP the nearest station if travelling.

The example of an official address of someone who lives in HOP (which consists of only one road) would read as follows:
1 Honor oak Park
Forest Hill
London
SE23 ***

Time Out disagrees with you.

https://www.timeout.com/london/things-to-do/streets-of-london-honor-oak-park-se23

You mean a junior journalist whose never even lived in the area and has probably only visited once to write this story. Yeah right!
And who cares if Timothy Spall once lived there, he’s moved on, get over it, we’re not all star struck over actors.

West of Brockley Rise I think mentally my boundary is Ewart Road. Would definitely see the grid of roads to the north of there as all HOP. I also associate it with that red brick style of terrace that I don’t think was built further south. A specific developer maybe? Forest Hill “proper” has a less coherent and more eclectic built environment.

Used to live in ebsworth street and loved it but always said I live in forest hill cause I thought people know where it is and is more posh than honor oak, only when looking to buy a flat realised that it was more expensive than forest hill end , both areas have their pluses but wouldn’t move back there simply because I have all the shops and bars on my doorstep here

When I first moved to London from Glasgow in the 80’s as a student I lived in posh Hampstead (Frognal) but my digs were being paid for then, then I moved to Chalk Farm (hence why I love Marine Ices) then Brockley. After having my first kid I then settled in Beckenham for a couple of years. Then I found Forest Hill about 17 years ago & would never live anywhere else because I love it so much ️

ETA I love the fact that where I live & trade was originally built by the great builder Ted Christmas ️

Pretty sure on any correspondence you just put London and the postcode, though I don’t think you even need London. Not sure why you wold put Forest Hill or Honor Oak on any correspondence, maybe Lewisham or Southwark I suppose but not sure why any of them.

Anyway defining areas for many people is just to give people a better idea of where people live, you might not like it but you won’t stop it and I really am not sure why you object to it!

I do think (though I may be wrong) technically the area should be called Honor Oak not Honor Oak Park, though everyone uses HOP.

And likewise defining areas based on postcode area seems incorrect. The postcode areas were defined to solve the logistical problem of delivering mail, not to reflect natural boundaries between areas.

I t would be interesting to see what people’s electoral cards read and if they included Forest Hill or Honor oak park in the full address.

There is an area called Honor Oak just as there is one called Forest Hill. The location of the local sorting office for SE23 (Forest Hill) does not determine where people live! Honor Oak is not just in SE23 anyway.

There is also a road, and a park, called Honor Oak Park (though most people just call it the Rec). There is also a station called that to distinguish it from another station called Honor Oak, now long gone. Lots of people who move into the area call it Honor Oak Park, probably due to the station name. I did too. When you have lived there for a while you realise it is Honor Oak. Hope that clarifies.

When I lived in the top end of Agnew Road back in 1970, we regarded the area as being Honor Oak. South of the railway from the Forest Hill end of Garthorne along to the Brockley end of Grierson, down to Stondon Park and back along to St Saviours church in Herschell Rd used to be classed as Honor Oak as well as a bit of Devonshire and Boveney Rd etc and Honor Oak Park up to One Tree Hill North of the railway. Strangely enough though, I’ve never thought of Honor Oak Road as being on Honor Oak - in the same way as, for me, Forest Hill Road doesn’t fall within Forest Hill. Oh, and my sister went to Honor Oak Girls in Peckham Rye. It’s all over the gaff!

Another coincidence Wynell - except I was born in Hackney and lived in Bromley-by-Bow.

Addresses in London for posting things do not include area names because they are unofficial, and the boundaries drawn by convention not map makers. And because the street name, post code and London designation is enough for accurate mail sorting. This is why neighbourhoods are not included in the official advice on how to address post in London, not because such areas don’t exist.

Years ago I loved in Denham in Bucks, for postal purposes it was Uxbridge. The old dears were not happy

Personally I am happy where I am regardless of what the area is called.

Which is no where near Bromley Kent, I did an ice cream round in Bromley by Bow selling house to house with a trolley loaded with family bricks Neapolitan was favourite 3 bob and six penny lollies also used to visit the nearby park? Famously dressed in my yellow and blue Wall’s jacket.

Wynell Road twinned with the Champs-Elysees !

My house-to-house selling job was delivering all around a huge area taking in Wandsworth,Merton and Mitcham from the old Corona soft drinks depot in Earlsfield. My uncle got me the job as he was a manager there - so I had to walk round to his flat in Westbourne Drive at 6am every Saturday and he wouldn’t get me back to Forest Hill until about 7:30pm because he couldn’t leave work until after all the drivers had returned and checked all their stock and cashed-in. I absolutely dreaded Saturdays but I needed the money, which was about a fiver plus a little bit of commission on vinegar sales. I could never understand why they ran vinegar alongside cherryade, shandy, cream soda and so on?

So glad to see this thread still going. Just goes to show it is a very personal subject.

I live in Sydenham - there are various ‘official’ designations of address, it depends who’s asking/telling. The Royal Mail one only needs the house number and the post code to get to the right place, any thing else is extraneous. The local council will have an official address for you, which should be the same address across all departments, ie council tax, Revs and Bens, electoral roll, doctors, etc. this should come from the National Street Gazetteer (NSG) which is created from many Local Street Gazetteers (LSG) each managed by an LSG custodian at the local council, and a Street Naming and Numbering Officer (SNN). the official council version should have a flat or house identifier, an official street name, an area identifier, a local town, and a larger area, borough, London. This is what you’ll have on your polling card - that’s about as official as it gets, and Royal Mail get there data from the NSG, as it changes, so they should all be the same… !

I lived in East Dulwich for twelve years, then three years in Sydenham and the last five years have been happily spent living in Honor Oak Park. I have never lived in Forest Hill.

I prefer Honor Oak Park to Forest Hill because I feel less exposed to the constant noise and fumes from the South Circular Road which, in my opinion, is a major blight on the area generally.

I would never think of writing Forest Hill or Honor Oak Park as part of my address on any correspondence.

All the FH fumes drift to HO Park in the prevailing wind