Oh yes, and the house prices

A group of Deptford residents is campaigning to have their homes reclassified by the Royal Mail as being in Greenwich, so they can earn a coveted SE10 postcode and profit from the Waitrose effect. A petition has been launched to move the SE10 boundary to Watergate Street, bringing it west from its current position at Deptford Creek.

The justification features some guff about postmen somehow not being able to find them because they get befuddled by the SE8 designation, before they cut to the chase:

"In addition to this, our property prices and held at artificially low levels due to this confusion."

This particular instance of postcode snobbery elicits no sympathy from BC. Firstly, anyone who's ever argued the toss over what and where Brockley actually is knows that the boundaries for postcodes, ward boundaries and taxi drivers' mental maps do not align. That's just life in the big city.

The idea that postal services can't cope with their own system sounds like a convenient myth, particularly as anyone who knows the area west of Deptford Creek would always consider it to be Deptford - the place is littered with Deptford place names and heritage.

And as for house prices, well if you bought your property any time in the last 100 years or so, you'll have got it at a discount on account of it not being considered part of Greenwich next door (although there are plenty of grotty streets with SE10 postcodes), so you've not lost out on anything. This is just opportunist gerrymandering by the petitioners.

Embrace SE8 - it is who you are.

With thanks to Melissa.