London, a city of over 10 million inhabitants of all creeds and colors is a big city, divided into several districts and boroughs. It is best to specify the actual location and building. The absolute centre of London is divided into East Central (EC) and West Central (WC), the former containing Liverpool Street and Moorgate, and the latter Gray's Inn and Bloomsbury. Branching out from these are north-west (NW) postcodes, south-west (SW) ones and south-east (SE), as well as west, east and north. When one refers to London N1 or W2 it brings with it its own identity. A full list of boroughs and their postcodes can be found at www.doogal.co.uk/london_postcodes.php These postcode areas are further divided by town and street in the final three digits of the code, for ease of mailing. The NE and S divisions were abolished following a report by the famous author and statesman Anthony Trollope. In 1866 NE was merged into the E district, and also at this time the outer boundary was retracted in the east, removing places such as Great Ilford from the postal district altogether; this is now in modern-day Essex. In 1868 the S district was split between SE and SW. In 1917, as a wartime measure to improve efficiency, the districts were further subdivided with a number applied to each sub-district. This was achieved by designating the area served directly by the head office in each district '1' and then allocating the rest alphabetically by the name of the location of each delivery office. Exceptionally, W2 and SW11 are also 'head districts'. The boundaries of each sub-district rarely correspond to any units of civil administration such as parishes or boroughs; despite this they have developed over time into a primary reference frame. The numbered sub-districts were later used as the outward code (first half) of the postcode system implemented during the 70s.
