American Reacts to Where Does London Stop?

Jay Foreman’s delightful exploration of London’s ever-expanding urban sprawl and the peculiar places where London seems to abruptly stop are often leaving us questioning what truly defines the iconic metropolis. Whether you’re a geography enthusiast, a fan of British culture, or just curious about where London’s boundaries lie, this video is sure to entertain and educate.

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Original Video: https://youtu.be/UAusbJmRB0c
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hey y’all welcome to the channel today we’re checking out where does London stop where does London stop and the terrifying provincial nothingness begin is it the end of the tube is it the M25 what’s the M25 M25 oh it’s a Motorway that goes all the way around London okay yeah that would actually make sense for that to be the barrier is it the end of London’s postcode area if you must know it’s none of these London’s phone code post code and so on were set up at different times by different people for different purposes so where does London officially stop the answer is right here at the edge of the greater London boundary but why is it here and not say several meters to the left who drew this boundary and when and what difference does it make if you live inside it or not and why does this bit stick out [Music] here greater London has been this shape and this size since 1965 but to understand why you need to look at what London was like in [Music] 1964 of the eight or so million people who considered themselves londoners as in they commuted to London watch London TV or so million of the eight or so million people who considered themselves londoners as in they commuted to London watch London TV and red London newspapers fewer than half of them actually technically legally officially lived in London London the county of London as it was then known was drawn up way back in 1889 in the shape of a rhinoceros to reflect how big London had grown at that time but it had long since burst its borders making the rhinoceros out of date is he just saying it looked like a rhinoceros or was it really designed to be a rhinoceros okay I guess that was just a joke this meant that suburbanites were using London’s resources without paying any taxes to the London County Council whose job was to run the whole metropolis and that wasn’t fair that’s not fair so a new border was needed that would subsume all of these new suburbs the man asked nicely to draw the new border was Sir Edwin Herbert hello I’m sir Edwin Herbert could you draw a new Border in London please yes he assembled a crack team okay there he is Baron tangley what’s a life Pier oh so this guy was a baron but a life Pier are appointed members of the pur whose titles cannot be inherited okay interesting we don’t have that stuff in America could you draw a new Border in London please yes he assembled a crack team including the vice Chancellor of the University of Leeds the president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants professor of government from the University of Manchester and the man who owned the cad B’s Chocolate Factory in Birmingham the commission was notable for not containing anyone with previous involvement with local government in the London area creating an upto-date border was trickier than it sounds London didn’t have an obvious Edge like many other European cities it sort of spotted out gradually so drawing a line around it was going to be more of an art than a science never the nonetheless Herbert came up with three scientific tests to work out whether a suburb was a suburb or not one was it an easy commute to Central London if a place was within about an hour’s reach of the West End by train it was deemed to pass the first test okay two was it independent some places like Watford Dartford and slow despite being close to London functioned not as suburbs but as proper towns in their own right with proper shops businesses and entertainment bringing people in from miles around three did the local population look towards London or away from London for its cultural identity this subjective and nebulous question was the hardest to answer and probably just involved asking people what Herbert’s team spent the best part of the late ‘ 50s on an exhaustive tour of boring Suburbia and when they came back they handed sir Edwin Herbert their results thank you and this is the Border he came up with for the new greater London okay but that’s not the familiar a shape of greater London that we know and love today right so what happened where’s the dangly part in Posh places like Epsom despite being the epitome of London Suburbia the locals were worried that if they joined the new greater London they’d have to pay more tax so they kicked up a stink pledging allegiance to Su the same thing was happening at the other end in Posh chigwell in Essex and Posh noal in Kent I’m sorry hang on hang on what are these places where is Epsom about about 14 mil south of Central London how far is it from sui no way okay it’s 15.7 miles from sui but it claims to be part of su because it’s only 14 miles it seems like it should be a part of London yeah taxes the same thing was happening at the other end in POS chigwell in Essex where’s chigwell Great Name chigwell chigwell is on the northeast side ah chigwell is 19.9 miles so that’s getting farther okay and Posh KN in Kent Posh knal Posh knockholt oh it’s just knal okay knal is 26 miles that’s the wealthy stink up kickers as usual got what they wanted so the Border had to be redrawn in a totally illogical way that arbitrarily split the suburbs in two the only place that didn’t seem to mind being in greater London was chesington world of Adventures that’s the dangly part the rich people get what they want chesington what’s up with chesington I’ve never heard of it chesington World Adventures they have a theme park nice so why are chess chesington people must be pretty cool and laidback not rich stink up kickers they settled on this final and now familiar shape the London County Council would be abolished and replaced by the greater London Council London was also divided into 32 new barers but but that’s a story for another time on the 1st of April 1965 4 and A2 million people woke up as londoners for the first time and this caused some confusion take for example Rumford if you were a Rumford resident your Council changed but your address didn’t it still said Essex on your envelopes so were you still in Essex or not technically the home counties around the outside of London all got smaller in 1965 oh s lost a massive junk which bizarrely included s County Hall Kingston which even more bizarrely continues to run s to this day despite not being in it w that’s funny I guess this is how these kinds of things happen Sur County Hall is not in Su it used to be but now it’s not crazy confusing County Hall in Kingston which even more bizar continues to run sorry to this day despite not being in it oi pay your council tax why don’t you come over here and make me but one County had the worst luck of them all poor old middle sex already lumbered with a funny name was gobbled up almost entirely by greater London and the remaining bits were seeded to neighboring s and Heartford oh look at that as by poor old middle sex already lumbered with a funny name was gobbled up almost entirely by greater London and the remaining bits were seeded to neighboring s and Harford as a result since 1965 middle sex is no longer a thing and the name lives on only on envelopes and in cricket this is what gives ronford residents an identity crisis ceremonially historically in their accents and perhaps in their souls their Essex boys and girls but legally politically officially they’re londoners whether they like it or not so why does this matter what are the benefits of living in greater London today and why might you be hacked off if you live just outside the Border H one big factor is transport on London buses you can pay by contact list and take advantage of the two for one HPP Affair whereas buses in the home counties are patchy and much more expensive and it’s not just buses that are better when I turn 60 I got a 60 plus Oyster card which means I can travel anywhere where in London for free whereas my friend Jill who lives over the Border in hartfordshire has to pay out thousands for a season ticket more important than all of this is democracy why is this woman on the toilet with her panties down I don’t get the joke what am I missing more important than all of this is democracy if you live inside the greater London boundary you get to take part in elections for the London assembly and the mayor of London think this doesn’t matter look at the Metropolitan line fast trains to amam were canceled by Boris Johnson in 2012 and the planed attention to what for junction was canceled by Sadi Khan in 2016 would these things have happened if the locals had a chance to vote the mayor out does anything need to be done about this after all the border of what counts as London has changed time and time again since the Romans in 43 ad that was the size of London there’s the rhinoceros and the new one is huge the Romans wow so now 50s something years since greater London was invented is it time to look at those borders again London may have stopped physically sprawling outwards when the green belt was introduced in the 30s but the capital’s influence is still very expanding indeed people are now commuting into London from further than ever before as they seek cheaper housing shouldn’t these people have a say in how the city they depend on is run yeah and then there’s the six airports only two of which are in greater London is it about time that changed if you go back to the original three criteria that they used to draw the Border I wonder how it would be now it would probably be a lot bigger I would think in the end it’s not really important in a world where borders are worryingly starting to matter more than ever before this one that we’ve been discussing is thankfully quite a benign one it’s not as if greater London is a citystate that you need a passport to get into yet so for now depending on how you live work shop and feel the line where London stops and the outside world begins is entirely up to you and no matter where the official boundary is officially drawn there will always be people who feel like they’re on the wrong side I had no idea this was a thing that is a good question the people who live outside London and are commuting into London every day for work should they have a say in how London is run they’re there every day but they don’t live there good question overall I don’t know the answer if you go back to the first three criteria of what they were using to determine whether an area was part of London or not it would probably be much larger now trains are faster people are commuting from farther away are trains faster okay I was wrong it looks like they’re about the same speed there’s a city in Florida called Jacksonville and a long time ago they decided that the entire County would be the city of Jacksonville so it’s the largest city by area but it only has 1.7 million people oh interesting video thank you guys for recommending thank you all for watching and I’ll see you next time later