Stations outside Greater London

Given enough changes, certainly, but it rather depends what you mean by 'Central London' - the issue is getting across the Thames to the east, which necessitates use of the Blackwall Tunnel/108.

Circumnavigation of (and outside) Zone 1 by 'London Rail' is possible

Brockley was in the BERmondsey exchange area and that was 01-237.
NEW Cross, 01-639, exchange area was just outside Brockley and these days is wholly within the Bermondsey exchange area which is a much larger area now than it once would've been, it even covers about half of the Deptford exchange area nowadays as it now has at least three 10000 line units, 8231, 8232 & 8237 which have all existed since at least 1986. Deptford of course is relatively new having not existed at all 40 years ago.

01708 since phONEday in 1995


I don't think so - after phONEday in 1995 all mobile phones had 07xxx codes. Any mobile phone codes in the 08xx series became 078xx. 01895 was Uxbridge

Closer to the GLC area, certainly in the south and west

As an aside, the last bendy in central London ran last night on the 29 - only one route, way out west, still to go (and that is likely to be overshadowed by the Olympia shuttle's last weekday service)

RT: That was extremely infomative and fascinating, thank you very much for it all. I can't claim to know much about dialing codes, but certainly one notices changes and references to obsolete ones. Its always interesting to know why the changes and developments happen.

My nans old rotary phone included the 71- number on it. I could never work out the logic of that somehow evolving into 01895-6-

In addition nowadays theres an 01895-5- code, which seems to stick out as an odd number, and I almost certain no one has a 5 digit number in the area anymore, and hasn't done since well before the millenium.

Norb, are you sure about the date with mobile numbers? When I started school glancing at the register once I noticed someones home contact number started with an 04xx code, and our year started in 1999. Further, I remember reading an artical in the Metro possibly a couple of years later about the remaining mobile numbers that didnt begin 07xxx being changed to comply. It stuck in my mind at the time as I had always wondered what kind of number would begin with an 04xx code, and this explained.

Could be, I thought the number was (01) 557 0194, but on thinking about it, could that have been Capital Radio as was? There's a confusion because it's a number I remember, Capital wasn't launched until 1973, and it was 194 on the dial, and I would have been 5 at the time. That said, all the frequencies changed in 78 or so, and I moved here in 83....

With the mod hat on, we'll keep this thread as it's running right now, and as it slips down the list, switch the threads and move accordingly.

Mea culpa! They changed in 2000
The changes were as follows
May 1990: 071/081 split, freeeing up the 01x codes for the next phase
16 April 1995: phONEday - all geographic codes had a "1" inserted, except for a few which got new 011x codes to allow seven-digit numbers. The International access code was changed from 010 to 00
22 April 2000: the Big Number - introduction of 02x codes for Northern Ireland, re-unification of London, and some other areas. Special tariff numbers renumbered in the 08xx and 09xx series (plus 0500 for historical reasons). Mobiles renumbered in 07xxx series.

However, according to the wikipedia article on the subject, the only 08xx codes in use for mobiles prior to the Big Number change were 0802, 0831, 0836, 0839, 0850 and 0860, all became 078xx.Tthere were also two pager code and nine premium rate codes in the 08xx series.

Mobile codes in the 03x, and 04x series generally had the digit after the zero replaced with a 77 (so 0402 became 07702), whilst those in the 08x and 09x series simply had a 7 inserted (so 0850 became 07850). (Those in the 07xx series became 077xx, thereby complying with both substitution rules!)

In passing, it is remarkable how persistent the idea of inner and outer London codes has been - the distinction ceased to exist over eleven years ago (longer than it actually existed) and yet the majority of Londoners, including in the telecoms industry itself, persist in presenting their phone numbers as 0208 xxx xxxx - even when that produces bizarre looking numbers like 0207 035 xxxx. And when eight digit numbers started to be introduced in London staritng witha digit other than 7 or 8, everyone started shouting about a third code for London, missing the point of all the previous changes entirely!

It's not just London: most Cardiff taxis advetrise their numbers as 02920 xxxxxx, despite the fact that dialling those last six digits alone has no effect whatsover except to get the "unobtainable" tone.

When Reading switched from 01734 to 0118, and from six to seven digit numbers, the extra digit added was a 9, prefixed to the old number. Inevitably some people misunderstood and thought Reading's code was now 01189. Not a huge problem, until seven-digit numbers starting with a 3 were introduced, and people either assumed the "3" was a mistake and dialled 01189 anyway, or started dialling 01189 3zyxwvu. I say "started" because they would get through to 0118 93z yxwv. At one time, the Berkshire Fire Brigade (0118 932 2zyx) was getting phone calls intended for Newbury General Hospital (0118 322 zyxw)



I haven't listened to Capital for years, but had it on most of the time when I was a student. I'm pretty sure it was firstly 388 1255, (a Euston number) and then became 484 5255.

On my trips round the Underground I've seen more than a few 071/081 signs and even the odd 01. The example below is D7080's photo of a sign at Whitechapel that was still there at least as recently as September 2010



It's not just London either, there is still a sign in Cheddar displaying the pre-1995 0934 code (934 being Weston-super-Mare, 93 would also fit Wells (closer to Cheddar than Weston is) but that uses the 749 code that I've always presumed to be Shepton Mallet). Probably in about 1997 I remember seeing a lorry advertising a Bristol company with an 01272 phone number - Bristol changed from 0272 to 0117 on phONE day.

Tell me the name and address details and I'll look it up ! In manual exchange days the numbering was not always standardised to say 3, 4 or 5 digits so 2, 3 and 4 digit numbers might all appear on the same exchange as generally numbers ran from say 1-2000 rather than 0001-2000.

I wonder what the shortest existing number would be now, excluding area code. Sure that not too long back I saw a six digit area code for somewhere up north, wonder if theres a seven digit one anywhere...

EDIT: Brampton, Cumbria, last place to have 4 digit (though it has 5 digit aswell) local numbers; Area code 016977, subscriber numbers 2xxx and 3xxx. And a few other places across the country have 6 digit area codes aswell, though not many.

But that is not London Rail all the way: a correct version is
Stratford > Overground > West Brompton > District > Wimbledon > Tramlink > West Croydon > Overground > Canada Water > Jubilee > Stratford

The house we lived in in North Yorkshire between 1986 and 1991 was North Cowton 408 for most of the time we were there (it was six figures by the time we left), but I don't think it was long before 1986 that it changed from simply North Cowton 8.

I have to correct myself here!

Checking my 1990 London Code Book for something else I noticed that London exchange codes are listed giving details of the change from 01 to 071 or 081 on 6th May and 557 appears in that list, however, there was no 557 exchange in 1986 so it must've been commissioned between 1986 and 1990 as 01-557.

Out of interest I also note that 528, 895, 945, 975 and 982 exchanges are all shown as Mercury Comms exchanges each having numbers with both 071 and 081 codes!

Edited to add that 557 was a Mercury Communications Ltd exchange rather than a BT exchange !