Did you hear that the 999 is soon being changed to 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3? With the jingle its easier to remember.

I miss the old 01 dialling code for London. It was a part of my childhood, having been born in 1975.

I remember the national push in adding the 1 to all area codes in 95. They had those "That's one to remember" ads on the TV.

I'm old enough to be able to remember picking up the phone and saying "Molesey 1322". Then it became "979 1322" - and after that I moved out of London. It was (still is, I believe) an interesting exchange as it covers both the 'Surrey' and 'Middlesex' sides of the Thames.

I used to love those old black & white film where they used to answer Mayfair 1212 so similarly would, coming from Balham (Gateway to the South) answer Kelvin 1212!

love this channel..

I think the way the change from 0171 and 0181 to 020 was marketed is the reason why a lot of people say their area code is 0207 or 0208. They didn't really make it very clear that the whole of London was reverting to having a single dialling code (020), and that if you previously had an 0171 number, you were to add a 7 to the start of your own number etc. A lot of people seemed to just think that 0207 was replacing 0171, and 0208 replacing 0181. It does wind me up when people give their number as 0208-123-4567 rather than 020-8123-4567, but I'm sure I'll get over it one day!

I can remember when they used to use the three letters of the exchange name - e.g. locally GRA for Grangewood. You should clarify that you do not need to dial the 020 between any two 'phones in the 020 area. Also that people can take their numbers with them it is possible therefore for 020 numbers to be attached to non-London addresses

As a Romford resident I would like to formally complain about your suggestion that we would ever identify with being Essex based in any way whatsoever. :)

The map of the 020 area is a bit wrong, I grew up in Chessington, which in the pointy bit of Greater London that sticks out to the south west and it's always had a London phone number - it's definately 020

Ahhh. Finally I understand! Thanks Geoff. :)

We have that sort of problem in the USA, with several cities having split zones, and also "overlay" zones. If you want a traditional line and a fax line into your home, they may have different area codes.

Isn't that a picture of Northern Ireland when you talk about the Big Number Change?

still remember, the old 0181 code. still posted on businesses around my town.

my favourite Chinese take away still has a 01 number on the shop front. Chungs in Heston. If it ain't broken why fix it, always got a queue on weekends.

I remember when the dialling code for Merseyside was 051 and changed to 0151. There's an Ofiveone nightclub in Liverpool, presumably in reference to the code

nice sound design on this, geoff!

I have an old Harrods catalogue which gives it's phone number as 'Sloane 1234'.

We are Essex in Hornchurch, the 01708 :)

That's a bit like what happened in Toronto the main area code for a lot of the are around it used to be 416 but they were running out of numbers so areas outside of the city of Toronto were given the are code 905. Since then both area codes have had secondary ones added to them Toronto now actually has three 416, 647 and 437 due to all of the cellphones poel have now, plus old phone numbers can't be used for a certain length of time after the number has been disconnected.

I remember the BT advert when the London codes changed to 071 and 081.

actually theres a part of romford called rush green which has an 020 dialing code

Geoff did you intentionally put that end graphic with 0207/0208/0203 in? Bearing in mind you just said the code for London is 020 and the rest is part of the main number!! Lets take the old Going Live or maybe Live and Kicking number 081 811 8181 became 0181 811 8181 it would now be (assuming it still works) 020 8811 8181 NOT 0208 811 8181 :-) Edit: Random fact TM Century made the Jingle for that number! :P

I didn't understand anything but this was so satisfying to watch😂😂

West London (Hillingdon) have 01895 which at some point was 0895

Romford's postal address is still Essex but we are administered by the London Borough of Havering. I live in Harold Wood about a mile from the Havering-Essex border. Before 1967 when the LCC became the GLC we did use to live in Essex administered by the Hornchurch Urban District Council. The only change to our postal address was to add the postcode. Yes I am that old. We still have our original telephone number which started life as ING(rebourne) 4xxxx (the local exchange, whose building still exists). Interestingly the ING was dialled on the phone using the letters printed with the numbers much like a modern day keypad has, so even back then the GPO were switching with numbers and not letters (makes sense) but the letters were EASIER for us to remember. Many cultural and technical changes later it is now 017083 4xxxx and in my family everything before the 4 is considered to be GPO/BT area coding, so changing that part of the code again will be no trouble, if it ever comes. And no it does not fall into the examples that you showed , it being one or two digits shorter but us older people should have some advantages, eh?

But will there be 0204, 0205 etc numbers. Surely fax machines/dial up seperate numbers are on the decline and so therefore, surely those numbers are being released back into the "pool" of numbers?

I remember these changes, they started when I was at school. Postcodes are similar. I live in Woodford green which has an Essex postcode (IG8) but I have a London telephone number and line in LB Redbridge to complicate things further there is a welcome to Essex sign at the end of my road as I travel out of London! Perhaps you could explain these type of anomalies in another video?

geoff please go over the old uckfield line plus I live in uckfield so please do it

I think the ending graphic should be changed to properly show the 020 code plus xnnn nnnn, at present x can be 7, 8 or 3. Additional starting numbers will appear.

fascinating! since i'm used to numbers outside certain cities being 5 digit area code and 6 digit individual number, it's rly interesting to me to see it written xxx-xxxx just like in the USA. (though now i live in glasgow which is another city to have a 7 digit number, with a 4 digit area code.)

It's like in mid-2000s New Zealand when Telecom (now Spark) migrated everyone from the 025 prefix to the 027 prefix and standardised numbers at ten digits total to make room for more numbers. Those people whose numbers didn't total ten digits had 4s added between the 027 and their number to make up, e.g. 025 52x-xxx became 027 452-xxxx. Yet today, people still write the numbers 0274 52x-xxx...

Hey! I live in Cranham/Upminster (it's nice to get a mention out in the East - for once!) and I class myself as Essex/London boundary - I guess I'm correct when I say that?

Who invented the country codes and area codes ?

Wow - very strange approach to number growth. And in the United States the rollout of what you call STD was DDD - for Direct Distance Dialing. It started in the 1950's and now we're at 100% DDD in the U.S. But we pretty much dial 10 digits for everything. Format is Area code + Exchange Code and then Subscriber or NNN-NNN-NNNN - it's just that the first N can't be 0 or 1. And while the modems went away, mobile phones came about and so the need for Exchange codes is still growing.

Thanks Geoff, that solves an argument with my londoner fiancee!

The London code is 020. The 7, 8 and 3 should officially be added to the first three numbers in the old 7 digit code to create the new format 020 nnnn nnnn.

I’m in Hillingdon (Ruislip) and we are 01895??

For the opening example, the number would never be shown with brackets. Instead (01) 123-4567 would be written as 01-123 4567, since London and other major areas used an all-figure format. The brackets were for exchanges in the rest of the country where the place name was used when displaying the number, eg Bedford (01234) 56789. Think a re-edit is in order :-)

I remember when numbers would be list by area too on local advertising as the 1st three digits after 01 would all be the same. for example CALL hounslow1234 would be well known locally as 5771234. as all numbers in Hounslow would be 577. all end after cable came in and a new set of numbers covering the area too and numbers ran out.

When I see an 020 number appear on my mobile phone, I hang because I know it's spam

Pedantically speaking, no number is O 2 O, or oh two oh. O is a letter. 0 is a number, ergo, its 0 2 0 or zero two zero.

I can't believe after making the effort to tell us it's 020 not 0207 etc, why does the final slide show 0207 0208 etc ? It should be 020 7123 4567 020 3123 4567 etc ...

But what about cell phones? I originally lived in Toronto Canada, but now live outside the city. My phone number is still has the old 416 prefix although I live in an area that uses 905. Saves me on long distance charges when I call certain areas.

Wait I thought 0207 was for inner London and 0208 was greater London. So that's not the case? Then what's the difference between them?

OK. Now I'm lost ahahah

So why did orpington get missed? How bizarre

God this makes me happy to live in Canada where phone numbers all follow an unchanging system...

why are the area codes in Britain so long? in the US (a much bigger country) area codes are only 3 digits making no number longer than 10 digits!

I remember when the first three were letters, eg, AMB 1234 or PAD 1234 etc Happy Daze

Do these numbers apply to cell phones?

what about 0206, 0202 and 0201?

Big up the Orpnarm 01689

Any reason why a lot of nuisance calls come from 0203 numbers?

Kilburn uses 020! Yay...

People from Orpington claiming they're from Kent and those from Romford saying they're from Essex is obviously not due to their landlines... I mean, come on. Reductive much.

And 030 for many government lines.

UNDER 301 Club!

Big number change featuring Northern Ireland

Mine is 0778...

Romford is in Essex not london .check the postcode

Do you realize they are not ohs but zeros.

Am I the only old fart that remembers the '01 for London' TV programme?

(Is Nowhere Sacred?) I grew up knowing folks from Orpington who would swear they were from Kent. And Croydon - well surely that's Surrey? It can't surely be London - or we all are? And what's that big willy over Chessington? I mean what gives it the right?

confusing

Romford is not Essex. I don't care what anyone says.

01923

As someone from Rotterdam I can only give the code 020 a thumbs down. Why not use 010, the greatest code of them all?

what a mess!...goes to show (along with transport/roads, hospitals, doctors, housing, pollution) that London is "over-crowded" and unsubstantable. but no one wants to admit it... so "we" keep making "adjustments".