"The capital's postcode system was originally cooked up in the 1856s by a chap called Sir Rowland Hill. To deal with the sudden increase of post in the ever-growing metropolitan area, he devised 10 different postcode areas for the city: N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW, WC and EC. The NE and S post codes were abolished in the 1860s due to low mail volume."
"We can thank Anthony Trollope for this, as the man who introduced the postbox was asked to investigate the efficiency of the post system. He found that the south and the north-east weren't generating enough letters to warrant their own code, so he simply got rid of them. The residents in S were absorbed into either SW or SE; at the time most of them were happy to just get on with it, but the NE removal was quite a bit more controversial."
Sir Rowland Hill created London's postcode system in the 1856s and established ten postcode areas: N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW, WC and EC. Anthony Trollope evaluated postal efficiency and found the south and north-east generated insufficient mail, which led to abolition of NE and S in the 1860s. Residents of S were reassigned to SW or SE, with most accepting the change. Northeast residents were reassigned to E but many continued using NE and resisted the change when later informed. The continued absence of NE and S in 2026 reflects that historical decision rather than modern postal planning.
Read at Time Out London
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