gg1
Established Member
It's probably a legacy of when London numbers were 01, then 071/081, the 0171/0181 and the second half of the number was always quoted ### ####.I don't dispute your reasoning, but it's an argument that's long been lost, with almost all businesses that use such numbers quoting them in print, on the internet and on the side of vans in the way you deplore. Of course, the reason given originally by B.T. for the change has proved to be utterly spurious, costing businesses a lot of money unnecessarily.
The fact that initially all 0171 numbers became 020 7 and 0181 numbers 020 8 with the last 7 digits unchnaged only served to reinforce that.
Much better than the McDonald's stuff people have been discussing recently!