Popular Local Phone Numbers: London

Regular readers might recall that we have been following the progress of the London 2012 Olympic Games with a keen interest, and with just a week to go now until the games we thought it would be fitting to use our regular to look at popular local phone numbers to talk about the host city: London.

London is the largest city in the UK, with a population of over 8 million – approximately one eighth of the UK population. Built around the River Thames, London has a history dating back over 2000 years to Roman times, and has witnessed the Black Death, the Peasants’ Revolt, the Great Fire of London and the Blitz to name but a few. Between 1831 and 1925 London had the largest population of any city in the world.

London is the world’s most visited city, with tourist attractions including the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, St Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament. It is one of the world’s leading financial centres. It also boasts 40 West End theatres, 43 universities and the world’s oldest underground railway.

This is not the first time that London has hosted the Olympic Games – it previously did so in 1908 and 1948. The area code for London is 020 – often split into 0203, 0207 and 0208 numbers. Enjoy the games!

Leading local numbers company reports increase in demand for 0203 numbers

We were interested to read that one of the leading suppliers of virtual telephone numbers, The Virtual Number Company, reported that it has had to increase its stock of London 0203 numbers a few weeks ago because of a large increase in demand.

Those of you who follow London phone numbers will remember that the 0203 number - or rather the 020 London area code with the first digit of the rest of the number being 3 - were only introduced in 2005. Previously there had only been 0207 and 0208, for inner and outer London. 0203 was introduced as an across all of Greater London code.

It took some time to catch on, but it seems from what The Virtual Number Company has said that it is now finally as popular as the more established 0207 and 0208 numbers. Maybe the demand is there because of the Olympics, and it is being used as one internationally recognised number?