Background
The General Post Office issued subscriber trunk dialling (STD) codes for most areas during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The codes allowed subscribers to call other exchanges directly and without the assistance of an operator. To help the public remember the new codes they were represented by a recognisable combination of two letters and a number. The letters and numbers corresponded as follows:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | DEF | GHI | JKL | MN | PRS | TUV | WXY | OQ |
The three character codes were dialled after an initial '0' which gave trunk access. For example the code for Bath was BA5, which was dialled as 0225. The rotary dial included the corresponding letters next to the appropriate digits.
In six metropolitan areas around major cites, groups of multiple exchanges operated in a director telephone system. The six cities were Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Manchester. In these areas the first three digits of the seven digit subscriber number was presented as letters chosen to represent the local exchange within the director area. For example, in the London telephone area a subscriber number on the Wimbledon exchange was presented WIM 1234 and dialled as 946 1234. These local exchange codes predated the introduction of STD codes by several decades.
Read more about this topic: All-figure Dialling
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