These cover parts of eastern Greater London and south-west Essex.

Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill are covered by Woodford Green Royal Mail Delivery Office [3] The area served includes much of the London Borough of Redbridge, the western part of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, and the southwestern part of the Epping Forest district of Essex, while the western part of IG8 and IG11 covers a small part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, and the London Borough of Newham.

The approximate coverage of the postcode districts is as follows:[4] In 2005, a local businessman named Wilson Chowdhry led a campaign for Ilford's IG1 postcode to be changed to E19.

However, a Royal Mail spokesman said that the campaign had "virtually no hope" of succeeding, as postcodes are only changed for operational reasons.

Ilford had been part of the original E division of the London postal district from 1857 until 1866.