Perhaps this sort of thing only happens when the airwaves are quiet and only really acceptable under VFR, but blimey what a lovely grown up way to negotiate large piece of big ol' blue!
My very small point here being that maybe this experience was a one off, but I now tend to think of the pictorial LARS coverage pages as guides, as there is obviously some scope to push the boundaries.
Waddington were being helpful, as they usually are. Essentially the controller provided the same basic service for you that London Information provide, but perhaps less tiresome on the ears. In my experience, London Info can be tiring to monitor, due to the large area covered and the large number of aircraft often on frequency.
Other "non-LARS" agencies can sometimes provide you with a service, at controller's discretion. I sometimes use Coventry, Brum or East Mids, but listen out for a while before calling to get an idea of controller workload.