Historical version 12 of Easily Made Mistakes (view current version)
London has some peculiarities in how parts of it are named, which can catch out those who are new to London.
- Tottenham Court Road is not in [Tottenham]?, which itself should not be confused with [Tattenham]?.
- [Edgware]? is nowhere near Edgware Road Station (see A5 for more on the Edgware Road itself). Generally, "X Road" means "the road that goes to X"; by the time it gets to X, it'll have changed its name to be "(where you started from) Road". This doesn't generally apply to names ending in street, though. Go figure.
- Charing Cross Hospital is not in Charing Cross, but in Hammersmith; Hammersmith Hospital is similarly not in Hammersmith, but in White City, as is Hammersmith Park.
- London is big, but it's not the whole country - neither Oxford Circus nor Leicester Square are anywhere near the places they're named after.
Tube bloopers
- Always use the full name of the station when buying a ticket, i.e. Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, not Leicester or Piccadilly. The exception to this rule is King's Cross St Pancras, which is unambiguously abbreviated to King's Cross.
- There is an urban legend tale of an American tourist being sold a ticket to Manchester Piccadilly, when they wanted a ticket to Piccadilly Circus.
- Do not take the Tube between Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus — it is quicker to walk.
- Ditto Leicester Square and Covent Garden — the train barely has time to speed up on leaving one before it needs to slow down for the other.
- Ditto Bayswater and Queensway, which the tube map would have you believe are two trains and an interchange apart, but are in fact only 150 yards away from each other - on the same side of the same street.
- Ditto Charing Cross and Embankment stations, which are at opposite ends of the mainline Charing Cross station.
- Ditto Mansion House, Cannon Street and Monument stations, though Cannon Street Station does have restricted hours.
- South Ealing,Northfields and [Boston Manor]? are all very close together. The rumour is that Northfields was built at the behest of a locally-living major shareholder.
- While not exactly a hop, skip and a jump, Chancery Lane to Farringdon is more pleasant as a stroll east along High Holborn, left into Hatton Garden and right into Greville Street than anything involving the Central & Circle Lines.
- Charing Cross is not the nearest station to Charing Cross Road: you're better off using Leicester Square or Tottenham Court Road.
- Bank and Monument stations are actually only one station - with internal interchanges and two different names at the platform. Be warned though it's an awfully long trek between them and infested with buskers.
Can anybody think of any others?
Confusing terminology
English language usage has evolved differently, on each side of the Atlantic. An American may be used, in a restaurant, to settling the check with a bill, whereas in England, you can pay your restaurant bill with a cheque.
- Subway - In England, a subway is a pedestrian walkway which takes you underneath a busy road. There is no Tube station there unless the signs indicate this.
See this page on Everything2 for more examples of confusing terms.
Other mistakes
A commonly made mistake is to assume the most ornate bridge with the lifting spans is London Bridge. It's not, it's Tower Bridge. London Bridge is a plain structure.