The Open Guide to London: the free London guide

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|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.

• [Northfields]? is not near [Southfields]?.

• 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.

• Sometimes [football teams move grounds, but keep their name. The name might include a place name which is no longer accurate. [Queens Park Rangers|Queens Park Rangers]] are not at home in Queen's Park, but Shepherd's Bush. Similarly, Arsenal play in Highbury, not Woolwich, where the club originated. Millwall is a place in Tower Hamlets but the football team of the same name is based in Bermondsey.

• The names of English towns are by no means unique, for example, there are two Ashfords, one in [Locale Middlesex]?, near [Heathrow Airport, and the other in Kent. The same can also be true of London districts. There are two Plaistows, one in Newham, the one with a [tube station|Plaistow Station]], and the other in Kent, near Beckenham. To be unambiguous about place names, quote the postal district or London borough.

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.
  • I was approached by a foreign tourist asking for directions to 'Liverpool' at a tube station recently. It took quite a while for me to help him understand the difference between Liverpool and Liverpool Street. (Tom Morris)

• Do not take the Tube between Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus it is 2003/tube walklines final lmfaint.html 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|Boston Manor Station]] 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 Holborn, left into Hatton Garden and right into Greville Street than anything involving the Central & Circle Lines.

For more examples see the page Adjacent Stations.

• 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.

• Pavement - In England, this is the word for a sidewalk or trottoir. In America, the word "pavement" is used to refer to any asphalted surface suitable for driving vehicles over, such as a car park or a road! Talking to an American about walking on the pavement might give them undue concerns for your safety.

See id=1328154 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.

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|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.

• [Northfields]? is not near [Southfields]?.

• 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.

• Sometimes [football teams move grounds, but keep their name. The name might include a place name which is no longer accurate. [Queens Park Rangers|Queens Park Rangers]] are not at home in Queen's Park, but Shepherd's Bush. Similarly, Arsenal play in Highbury, not Woolwich, where the club originated. Millwall is a place in Tower Hamlets but the football team of the same name is based in Bermondsey.

• The names of English towns are by no means unique, for example, there are two Ashfords, one in [Locale Middlesex]?, near [Heathrow Airport, and the other in Kent. The same can also be true of London districts. There are two Plaistows, one in Newham, the one with a [tube station|Plaistow Station]], and the other in Kent, near Beckenham. To be unambiguous about place names, quote the postal district or London borough.

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.
  • I was approached by a foreign tourist asking for directions to 'Liverpool' at a tube station recently. It took quite a while for me to help him understand the difference between Liverpool and Liverpool Street. (Tom Morris)

• Do not take the Tube between Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus it is 2003/tube walklines final lmfaint.html 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|Boston Manor Station]] 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 Holborn, left into Hatton Garden and right into Greville Street than anything involving the Central & Circle Lines.

For more examples see the page Adjacent Stations.

• 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.

• Pavement - In England, this is the word for a sidewalk or trottoir. In America, the word "pavement" is used to refer to any asphalted surface suitable for driving vehicles over, such as a car park or a road! Talking to an American about walking on the pavement might give them undue concerns for your safety.

See id=1328154 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.