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.

Terms for London often confused

• The City of London refers only to the small "square mile" and main business district. It is governed by the [City of London Corporation]?.

• Greater London is the administrative area made up of 32 London boroughs and the City of London.

• London is the region of England (there are nine in total) and has the same outer boundary as Greater London but is officially called London.

• [City of Westminster]? is one of the London boroughs. The 'city' status of Westminster is purely honorific.

• [Kensington & Chelsea]? and [Kingston upon Thames]? are also London boroughs which have 'royal borough' status. The status is purely honorific.

• [Inner London]? is a defined term meaning those boroughs in the area that was part of the historic County of London (1889-1965). Sometimes the term is used with negative connotations but it includes rich and poor areas alike.

• [Central London]? is an often used but vaguely defined term referring to the most central districts.

• [Outer London]? is a defined term meaning those boroughs that are not in the area that was part of the historic County of London (1889-1965).

• [London postal area]? is the area that has "London" in postal addreses. It includes all of Inner London and about half of Outer London and goes beyond the London boundary in only one place (near Chingford).

• Mayor of London is currently Ken Livingstone who creates a strategic plan for London.

• The Lord Mayor of London presides over the governing bodies of the [City of London Corporation]?, and should not be confused with the Mayor of London.

• London Assembly are a group of politicians who scrutinise and approve his plans and budgets.

• Greater London Authority (GLA) are the group of civil servants that carry out the plan.

• Transport for London are the part of the GLA responsible for transport.

• The 020 area code does not cover all of London and extends beyond the London boundary in several places. Numbers are issued starting with 3, 7 and 8 and can be assigned anywhere in the 020 area.

see Telephone Area Code for London for the history.

• There are no 0207, 0208 or 0203 codes, just one - 020.

Places in 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.

• [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]? 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 [Middlesex]?, near Heathrow Airport, and the other in Kent. There are also two Stratfords - one in East London, and the other (Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare) in Warwickshire.

• The same can also be true of London districts. Similarly there are two Hayes, one in LB Hillingdon, west London and one in LB Bromley, south east London. There are two Plaistows, one in LB Newham, the one with a [Plaistow Station]?, and the other in LB Bromley, 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)
  • Manchester and Liverpool are both cities about 200 miles North-West of London.

• 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 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 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.