Street names

In contrast to much of the rest of the English-speaking world, street names in London - or anywhere in Britain - are rarely abbreviated by dropping the 'road', or 'street' from the name. On the contrary, major streets are often referred to with an extra 'the' - as in the Fulham Road, or the Tottenham Court Road. A few street names, such as Knightsbridge and Piccadilly are complete in themselves and never take a 'street' or 'road'.

This is particularly important in referring to tube stations and bus stops, and in stating your destination to taxi drivers. The tube stations of Gloucester Road, Warwick Avenue, and Baker Street would never be referred to just as Gloucester, Warwick, or Baker. The story of the tourist who wanted to go to Liverpool Street station in London, but ended up on a train to the city of Liverpool, 200 miles away, is probably an urban myth. But it illustrates the point. More likely to cause confusion in practice, there are two Edgware Road stations, on different lines, but within a few hundred yards of each other. Both of these are a long way from the station called Edgware.

Posted By: SherryEnema on June 7th 2005 at 13:41:30

Message Thread

Reply to Message

In order to add a post to the WotB Message Board you must be a registered WotB user.

If you are not yet registered then please visit the registration page. You should ensure that their browser is setup to accept cookies.

Log in