Talk:Charing Cross
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[edit] Dear Queen?
"Charing Cross" is a corruption of "cher reine cross", that being French for "dear queen" Does anyone else think this is cackamamie? I'm often wrong. Wetman 06:00, 18 May 2004 (UTC)
- There is a Charing in Kent, near Ashford. Derivation is either "bend in the road" - so the bit in the article about "bend in the river" might not be quite correct, but alludes to the road by the river maybe? 2nd alternative may be ‘place associated with a man called Ceorra’. Both above according to the BBC see here. Nothing about queen, I'm afraid! Peter Shearan 13:24, 22 October 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Conflicting
(1) The name Charing Cross, now given to a mainline railway station and the surrounding district of central London, comes from the original hamlet of Charing
(2) The name Charing Cross derives from the old English word charing, meaning a bend in the river; thus, the Charing Cross is "the cross by the village at the bend in the river".
These are conflicting. There is no demonstrable, proven link between the name 'Charing Cross' and the hamlet in Kent. If there is, provide the reference! The second suggestion is at least consistent - 'char' does relate to a turn or bend (incidently we still use the word today for tea-lady, deriving from a person that does good 'turns' or 'chores'). So Edward's cross goes down near a bend (in the river or a road perhaps), the landmark is established and the area becomes known as Charing Cross. The 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica says the origin is unknown although the cher reine theory is mentioned. AtomBoy 01:32, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
Surely the word Char lady comes from the fact that Tea is known colloqiually as Char, from the Mandarin word chá (茶). Y control 12:31, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
The word charwoman has nothing to do with tea or Mandarin and predates the introduction of tea to Britain and is in any case incidental to this Charing Cross entry. Check the OED for charwoman etc. if you are interested. I'm going to hoist out the Charing hamlet reference until someone comes up with a substantive reference. AtomBoy 21:46, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] The map
Whats going on with the map? It looks fine to me. Mrsteviec 20:28, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Exact centre of London
The article states that Charing Cross is "officially recognized as the exact centre of London". I've added a "fact" tag to the "officially" bit. It seems to be so (certainly throughout WP articles on London), but it is not clear what "officials" are recognizing CC as the centre.
It looks like someone has since added a link to a BBC article. Thanks! 82.27.243.53 19:04, 15 October 2006 (UTC)
