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. MRSC 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)

I've knocked that off as the BBC article does not itself seem to quote anything official but just a "tradition". I can't find any official appointment of Charing Cross as a reference point, even on the DfT site. Older maps often used St. Paul's Cathedral (or sometimes the Monument?) as the "centre" and that is where road-numbering kicked off from. The main "heavy-duty" users of Charing Cross as a measurement point seem to be the Civil Service and I suspect that they are to blame, possibly via the Ordnance Survey or otherwise by selecting a measurement point more central to where they tended to gather.--MBRZ48 (talk) 05:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)--MBRZ48 (talk) 05:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "nearest places"

Nearest places

Nearest tube stations

Nearest railway stations

What is the point of that whole section? What connection do Holborn, Mayfair etc have with Charing Cross? Holborn station is nearly a mile away. And why would you go to Westminster station if you were heading for Charing Cross? Lfh 10:36, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Charing Cross Explained

'Charing Cross' denotes a road junction location like The Angel, Islington. Charing Cross Station was named after the junction location not vice-versa. This road junction is still marked on the map as 'Charing Cross', even though it is no longer a postal address. Colin4C (talk) 11:19, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

You are right, but the Angel is the name of a former Inn, and Charing Cross is the former cross in the village of Charing. By extension these names have become associated with road junctions after the original has passed into history. Kbthompson (talk) 11:34, 26 January 2008 (UTC)