LONDON PLACE NAMES

Hokitika Guardian, 31 July 1925, Page 1

LONDON PLACE NAMES

(0.(1.5. in London “Daily Mail.") What’s in a place-name? Mhy is Loudon not called Luuchesler nr Lumliury, as it ought to bet The English Place-Name Society is studying prohlems of this kind.

Who could suspect that Wembley was the lea.where Waniba, the Saxon liaslured his docks, or that the name Elect-street is more than 000 years old > Hammersmith has nothing to do wilii horse-shoes, but was the mouth of a small stream: the meaning of “hammer” is unknown, hut it may have been the name of the stream. Gunliersburv was the residence of the Lady Gunhild; Bloomsbury belonged to Bloonmnd of Totenhale (Tottenham Count in A.D. 1202. , „ , .. ~ . At Earl’s Court lived the Karls ol Oxfoul who held the manor ol Kensington in Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Harrow Hill was the site of a pagan temple tor which tin- Saxon word was “hearh. Appearances, however, are not always deceptive. Chiswick really is denved from cl.ee,se. produced in the wic oi dairv-farm there hy the I lrames meadows. where the cattle browsed. Mayfair is tlie place where a lair was Ivl in Mav for 21 years (1088-1,09). Ha vs water was the watering-place ol Bavnard f.OO years ago. But who non could call Bethnal Green a pleasant nook or corner?” The first part was once “blithe.” hut it may also have been a man's name. These explanations are based _ upon the oldest recorded spellings used when the names were new, and had (as all names once had) a living meaning. Obviously that is the only way to Ini' out their original sense. Li A.D. the site of the Marble Arch will !»«- Mfr he spelt: Mu Blurch. and some "tiesscr may say it was so called all i an old woman who sold oranges thclc during the First Great Mar. •So to-day we are grave y told that Charing Cross was erected by King Edward I. in memory m jus “dout- <iueot (cheri reine) ; though it was called c, ri„go long before the Norman Conquest . „