"London..." prefix on station names

[johnnychips]

St Paul's is the only English cathedral dedicated just to Paul, so there's no need for disambiguation on that front.

As Clip said, you learn something new on here every day!

 

[vlad]

St Paul's is the only English cathedral dedicated just to Paul, so there's no need for disambiguation on that front.

There's also a St Paul's Cathedral in Dundee, so how come we don't need to disambiguate? I appreciate it's not CofE but it's still part of the Anglican Communion....

 

[urbophile]

While there is London-centred arrogance, the example you give doesn't work. Admittedly St Paul's is the only cathedral within the historic City of London, but it is far from being the only cathedral in London,

I admit it wasn't the best example to use. However, though off-topic I know, St Pauls is the cathedral of the diocese of London, whereas the others while geographically in London are the cathedrals of other dioceses – Westminster, Southwark etc.

 

[Panceltic]

A city which comes to mind immediately to me is Paris. Gare de Nord, Gare de l'Est, Gare de Lyon, Invalides are all terminal stations I have used. There are others and also closed stations. Budapest has three terminal stations.

Invalides is not a terminus, it's a normal through station on the RER network. There are 7 termini in Paris: Gare Saint-Lazare, Gare de l'Est, Gare du Nord, Gare de Lyon, Gare de Bercy, Gare d'Austerlitz and Gare Montparnasse.

 

[muddythefish]

King's Cross was always King's Cross (or is it Kings' Cross) and Paddington the same in my trainspotting day, never with the London prefix. I mean to say, where else are they ?

Adding "London" to a name is part of the over-centralised London-centric nature of the country over the past 40 years, as if it makes a place somehow more important or special.

So now we have airports London Luton, London Stansted and London Southend, when in reality those places are far removed from the capital. Buy why stop there ? Perhaps Birmingham and East Midlands airports should be renamed London Birmingham and London East Midlands ? Make sense when the economy is run for the benefit of London anyway.

 

[DavidGrain]

Invalides is not a terminus, it's a normal through station on the RER network. There are 7 termini in Paris: Gare Saint-Lazare, Gare de l'Est, Gare du Nord, Gare de Lyon, Gare de Bercy, Gare d'Austerlitz and Gare Montparnasse.

Thanks for the correction. I was just working from memory

 

[si404]

There's also a St Paul's Cathedral in Dundee, so how come we don't need to disambiguate?

I'm not sure the people of Dundee would take kindly to the idea that something in their city might be confused with something in London.

Plus - no offence to Dundee's Episcopalians, but, for obvious reasons of both population size and polity of the area covered by the Diocese of Brechin, their "St Paul's Cathedral" is very much like the Screwfix World Cup adverts version of the London, England one. We don't tend to say "Tom Jones, the singer", even though there's a great many Tom Joneses - because there's normally only one people will think of. Likewise St Paul's Cathedral in a UK context one will almost inevitably think of the big one built by Wren, rather than the fairly small parish church in Dundee that just happens to have a diocesian bishopric of a small denomination attached to it.

But, sure, if you are going down that route, there's a good couple of dozen St Paul's Cathedrals worldwide - including one in London, Ontario (hence why I said which London the one in question was in the last paragraph). But they don't have much relevance to this conversation as there's very little scope for confusion when an ambiguous 'St Paul's Cathedral' is mentioned, due to context.

I appreciate it's not CofE but it's still part of the Anglican Communion....

I'm really not overly sure why that matters here, nor why you think it does.

A lot of the St Paul's Cathedrals are Anglican Communion, because they were named after London (England, of course)'s Cathedral. But the context was confusion between Cathedrals (of whatever polity) and I don't think that Kampala's (say) cathedral and London's are likely to be confused 99% of the time.

 

[mmh]

King's Cross was always King's Cross (or is it Kings' Cross) and Paddington the same in my trainspotting day, never with the London prefix. I mean to say, where else are they ?

Adding "London" to a name is part of the over-centralised London-centric nature of the country over the past 40 years, as if it makes a place somehow more important or special.

So now we have airports London Luton, London Stansted and London Southend, when in reality those places are far removed from the capital. Buy why stop there ? Perhaps Birmingham and East Midlands airports should be renamed London Birmingham and London East Midlands ? Make sense when the economy is run for the benefit of London anyway.

I'm all in favour of anti-London rants, but that's just bizarre. In an alternative universe not far away you'd be moaning if a timetable just said "Paddington" with "typical London-centric attitude, they expect everyone to know their station names".

It's not true to say they were never given the London prefix in past days. It was probably less universal, as in days gone by more people would know the names of the major London terminals across the country I imagine, as pre-car people were more likely to know where you ended up if you went to London by train.

King's Cross was always King's Cross (or is it Kings' Cross) and Paddington the same in my trainspotting day, never with the London prefix. I mean to say, where else are they ?

I guess you never trainspotted in Glasgow or Liverpool then (Charing Cross and Waterloo)

 

[Joe Paxton]

Travelling on Thameslink, your train will call at "London St Pancras" and "London Blackfriars" and not at "London Farringdon" but rather just "Farringdon". This seems a bit unusual to me given all three take their names from a geographical area (rather than a street for example that could be in any town). ...

Though the signs at the station (including on the platforms) read "St Pancras International", with no mention of London.

 

[davetheguard]

Agatha Christie did not write "4.50 From London Paddington"!

She must have been half asleep, getting up that early....

 

[transmanche]

St Paul's is the only English cathedral dedicated just to Paul, so there's no need for disambiguation on that front.

I wonder how many people know that Westminster Abbey is neither an abbey nor a cathedral and its formal name is the 'Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster'. It is, however, in the City of Westminster.

 

[si404]

I wonder how many people know that Westminster Abbey is neither an abbey nor a cathedral and its formal name is the 'Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster'.

It was, however, both (hence why Westminster gained city status) - an Abbey from construction until 1540, and then a Cathedral for a decade after that.

 

[transmanche]

It was, however, both (hence why Westminster gained city status) - an Abbey from construction until 1540, and then a Cathedral for a decade after that.

Yes, but neither an abbey nor a cathedral for almost 500 years - plenty of time for us to have got used to a different name.

 

[xotGD]

Back in 1988, announcements at Slough referred to "London Paddington".

 

[PeterC]

King's Cross was always King's Cross (or is it Kings' Cross) and Paddington the same in my trainspotting day, never with the London prefix. I mean to say, where else are they ?

Adding "London" to a name is part of the over-centralised London-centric nature of the country over the past 40 years, as if it makes a place somehow more important or special.

SNIP

Looking at an old (1963) timetable there seemed to be different rules for long distance and local services.
It was "London (King's C)" on the former and "King's Cross" on the latter

 

[vlad]

Yes, but neither an abbey nor a cathedral for almost 500 years - plenty of time for us to have got used to a different name.

I've never heard anyone refer to it as a cathedral. Are these the same people who call any road with a central reservation a motorway?

At least it's referred to by a moniker it used to have. Calke Abbey in Derbyshire has never been an abbey (it's a stately home built on the site of a priory).

 

[si404]

I'm pretty sure a few tourists end up at Westminster Cathedral (the Catholic one) wanting Westminster Abbey, albeit a small number due to the difficultly of trying to get to 'Westminster Cathedral' when you meant the Abbey and not seeing the Abbey and going "there it is".

And, of course, I mean the Collegiate Church, rather than Abbey, but you know, that's what's on all the signs and in all the guide books...