Things we don't know.
Where is Central London?
A while back, we got confused about which area was Hoxton and Shoreditch and everything inbetween. But we solved that problem pretty quickly. However, it appears that this isn't the only part of London's geography that confuses us. It turns out that no one can agree on where Central London is.
Obviously, Central London is a pretty vital part of our lives so we decided to investigate a little more.
Now, Glitterbitch has always thought Central London was around Charing Cross and Shaftesbury Avenue. But then someone pointed out to us that it was called the 'West End' for a reason. (Though the only people who really call it that are on Eastenders, surely?) But while we do see their point, we think of Notting Hill as being west London so we're more confused.
But then, the same person also said he thought that Central was all the way over by Bank and St Pauls Cathedral. Maybe even as far out as Liverpool Street. This is just a bit silly to us. That's clearly east London.
We had a look at the postcodes, and WC1 seems to be most central to us. Except when you realise that Kings Cross is in WC1 and we always thought that was North.
A very clever man also told us that all road signs to London are measured from Trafalgar Square, so surely that's the most central point? Or maybe it's actually the Centrepoint building? We don't know.
We'd just like to know where we're drinking. Actually, we'd also like to prove clever people wrong. So if you can help us, do tell us exactly where central London is in the comments. Then we'll find the most central bar we can and tell you what it's like.
Flickr image of Centrepoint from Maurice Koop's photostream.
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5 Comments
According to the BBC it's just outside Charing Cross station, and mileages from London are measured from the site of the original cross.
Well, the easiest definition is surely that Zone 1 = Central London.
Wikipedia has its own ideas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_London
Even more bafflingly, where is London?
The whole big thing is known as Greater London.
The financial part is The City of London.
Then there's the City of Westminster.
But no one part is officially called London.
We live in a city that does not exist.
Liverpool Street is not east London! It's in the 'square mile' for goodness sake! (At least I think it is.) Plus it's in the EC2 postal district, and you know what the C in EC2 stands for, don't you?
Still, I agree that the terminology is confusing. M@'s Wikipedia reference sums up most viewpoints, but here's what I think anyway...
When I say "let's meet somewhere in central London", what I'm actually saying is "let's meet somewhere in Zone 1". This means that I don't get dragged out to Hammersmith or anywhere silly and inconvenient like that.
However, if I'm trying to annoy my suburb-dwelling mates, I will sometimes refer to 'inner London' as 'central London'. I do this specifically so that I can make the tenuous and far-fetched claim that I live in central London. (There's excellent scope in annoying people by claiming that the Isle of Dogs is 'central'.)
A mate of mine once posed the question – what it the central-most point in London? We decided not to ponder too much, but to simply look at the postcode boundary between EC1, WC1, EC4 and WC2. Based on that, we concluded that Chancery Lane tube station was in fact the most central part of the city.
Quite a let-down, really - it's not even open at the weekend!
I agree, zone 1 is central London to me. But then Elephant and Castle is not central london....hmm this is more difficult than it seems.
If you want to find the exact centre of town, at least gravitationally, print out a map of greater london as large as you can.
Cut out around the boundary.
Mount it on some card.
Now balance it on a pinhead.
Wherever the pinpoint is will be the centre of gravity for London.
Note, this doesn't take into account the 3D topography of hills.