What's in a Drome?

[DracoM]

Reminder: Drome today at 3.30 p.m.

[Alain Maréchal]

I expect this has been asked before: why is it referred to as Drome?

[DracoM]

Take your pick: some insiders say it's because it feels like an aerodrome to sing in, roof shape etc, .....or......but the explanations are many and equally spurious / apocryphal. The truth seems to be that nobody really knows, just that it has been called such for decades.

[Alain Maréchal]

I've tried a little online reserch - interesting byways, but uninformative.

[DracoM]

I'm afraid that is possibly all you'll get. 'Byways' - like it! Judging by the last time this came up a few years ago, the explanations were varied, and even bizarre, so......if you DO find something, do let us know!!

I did actually get in touch with West Cath last time and they knew the soubriquet, but could not really help.

[mopsus]

A friend of mine was one of the clergy there for some years and thought the 'aerodrome' explanation was the most likely.

[Simon Biazeck]

I expect this has been asked before: why is it referred to as Drome?

As a regular deputy I was told Drome is short for Hippodrome. Don't ask me why - probably coined by some peculiar lay clerk back in the day when the other Hippodrome in Westminster was at its height. I can confirm that there are no animal acts featured during Mass or Vespers.

[french frank]

As a regular deputy I was told Drome is short for Hippodrome. Don't ask me why - probably coined by some peculiar lay clerk back in the day when the other Hippodrome in Westminster was at its height. I can confirm that there are no animal acts featured during Mass or Vespers.

I'm wondering whether the suffix 'drome' became popular (rather like 'gate' now for a scandal) since the words aerodrome and velodrome appeared at the very beginning of the 20th c. - 1902 - (and modelled on hippodrome and peridrome). But possibly the nickname doesn't date back that far.

The peridrome (architecture not lepidoptery) was part of a classical columned temple. Just a thought.

[vinteuil]

... I never found out why the telegram address of British Embassies was "Prodrome" - eg prodrome manama, prodrome paris, prodrome riyadh.

Is this a mystery akin to that of W'minster Cathedral?

[french frank]

... I never found out why the telegram address of British Embassies was "Prodrome" - eg prodrome manama, prodrome paris, prodrome riyadh.

Is this a mystery akin to that of W'minster Cathedral?

Prodromos is Forerunner, isn't it? Ioannis Prodromos was John the Baptist. But I'm not sure what connection he might have had with the British Embassy anywhere.

[Simon Biazeck]

The peridrome (architecture not lepidoptery) was part of a classical columned temple. Just a thought.

I'll buy that - it sounds the most plausible explanation, but perhaps we'll never know for sure.

[DracoM]

I think this is an interesting discussion about the provenance of a nickname for Westminster Cathedral.

Oh, was there a live service there this afternoon as well?

[Gabriel Jackson]

I think this is an interesting discussion about the provenance of a nickname for Westminster Cathedral.

Oh, was there a live service there this afternoon as well?

Who started it, by using that nickname?

[grandchant]

deRome?

[ardcarp]

deRome?

Of course!!!