British Cities

[gurnemanz]

From early childhood my Mum and I would take the Green Line from Victoria coach station to Upper Warlingham, where a nearest cousin lived. In the early 1960s he and I attended ballroom dance classes at the large dance hall in Purley that was reputed to be the largest of its kind in the world, that being Purley's claim to fame for me. By that time the Lambeth Walk was no more than an old music hall song for old codgers in pubs on Saturday nights, and no one taught us the Purley Way.

There's a remarkable conjuction of metropolitan and old county boundaries within shouting distance of where I live - within a few hundred metres the county boundaries of Kent, Surrey and the London County Council met, as indicated on an OS map of 1963 in my possession; further along the Crystal Palace Parade, Southwark, Croydon, Lambeth and Bromley meet - Lewisham not being far to the north. When I gashed my shin one year ago on a deep pothole on C Palace Parade the chappie who drove up from Southwark wasn't sure which side of the boundary said pothole was with Lambeth;

I had forgotten about Green Lines. In the 1950s they seemd rather exotic - you could catch one from Old Coulsdon to Hemel Hemsptead, Amersham and such places - which for me might as well have been the other side of the moon.

Aged about four, I fell out of the back door of our car going along Crystal Palace Parade. Child locks and seat belts had not yet been invented. Luckily, the car was going slowly so my father just stopped the car (black Morris 8) and went back to retrieve me.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'd question just one thing in your post. My understanding was that Charing Cross was regarded as the centre of Central London but I could be wrong.

But that's in Westminster ...

[Lat-Literal]

I'm not certain if it was thought to be the centre, but distances were measured from Charing Cross, i.e. the Eleanor Cross destroyed in the Commonwealth, on the site of which now stands the equestrian statue of Charles, King and Martyr (looking towards the site of his execution). Which makes Trafalgar Square a reasonable modern approximation. The village of Charing, and the Royal Mews which it contained, were cleared to make way for the square.

So fare thee well old Charing Cross
fare thee well old stump
Thou wert a thing put up by a King
and so torn down by the Rump

Thank you for the clarification.

But that's in Westminster ...

Not sure how to answer this one, Eine, but perhaps you are making a distinction between the City of Westminster and the City of London?

We were talking about the centre of Central London as I understood it, which is admittedly something of a nebulous concept!

[Alain Maréchal]

The current City of Westminster is a recent creation. "London" has long been a byword for the Metropolis, not just the City of London. Charing Cross was where the road that ran along the riverside (Strand) turned towards the Minster in the West.