On 2010\09\24 01:05, Mizter T wrote:

On Sep 23, 10:25 pm, Tom wrote:

On Thu, 23 Sep 2010, Mizter T wrote:

On Sep 23, 7:38 pm, Ian wrote:

It's surprising how many examples there are of streets being known by
one name but actually being something else. It's "Strand", not "The
Strand" and "Aldwych" not "The Aldwych".

But a number of streets do get the definitive article tagged on, in
speech at least, to a greater or lesser extent - e.g. The Old Kent Road,
The Euston Road, The Edgware Road, The Walworth Road, The Cromwell Road,
The Holloway Road, The King's Road, The Mile End Road, The Harrow Road,
The East India Dock Road, The Uxbridge Road etc.

Mostly - and ISTR we've talked about this before - ones that are named for
a destination. The expression 'the Edgware road' means 'the road to
Edgware', in much the same way as you might say 'the radiator pipe' or
'the lamp cable', and i tend to think that this usage came first, with the
idea that the road had a name, and that name was 'Edgware Road', coming
later.

I agree with all of that - indeed I might have had a stab at a similar
explanation in my earlier post if I'd had an extra moment or two. (I
probably shouldn't really have capitalised the the's [1] in my list
but I think I was just ramming home The point.)

[1] Trying to pluralise "the" will always end in tears, I know...


The two exceptions to that rule in your list are The King's Road, where i
think an analogous origin exists, and The Cromwell Road, which i cannot
explain.

The first is easy - it's Charles II's.

'The' Cromwell Road is indeed the odd one out - I couldn't and still
can't think of another similar example.

The North Circular Road, The Westway, The Western Avenue, The Eastern
Avenue, The Great North Road, The Great North Way. "Pop Goes The Weasel"
contains the line "Up and down the City Road", although that may have
been contrived for scansion purposes and doesn't really sound right to me.

Although of course there is a Liverpool Road running up from Angel which
also does not go to Liverpool, so this is not an iron rule.

It does go towards Liverpool. I believe that the original Great North
Road ran down Friern Barnet Lane, Colney Hatch Lane, Crouch End Broadway
and Hornsey Road... Liverpool Road seems to be a continuation of this
line, so will have been the road from London to Liverpool at one point.


The 'Road' bit isn't an iron rule, but if it's 'Road' and it
(eventually) leads one to its namesake then I reckon it's a decent
rule of thumb, if not an iron rule.

"Way" seems to work just as well as "Road"... The Hendon Way, The
Watford Way, The Purley Way.

"Lane" seems not to work though... "The Finchley Lane" and "The Hendon
Lane" sound wrong. This road is called "Hendon Lane" when it's in
Finchley and become "Finchley Lane" as soon as it crosses into Hendon,
so it's definitely a named-after-destination road.