Jamie Thompson wrote:

On May 9, 9:47*am, wrote:
On Mon, 9 May 2011 08:18:45 +0100

"Peter Masson" wrote:
Not specifically Irish, but used where the county and a town in it have the
same name, and the shire suffix doesn't apply. The one English example is
County Durham.

Not just counties - why Finchley Central instead of Central Finchley for
example?

B2003

Well, I always assumed that it provides alphabetical grouping in
documentation (and in modern web uses, drop-down lists), and would be
very handy if all stations used that form:
Acton Central,
Acton East,
Acton Mainline,
Acton North,
Acton South,
Acton Town,
Acton West

...but it was usually down to the original railway company to do the
naming, hence the variations.

Early usage was often to put the bit after the town name in brackets.

E.g.: BIRMINGHAM (Snow Hill)

because as far as each company was concerned, it was e.g. their
BIRMINGHAM station.

Once the system is integrated, the brackets are dropped.
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