London Banter - View Single Post

John B · June 21st 06, 01:15 PM posted to uk.transport.london

wrote:
Have a look at the following, PLACE / Station name anomalies:

EARLS COURT / Earl's Court
COLLIER'S WOOD / Colliers Wood
ST. JOHN'S WOOD / St. Johns Wood

In the foregoing, all except Earl's Court, the Underground station has
omitted a necessary apostrophe.

Just out of interest, where did you get the capitalised place names
from? Merton Council spells Colliers Wood without an apostrophe. And
Westminster Council spells St John's Wood both ways (as does LUL).

I got it from my Geographer's A to Z.

Fairy snuff. Just goes to show deep the lack of consensus on how the
names are spelt is (despite the obvious grammatical correctness of
"Collier's Wood" if it were a phrase rather than a name).

And, also:

BARONS COURT / Barons Court (not so much an anomaly as simply both
being wrong, with the absence of an apostrophe)
PARSONS GREEN / Parsons Green (ditto)

"To court" is a verb, and barons is a legitimate plural...having
"green" as a verb would be pushing it a bit, though.

John, I think you misunderstand the purpose of the apostrophe. The
Court is the Court of the Earl, hence Earl' Court; likewise the Green
is that of the Parson, hence Parson's Green. They are both nouns.

Whether Baron is singular or plural (Barons), either requires an
apostrophe!

I agree - was just having fun. "Barons court, and colliers would given
half a chance", etc. The real answer is very much Paul Terry's one
downthread:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....ce1c1e405b9ecf

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org