Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:

Mizter T wrote:

I'm still curious about how the railway company (the Millwall Extension
Rly, which may have been subsidiary of sorts to the London & Blackwall
Rly) gave North Greenwich station it's name. My leaky memory has just
this moment recalled reading something about this in the past - I think
the suggestion was that the North Greenwich station name was an
'aspirational' one, i.e. it was trading on the good name of Greenwich
to the south of the river. Perhaps there were housebuilders involved in
the financing of the railway, or indeed the railway had their hand in
the property market. Or the railway just wanted to encourage people to
live in the area in order to build up patronage.

Was the foot tunnel in operation at the time? If so then the station may
have been named to attract passengers who wanted to go to Greenwich (as I
said Ryanair were hardly the first to do this sort of thing - see also
Wanstead Park).


Good point, I hadn't though of it that way round.

Nor had I appreciated the absurdity behind the naming of Wanstead Park
station. A more honest station name would've been Wanstead Flats, but
it doesn't quite have the same ring to it!

I've read a few old threads on uk.railway where absurd station names
were discussed. I do think it's fascinating (especially in urban areas
such as London) the way the railway's naming of stations can alter
popular understanding of the location of certain areas, the way the
railway utilised aspirational names for some stations, and even the way
places can take their name from pre-existing nearby stations (the names
of which might be somewhat misleading in the first place). This
interplay between the railway's use (and abuse) of established place
names and the railway itself establishing 'new places' and thus place
names is especially interesting in London.

Clapham Junction is really in Battersea, over a mile from Clapham
proper, but at the time of the station was named Clapham sounded posher
than Battersea (and it probably still does). Given so much development
has taken place because of the arrival of the railway it's fair enough
that the area is now popularly called Clapham Junction. In this sense
the aspiration to be Clapham has become reality - well, a semi-reality
really, as those familiar with the area would appreciate the
distinction between Clapham and Clapham Junction.

Willesden Junction is aspirational in that it took the name of the more
upmarket district of Willesden and named a major station in adjacent
Harlesden after it.

East Dulwich station is on the north-west edge of the Victorian suburb
it purportedly serves, and is in fact considerably further north than
North Dulwich station which is on the same line - confusing to those
who aren't familiar with the area (and even those who are). The suburb
of East Dulwich is itself aspirationally named after Dulwich Village -
developers considered calling the area South Peckham (at the time
Peckham was considered quite an upmarket district), but association
with the Dulwich name won the day.

The presence of Victoria station has meant that people popularly refer
to the locality as Victoria, but really there's no such district as
Victoria - it's either Pimlico, Belgravia or Westminster. In this case
the area was inhabited and developed before the coming of the railway,
so I'd urge the use of the 'proper' place names. But ultimately people
name places, so if enough people know it as and thus call it Victoria,
then I guess that's what the place becomes.

Which leads on to what I consider to be an example of an place being
rechristened by the railway - Kings Cross. The area was a village
called Battle Bridge. In 1835 a monument was erected to King George IV
- i.e. the 'Kings Cross' - though it only lasted until 1845. In 1852
Kings Cross station opened. I doubt that in the ten years the monument
was up the old area name of Battle Bridge vanished from use - perhaps
it was used in tandem with Kings Cross, but it was surely the decision
to name the new railway station that opened there 'Kings Cross' as
opposed to 'Battle Bridge' (presumably KX was considered a better name)
that sunk the old place name of Battle Bridge into the murky waters of
history.