On Jul 18, 5:47*pm, John B wrote:

On Jul 18, 3:05*pm, "Basil Jet"
wrote:

John B wrote:

(for m.t.u-t'ers, Middlesex hasn't existed for 44 years)

Middlesex exists, it just isn't recognised by the national government.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&...7,-0.148702&sp...

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&...5,-0.138509&sp...

I understand that these signs were put up by Enfield Council less than 15
years ago. I'm not aware of any others.

Seems unlikely: councils aren't normally allowed to put up signs
conveying false information.

I've been up close and personal with one such sign - I honestly don't
know the veracity of that story (which I've heard before, but perhaps
it was here!), but the signs themselves certainly seem in pretty good
nick if they really are *that* old. I took photos too, however I've no
idea where they are but I'll try and find them.

(I actually had various thoughts about them being maintained
particularly well by the Borough roads people, and one though that's
just come to me is that perhaps they replaced old signs like for like
with other old but unused ones inherited from the stores of Middlesex
CC.)


I imagine there are still signs in parts of Slovenia suggesting that
it's in Yugoslavia; I'm equally sure that these don't mean Yugoslavia
exists.

To an extent, Middlesex exists as a place in the sense that people
think it exists - in that sense it's much like any other place name.
There's all those many things named after Middlesex of course -
there's Middlesex County Cricket Club for example, and there's also
North Middlesex and West Middlesex hospitals (and there was (Central)
Middlesex Hospital, now merged with UCH). Middlesex also continued to
exist as a postal county up until the Royal Mail abandoned the notion
of postal counties, so properly addressed letters included Middlesex
on the last line (this issue is somewhat complicated as a good chunk
of metropolitan Middlesex was already in the London postal district).