Alphabetical index

London station and place names A–Z

Find a name, then follow its history through the people, buildings, events and landscapes that shaped it.

The collection follows London names, mostly Underground stations, with selected places from the wider London transport map. It also includes Gospel Oak on the Overground, East India on the DLR and Brick Lane, a street rather than a station.

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A

Acton Town — The Oak Farm at the Junction
Aldgate — The Poet Above the Gate
Angel — Where London Began in Earnest
Arnos Grove — A medieval wood, a private estate, a public park and the bright circular station that fixed an old name on the Tube map.
Arsenal — A Woolwich armaments works, a north London football club and Herbert Chapman’s 1932 campaign explain a unique Underground name.

B

Baker Street — The Georgian builder behind the street that became railway, line name and detective legend.
Bank — How the Bank of England turned an institution, a junction and a one-word station name into the heart of the City.
Barbican — The Outwork That Became a City
Barking — The Bell Beside the Creek
Blackfriars — The Friars Who Vanished and the Name That Did Not
Bond Street — A private developer’s name became London shorthand for fashion, shops and a station beneath Oxford Street.
Brick Lane — The Street That Changed Its Prayers
Brixton — A vanished Anglo-Saxon stone, a Surrey hundred and a 1971 terminus lie behind one of south London’s best-known names.
Bromley-by-Bow — An Old English bramble clearing, St Leonard’s parish and the railway suffix that points travellers to the right Bromley.
Buckhurst Hill — An Old English beech-wooded hill, a medieval abbey’s wood, Epping Forest and the 1856 railway that made a town.
Burnt Oak — The Tree That Became an Estate

C

Camden Town — An Earl Camden estate, Camden Place, William Camden at a careful distance, and the Hampstead Tube junction that fixed the name.
Canada Water — Canadian cargo named a working dock; surviving water carried the name into a modern interchange.
Canary Wharf — The Fruit Shed That Became a Skyline
Chalfont & Latimer — A calf spring, a medieval manor and the country junction whose ampersand points beyond the platform.
Chalk Farm — The Pasture Beneath the Painted Tiles
Chancery Lane — New Street, a Chancellor’s palace, the Rolls of Chancery and a legal name carried beneath Holborn.
Charing Cross — A Queen’s Last Journey and the Cross That Disappeared
Chigwell — Cicca’s uncertain spring, forest-edge roads, an Essex manor and a Great Eastern railway carried onto the Central line.
Chiswick Park — An Old English cheese farm, an Acton Green platform and the suburban park added by the railway.
Cockfosters — The Chief Forester and the House That Listened
Covent Garden — The Garden, the Murder and the Man in White Gloves

D

Debden — A deep Old English valley, an ancient manor, Chigwell Lane station and a post-war London estate.

E

Earl’s Court — The earl is uncertain. The court is gone. The station still announces both.
East India — Where Empire Came Ashore
Elephant & Castle — The Sign No One Can Explain and the Crossroads That Kept It
Embankment — The Riverbank London Had to Invent
Epping — Upland dwellers, a moving market town, Great Eastern steam and the Central line’s eastern threshold.
Euston — A Suffolk ducal estate, London’s pioneering mainline terminus and two 1907 Underground arrivals behind a remarkably travelled name.

F

Farringdon — A medieval goldsmith’s name passed into a City ward, a street and the world’s first underground railway.

G

Gospel Oak — The Lost Tree and the Young Signalman
Greenwich — An Old English harbour name carries the Thames, trade and a gravel-ground mystery into the modern DLR station.

H

Hainault — The Forest That Would Not Quite Go
Hampstead — The Home Place Above London
Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3 — The Village Beneath the Runways
Highgate — A gate into the Bishop of London’s medieval deer park named the hilltop village and its layered railway station.
Holborn — The stream, the hollow and the argument beneath the street

K

King’s Cross St Pancras — The King Who Lasted Nine Years and the Saint Who Lasted Seventeen Centuries
Knightsbridge — The Bridge That Was Never About Armour

L

Leicester Square — The Earl’s House and the Battle for the Night
Leytonstone — The High Stone, a cautious Roman tradition, Victorian steam and the Central line’s branching rails.
Limehouse — Medieval lime oasts beside the Thames became a dockside district, a canal name and a railway interchange.
Loughton — Luhha’s settlement, Waltham Abbey estates, Epping Forest and a railway suburb at London’s edge.

M

Maida Vale — The Battle That Became a Vale and the Women Who Opened Its Station
Marble Arch — The Monument That Lost Its Palace
Marylebone — A parish church, a hidden stream and a 1917 railway rename explain one of London’s most deceptively spelt station names.
Mile End — A measured mile from Aldgate became a green for gatherings, an East End district and an interchange.
Monument — The Night London Burned and the Column That Accused
Mornington Crescent — The Curve That Became a Joke
Mudchute — The Waste Ground That Became a Farm

N

Neasden — The Nose-Hill Beneath the Jubilee Line
Notting Hill Gate — The Gate That Outlived the Toll

O

Oxford Circus — The Highway and the Regency Circus

P

Paddington — Padda’s Farm and the Roof That Opened the West
Perivale — A probable pear-tree vale became a tiny parish, a canal-side suburb and a post-war Central line station.
Piccadilly Circus — The Collar That Became the Centre of London
Pudding Mill Lane — The Mill That Vanished Into a Portal

Q

Queensway — The Road That Borrowed a Queen

R

Ruislip — A rushy crossing on the River Pinn became a manor, a village and a Metroland station name.

S

Seven Sisters — The Trees That Died and the Name That Replanted Them
Shepherd’s Bush — The Green and the Man Who Fell
Snaresbrook — A lost brook, the older Sayesbrook form and the railway that fixed an unresolved name on the Central line map.
South Kensington — The Palace That Vanished and the District It Paid For
St John’s Wood — A medieval Order’s wooded land became a planned suburb, then a Jubilee line name beneath north-west London.
Swiss Cottage — The Tavern That Lent London the Alps

T

Temple — The Round Church Beneath the Lawyers
Theydon Bois — The Wood That Would Not Quite Become London
Tooting Bec — The Norman Abbey on the Common
Tottenham Court Road — The manor, the road and the station name
Tower Hill — The old ground outside the Tower, and the railway name that moved away before returning home.
Turnpike Lane — The road leading to a Green Lanes toll barrier gave its name to a 1932 transport interchange.

U

Uxbridge — The Bridge With a Difficult First Half

V

Vauxhall — A medieval man’s hall became Fox Hall, London’s famous gardens and a modern interchange.
Victoria — The Queen Who Became a Street

W

Walthamstow Central — An Old English welcome-place, an Essex parish and the 1968 Victoria line terminus.
Wapping — A probable marsh-name descended through a river wall, Brunel’s tunnel and the entrance-shaft station.
Waterloo — How a Village in Brabant Crossed the Thames
Wembley Park — The Tower That Failed and the Crowds That Came
White City — The Exhibition That Refused to Leave
Woodford — A ford beside the wood, the River Roding, scattered hamlets and the Central line’s forest-edge railway.