OT - grasp of simple concepts like road names

[David]

Trying to give someone directions (road names have been changed to protect the innocent).

Next, turn right onto London Road.

But the London Road goes to London, I don't want to go to London.

Tried to explain that each road has two ends, generally named for where the road goes. So in Brighton the road is called the London Road and in London the other end of the same road is called the Brighton Road.

So you could head into Brighton on the London Road.

Or head into London on the Brighton Road.

Not a glimmer.

Sigh.

Never mind, I propose that the different sides of a road are named after the big town you are heading for on that side.

So two rows of houses; 2-20 Brighton Road directly opposite 1-19 London Road.

Or would that just confuse people?

Head Wall

Dave R

[spuorgelgoog]

Yes. It should be 2-20 Brighton Road directly opposite 19-1 London Road, as London would be counting from the opposite direction :-)

Now try to explain to an American that Rose Street in Edinburgh is not the same as Rose Street Lane North and is nowhere at all near Rose Lane, Rose Court or Rose Park.

Owain

[TimW]

You may know of that block of streets ib London developed in the 17th century on the land of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. The streets were named:

George Street Villiers Street Duke Street Of Alley Buckingham Street

Of Alley has gone I think. TW

[The Natural Philosopher]

No Rose close or Rose crescent?

[soup]

Or try explaining to them that Deanpark is in Balerno whilst Dean Park is near the Dean village We have had; taxis, takeaways, VERY lost delivery drivers etc.

And as an added bonus our postcode starts EH14 as does Wester Hailes

[Peter Johnson]

I called a help line (in the UK) more than 20 years ago and was answered by an American. During the course of the conversation he asked me to confirm where I was calling from. When I told him Leicester he answered, 'Ah, that was where I understood England for the first time. I went to New Walk and found it was 200 years old.'

[Peter Johnson]

When I worked in a fire service control centre, more than 20 years ago now, they thought it would be a good idea to train the recruits to ask

999 callers the name of the nearest main road. So the calls went like this: 'Fire Service. What's the address?' 'London Road (or Welford Road, or Melton Road etc).' 'What's the nearest main road?' [Confused caller, thinking 'What do they mean, it is the main road?] And so it went on.

And you couldn't get it across to them that if the caller gave the name of a main road the question should be 'Whereabouts on London Road (or whatever) is it?' because they hadn't been trained to say that. And you couldn't get it across to the trainers that the question needed some flexibility. (I had leaerned this with very little training in the 1970s, because people were capable of working things out for themselves then.)

[spuorgelgoog]

I wouldn't have described that as a bonus.

Owain

[Nightjar]

On 31-Jul-17 4:17 PM, [e-mail] wrote: ...

My recollections of Rose Street are somewhat hazy. Probably something to do with the number of pubs.

[Huge]

The first (and only) time we summoned the FB, they couldn't find us, because the lane we lived on didn't have a name. The people who lived on it called it (e.g.) Derby Road, and it turned into Church Lane at one end. Afterwards, we spoke to the FB and they updated their GIS database, and we spoke to the local council about getting the road formally named, but they said they couldn't do it because they didn't know where it turned from Derby Road to Church Lane. My wife suggested labelling it "Church Lane leading to Derby Road" at one end and "Derby Road leading to Church Lane" at the other. This obviously made the pointy-headed time-serving bureaucrats at the local coincil very confused, because they still hadn't sorted it when we moved out, several years later.

This is worth a read;

[Bob Eager]

Yes, but Rose Street is the important one...

In Brighton, there's a Lewes Road. It goes (eventually) to Lewes.

But off it, as a small side street, is an Edinburgh Road. Which goes nowhere really. Next to Inverness Road and Aberdeen Road.

That would really confuse the person in the OP!

[Max Demian]

Avenue, Mews, Gardens?

Is there really such a shortage of cardinal names that all the variants have to be used, regardless of inaccuracy?

Often an Avenue is bereft of trees, and a Close doesn't go away from the main road to return further on.

A newly built road near me is called so-and-so Mews, but with no trace of coach house, stables or accommodation for coachman, groom or ostler.

[Max Demian]

You should have mentioned that the New Forest was new in the time of William the Conqueror, and, moreover has very few trees over most of its area.

[NY]

I think of a Close as being a cul-de-sac. I wonder if in the above example you meant "a Crescent doesn't go away from the main road to return further on".

[Andy Burns]

I thought borough councils *were* the 'Street Naming and Numbering Authority' for their areas?

[S Viemeister]

After returning to Edinburgh after a 25 year absence, I was surprised to find that Rose Street had become respectable.

[Max Demian]

Yeah I was misunderstanding what a close is.

[charles]

[Huge]

Blimey, assuming that councils are prepared to take responsibility and make a decision about something? Even a trivial something?? That's an error.

[soup]

Whereas in Edinburgh a close is neither of these A close is the gap between two tenements which can be anything from an alleyway to a courtyard originally a close was private property. A close that was public was named a wynd.

"up the close an' doon the stair but an' ben wi Burke an' Hare Burke's the butcher Hare's the thief Knox the man wa' buys the beef