London's most Londony London Something (an entirely subjective listicle which nonetheless concludes with the correct answer)
Lots of things in London are called London Something. One of the biggest is the London Eye.
At 135m tall it has a good claim to be London's most Londony London Something. It was the world's largest cantilevered observation wheel when it opened and attracts millions of paying passengers each year. Its silhouette is so iconic it's often an integral part of any graphic London skyline. But it's not really called the London Eye, it started out as the Millennium Wheel, plus it's had multiple sponsors over the years. First it was the British Airways London Eye, then the Merlin Entertainments London Eye, then the EDF Energy London Eye, then the Coca-Cola London Eye, and since 2020 the faintly ridiculous lastminute.com London Eye. All of which means it's always been the Something London Eye, not a proper London Something, so we can discount its title chances.
London Airport is even larger, indeed at five square miles it exceeds mighty Richmond Park.
People all around the world know London Airport, even those who've never flown. Again the problem is it's not really called that, not since 1966 when London Airport officially became Heathrow. These days it's officially London Heathrow Airport owned by Heathrow Airport Holdings Limited and is one of six constituent parts of the London Airport system. This also includes London City Airport, London Gatwick Airport, London Luton Airport, London Stansted Airport and London Southend Airport, only the first of which is actually in London, plus additionally London Biggin Hill Airport (which is) and London Ashford Airport and London Oxford Airport (which aren't). London Airport is more nominal rabbithole than actual London Something, and so we move on.
London's tube network is iconic, a proper global brand. The umbrella name emerged in 1933 with the dawn of London Transport, the unified public body, which in itself can no longer be the most Londony London Something because it's become Transport for London. The London Underground could well be Number One, its sprawling network used by millions and connecting multiple corners of the capital. I wanted to check if London Underground was the official name so I headed to the TfL website but there it seems to be called the Tube. I did eventually dig up a heritage page called 'London Underground' but that's mainly about the histories of the eleven individual lines instead.
The best place to check, I decided, would be the TfL editorial style guide. But that doesn't have an entry for London Underground, only London Buses (do not use 'Buses'), London Overground (do not refer to as 'Overground') and London Trams (not London Tramlink). It is clearly the proper name, as the entry for Tube makes clear...
London Wall is the oldest surviving London Something. It's part of the original Roman walls of the city, even if these days only chunks remain around the edge of the city. One of these chunks sits alongside the road called London Wall, or more accurately London Wall sits alongside one of these chunks. Impressive though its survival is, arguably it should be called Londinium Wall, or better Londinium Murum, or better still Murus Londinensis, and that takes it right off this London Something list.
London Zoo is back to being called London Zoo again, having previously been known as Regent's Park Zoo, London Zoological Gardens and ZSL London Zoo. It's now 197 years old, which is damned good going, and welcomed 1,045,289 visitors last year. It's undoubtedly in the Top Ten London Somethings but it's not top of the pile.
How about London Road? There are dozens of these, mostly outside London because it only makes sense to have a London Road if it leads towards the capital. But the boundaries of London have grown over the years so London Roads also exist in Barking, Brentford, Bromley, Croydon, Enfield, Feltham, Forest Hill, Harrow, Hounslow, Kingston, Mitcham, Romford, Stanmore, Sutton, Twickenham and Wembley. Paddington has a London Street, Hackney has a London Lane and there's even a Londons Close just south of Upminster. This is ironic because Londons Close is about as far from central London as London gets, but also true because Upminster's in London so London's very close indeed.
Not many neighbourhoods within London are called London Something. The chief exception is London Fields, the surroundings of former commonland in Hackney, but that's far too lowly to make inroads on a London Something list.
London Fields is also one of only two stations in London called London Something. Technically there are a dozen more if you include London Blackfriars, London Cannon Street, London Charing Cross, London Euston, London Fenchurch Street, London Kings Cross, London Liverpool Street, London Marylebone, London Paddington, London St Pancras International, London Victoria, London Waterloo and London Waterloo East but I'd rather not. The terminus that breaks the rule, the only one which doesn't need an extra London because it already has one, is London Bridge. And London Bridge, I'd argue, is the most Londony London Something of all.
London is only here because of London Bridge, indeed it was the spannableness of the Thames which drew the first important settlement to these banks. For centuries it was the capital's only bridge making it even more important, the sole fixed link between north and south. After several rebuilds it's still a key connection between Southwark and the City, being more resilient than Tower Bridge, plus it has that important station named after it. Of its many manifestations the current bridge is precisely 50 years old this month having been opened by the Queen on 16th March 1973, indeed I now wish I'd run today's post last Thursday.
London's most Londony London Something is London Bridge, no argument.
