please empty your brain below
You have probably improved awareness of Midtown no end. I had seen the guys and gals in the orange based outfits but hadn't really differentiated them from similarly dressed (but with a different colour) guys and gals in Oxford St.

I work in Midtown. I hadn't really noticed. Your point proven! Would be better if all these groups got together and promoted the whole of Central London.

100andthirty | 14.06.14 - 7:22 a.m. | #

This is London: people navigate by Tube stations.
The promoters will never get the area recognised unless they can get the name of Russell Square station changed - it matters not whether it is to Midtown, Bloomsbury, or Fintlewoodlewix.

To illustrate how effective this is, look at the example of Holborn - now usually recognised as the Kingsway/south Bloomsbury area instead of the area around the Circus and Viaduct.

timbo | 14.06.14 - 7:48 a.m. | #

There was also the attempt by some property people to rename Fitzrovia as Noho (something to do with the New York quarter called SoHo - South of Houston). Might as well have called it Noxfo!

kissenme | 14.06.14 - 8:02 a.m. | #

My firm has an office in 'midcity place'. Offends me every time I see it. Shame, because its quite a nice office

will | 14.06.14 - 8:15 a.m. | #

ha, reminds me of this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/northamptonshire/8548647.stm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lllnso3s1Ew

this label didnt seem to stick either

dave | 14.06.14 - 8:39 a.m. | #

I hadn't heard of North Londonshire, before. Nice cartoon on the youtube link, but I'd hardly call Corby some kind of Shangri La. It's full of speed humps, shuttered shops, exiled Glaswegian steel workers and decidedly non-British speaking resdients.


Perhaps MidTown could be called SouthCorby instead.

Petras409 | 14.06.14 - 8:49 a.m. | #

and what is galling is that people get PAID for this.

they sit around in some horrendous PR office, dreaming up the colour scheme, name, branding etc..

they have a flip chart and white board and plan all this out, "let's have TWO twitter accounts, one for the bee!" someone has has said, and they've gone home feeling like they've done some work... *sigh*

Geofftech | Homepage | 14.06.14 - 8:54 a.m. | #

I think North Bank has a far greater chance of entering the psyche because people use and refer to the South Bank and it sounds perfectly normal to say north bank. Obviously that depends on there being something on the north bank to visit and a continuous run of bank at that - it's currently quite difficult to walk along. Most people could at least look at a map of the Thames in central London and when asked at least sketch out the north bank. I guess most people on the South Bank might say they're crossing to Charing Cross, St Paul's, the Monument etc because they are the attractions. If the north bank was to have a continuous boardwalk and more facilities then I guess it would achieve its own identity.

Midtown means nothing and few people could plot in on a map. I'd read about this marketing campaign but to be honest assumed it was just Holborn. I think there was another planned to encapsulate the Strand, Haymarket and Pall Mall.

| 14.06.14 - 9:47 a.m. | #

The use of 'Midtown' to identify this area is nothing new. It's been used for decades, probably since the 1960s at least, within the commercial property market, specifically as a means to group together the large scale geography of market for office space. The traditional Central London office market has been split into three main areas. The two big areas are The City and the West End, which are broadly self-explanatory. Midtown has always been used as a catch-all name for the are in between. They're not perfect: West End encompasses an enormous range of districts from Mayfair to Victoria to Paddington.

What's new is its use in the last 8-10 years as a wider brand, and personally, for all the reasons dg and other give, it doesn't work - particularly when trying to boost the visitor economy.

Croc | 14.06.14 - 10:03 a.m. | #

The only Midtown I know is in NYC.

Michael | 14.06.14 - 11:19 a.m. | #

@Geofftech

Your comments reminded me of this YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

Max Wellhouse | 14.06.14 - 11:34 a.m. | #

I've done a lot of Ali Mir's free walks and they're very entertaining. In fact I thought this post was going to be about the Unlucky for Some walk, seeing as it coincided with a Friday 13th. I went on it's inauguration last month but was tempted to go again.

CornishCockney | 14.06.14 - 11:38 a.m. | #

Looking at their map...

http://www.gotomidtown.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/inmidtown-area-map.pdf

It seems a great shame for them that cigarette sponsorship isn't allowed, as the most sensible name for the area is B&H (Bloomsbury and Holborn)...

Briantist | Homepage | 14.06.14 - 11:45 a.m. | #

The only Northbank I know was the terracing at Highbury.

Bernie | 14.06.14 - 12:56 p.m. | #

This seems to be more or less equivalent to the former borough of Holborn (which also included Bloomsbury).

Regarding the ambiguity of 'Holborn': it originally was a street in the City, but the church situated in that street, St Andrew's Holborn, had a parish which extended beyond the City, and so the name came to be applied to a wider area.

Andrew M | 14.06.14 - 1:07 p.m. | #

Search for something on http://www.gotomidtown.co.uk/map-2/

"- Sorry, no data where found -"

Greg | 14.06.14 - 4:04 p.m. | #

@Anon 0947
Obviously that depends on there being ... a continuous run of [north] bank at that - it's currently quite difficult to walk along. If the north bank was to have a continuous boardwalk and more facilities then I guess it would achieve its own identity.

The Victoria Embankment gives a continuous run from Blackfriars to Westminster and is nearly 150 years old. What stops it having an "identity" is that downstream of Temple station it is the Inns of Court, and upstream of Embankment station it is mainly government buildings - notably the MoD. Both have very clear but distinct identities. The various piers, floating restaurants etc seem to manage all right.
Because of the curve of the river the South Bank defines a much more compact area than the hinterland on the north.

timbo | 14.06.14 - 6:12 p.m. | #

In a related story, an attempt to rename the part of the Thames near Greenwich has been defeated. Hurrah
http://marymills.org.uk/2014/06/13/bugsbys-reach-responding-consultations-work/

IslandDweller | 15.06.14 - 8:59 a.m. | #

Hi how come nearly every one of your blue links in this piece go nowhere?I only ask cos I don't think you used your occasional Links that lead nowhere method. Daily reader!

dg writes: Because the post is eight years old and Midtown no longer exists.

Noel | 29.06.22 - 9:56 p.m. | #

Oh right Ok thanks. Was dogtired when I wrote.

Noel | 30.06.22 - 9:05 a.m. | #











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