please empty your brain below

If that explanation of Green Park's name is correct then it would have been quite unusual. In the days before the invention of the lawnmower cutting grass on a more than annual basis was hidiously expensive in terms of labour, and wildflowers would have been the norm in any green space not heavily grazed.

If you're having Northwood as a bland name, then it's equally bland counterpart Southfields is a contender.

dg writes: Southfields added, thanks.
Until 1940 Archway station was called something else - it was renamed from Highgate when the line was extended to join up with its namesake on the LNER station, as it would have been confusing to have two stations with the same name.

Possibly the most prosaic name on the Tube historically is Post Office (now St Pauls). Like Bank, this was not just any old post office, but the GPO's headquarters, which stretched over several blocks.
Oval has something oval-shaped nearby. A Tower is likely to be on a Hill rather than in a valley.
There are lots of monuments.

dg writes: Monument added, thanks.
In the 1800's the word "archway" meant tunnel. That deep cutting was originally a tunnel, a toll was intended, but it collapsed during construction.
Can any compare to the sublime conventionality of Convention on the Paris Metro?
Oakwood - of all the trees that are in the wood, the oak was once the commonmost.
Turnpike Lane - many lanes have had a turnpike to collect contributions from users for their upkeep.
Manor House - only unbland if manor houses were uncommon, rather than fairly ubiquitous at a point in time.

dg writes: Oakwood added, thanks.
Manor House is just as bland as Manor Park.
Embankment doesn't necessarily refer to a river embankment. It could refer to a railway embankment or any other historic mound of raised ground - of which there are thousands.
Manor Park but not Manor House, are Mansion Houses as common as churches called All Saints, Elm Park and Wood Green but not Oakwood or Royal Oak, Northwood but not Northfields or Southgate, Mill Hill East is just a collection of everyday words, at one time black horses were ten a penny, and before contraception you could have plenty of sisters

Mornington Crescent.
Car parks aren’t green and Wood Green could have been Wood Brown. ;)
I hope that tomorrow's post is a list of alternative names for these stations to make them sound less bland (but not as bolxy as new tower block marketers might have you believe)
I always (silently) laugh at Turkey Street.
White City's about as bland as it gets.
If we're including trams, Arena?
Is this a submission for the next Boring Conference? ;-)
Isnt great that in all the world we know of only one Bank, one Monument and one Green Park.
The (sort of) inverse of this is all of the station streets, station roads and station xxxxs that exist not only in London, but all across the world.

But which is more boring, 'station st' or 'railway st'?

I disagree with nearly all of this. I find the Green Parks and Burnt Oaks much more interesting than boringly naming a station after less evocative names of localities like Lambeth North or thoroughfares like Edgware Road. I also like it how visitors to London express particular delight to me that we have the Banks, Embankments, Angels and Ovals. It’s enjoyable and quirky. Imagine if we were just left with a map full of really bland names like South Acton, Euston and Kenton (not that I have anything against the 'tons - they are just more ubiquitous, thus bland)
Avenue Road sums up much of suburban London.
Is Woodside a contender?

dg writes: Woodside added, thanks.
Matt raises a good question. Are there any stations in the world named after their proximity to Station Road?
I'm with NickW.
To me you've chosen all the interesting ones.
John... There used to be this one.
The blandness litmus test: would it pass muster as the name of a Persimmon housing estate? On that basis (and the subsidiary fact that all modern developments must be named after the thing they destroy), I’ll have to go with Oak Wood.
This reminds me of my frustration that there are railway stations called University and Exhibition Centre, as if there is only one of each. I wish they'd take the opportunity of its imminent rebuild to rename the former University of Birmingham so it's a least clearer where it is especially as some long distance trains stop there.
The Tyne & Wear metro has the very bland "Meadow Well", previously known (also quite blandly) as Smith's Park. The local council estate had developed a very bad reputation under its previous name so was renamed (the absurdly bucolic) Meadow Well. After the council estate developed an even worse reputation under its new name, the metro station was named after it.
Other T&W metro bland stations include Monument, Park Lane, University and Four Lane Ends (ie a crossroads.)
Sheffield Supertram has the triply bland Park Grange Croft.
Coming soon, DG writes about the 10 stations on the tube map that are also continental destinations: Canada Water, Cyprus, Hainault (a province in Wallonia/Southern Belgium), Holland Park, East India, Lebanon Road, Maryland, Turkey Street, Waterloo (a little known town in Belgium where nothing of note ever happened) and West India Quay. Swiss Cottage doesn't count. I'm sure there are others, but 10 is a good figure to focus on.
Regarding the Station Road bifurcation, up here in Tufnell Park there is a Station Road but no station.

Junction Road station existed until 1943. That would've been a good one for your original list if it was still open.
Given dogs are everywhere, no station name can be more bland than Barking.
Ruislip, and derivatives thereof. As if there's only one river with a leaping place where rushes grow, or even one leaping place on a river where rushes grow.
Liverpool Street.

So mundane I can't be bothered checking how many streets there are in Liverpool
Abbey Road? So bland that the station needs a sign to point out that you may not be at the Abbey Road you were looking for.
Presumably every Abbey is near a road.
Bushey always amuses me, it is so generic.

Woodford and then South Woodford - just 'wood near a passable stream' and then south of that.

Leaving the TFL area for a moment, and one that came up on Pointless the other day, I've always been more irritated than I should be considering I don't live there about the Sheffield Supertram station 'Park Grange Croft' - it's basically 'Road Street Avenue' in any other name.
Sheffield Supertram (having been brought up) has the ultimate blandly named terminus: Halfway
Distinct anti-wood sentiment in this top 20. I happen to think fields are much blander than woods, so the blandest name of all is Fieldway. I mean what even is a way? It's so generic it could describe anything from a footpath to a dirt track to a dual carriageway...
Angel, of which there are a multitude
Or you could try the numbered streets in New York.
I find station names like Bank, Old Street, Monument, evocative by their sheer simplicity and historical gravitas. Seeing 'Bank' station for the first time made me think wow, that's THE bank of England, and all they had to do was name the station Bank and everyone would know what it meant.

In terms of bland, I think Surrey Quays is really bland, it should be Surrey Docks. Lots of Surreys, perhaps not lots of quays, so maybe it wouldn't qualify.
Junction Road would have qualified, but let's not forget the name of the signalbox nearby, which was, delightfully, called 'Junction Road Junction'.
How about the most compelling/romantic names? I've always enjoyed Gallions Reach, White City, and Denmark Hill.
There are a lot of bridges in London.
Jeremy, to not just have a stop called Halfway, but to make it the terminus, is not bland, it's genius!

If we were on the most overblown names then I would nominate Crystal Peaks (also a Sheffield tram stop).










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