please empty your brain below
2, 4, 6 & 8 Hide share the accolade for 'briefest address'.

It's still a fascinating tale of how it came to be. I wonder how long a planning committee discussed it - whether it was relevant enough, and whether it would be too weird...

martin | 12.01.21 - 7:17 a.m. | #

The Side is as you said a great name for a street, but my favourite Newcastle street name is Pudding Chare.

Here in Hong Kong (where all streets have both English and Chinese names) we have 4 one-word streets: Broadway, Glenealy, Smithfield and Queensway - but the shortest street name is Wa Lane.

Alan | 12.01.21 - 7:27 a.m. | #

I always thought Tetherdown in Muswell Hill was quite charming.

James C | 12.01.21 - 7:39 a.m. | #

Our "official" address (or the one that comes up in the database that every website seems to use as an address checker) has zero letters for the road name, just the house name and the parish name.

Goes for every house in the parish of Muker, which covers 4 villages and numerous hamlets over an area some 6 miles accross.

A postman's lot here is an interesting one!

Putters | 12.01.21 - 7:54 a.m. | #

I've wondered what the source was for these odd names every since some were listed in the routing of the 300 back when it was introduced in 1993.

In a way the whole area is a bit of a mix up, the location is called Cyprus, the estate Windsor Park and the roads after medieval stuff.

I do feel sorry for those residents who are condemned to a life of 'how do spell that', possibly followed by 'that's an odd name, where does it come from?', especially looking at the different spelling of the similar sounding endings of ox-LEAS, l-EAZE and cove-LEES.

Still Anon | 12.01.21 - 8:05 a.m. | #

I'm a teacher at the primary school on this estate and I've often wondered about the origin of these street names. Years of wondering answered! Thank you! I'll definitely be sharing this with my colleagues and the local families we teach.

BP | 12.01.21 - 8:09 a.m. | #

Many villages have addresses of the form (housename), (villagename), (posttown), (postcode). But at Simpson in Milton Keynes they tried to fix this, before the city was ever thought of. They gave each house a number, so you had for instance 388 Simpson, BLETCHLEY Bucks. But that address is now 388 Simpson, Simpson, MILTON KEYNES.

Malcolm of Kent | 12.01.21 - 8:39 a.m. | #

Fascinating! Always loved finding out the origin of street names, this is great!

James Scantlebury | 12.01.21 - 8:55 a.m. | #

No D in Winsor Park Estate, but that is another topic.

Scrumpy | 12.01.21 - 8:57 a.m. | #

I'm curious as to how you researched whether Hide was the shortest street name DG. I don't doubt you're correct, but how did you do it?

Will | 12.01.21 - 8:57 a.m. | #

The Ham in Brentford comes so close to beating this.

Hazel Simpson | 12.01.21 - 9:04 a.m. | #

Huddersfield has Solid, but even that's large in comparison to Hide. Great post, DG.

TheLupineOne | 12.01.21 - 9:10 a.m. | #

Great post, thank you. Now what is the longest road name in London?

dg writes: Been there, done that.

J. | 12.01.21 - 9:22 a.m. | #

Oops, sorry.

My misspelling of Windsor was in tribute to Newham Council getting the medieval names wrong.
Or blame spell checker/Russia/China.

Still Anon | 12.01.21 - 9:25 a.m. | #

I love how a little curiosity into a bit of local quirkiness can yield such fascinating results.
Long live curiosity and quirkiness!

Cornish Cockney | 12.01.21 - 9:35 a.m. | #

East Tilbury has a housing estate with an impressive array of single word streets all named after rivers, including Tyne, Arun & Bure.

Richard | 12.01.21 - 10:52 a.m. | #

Also interesting is the habit of many people of wanting to preface these single word street names with a 'The' in speech.

Other single word street names are Close in Newcastle and Paragon in Ramsgate.

David Cook | 12.01.21 - 11:02 a.m. | #

Fantastic stuff DG, well done.

Joho | Homepage | 12.01.21 - 11:28 a.m. | #

I was hoping Cher would be in an estate with other streets named Madonna and Kylie, but alas not.

Jonathan Wadman | 12.01.21 - 11:36 a.m. | #

I'm off to check online meteorological data to establish how sunny it is in Cher.
[yes, I do know his name was Sonny]

Frank F | 12.01.21 - 11:59 a.m. | #

Wow, that was my comment from 8 years ago! I have no memory of writing that, but it does look like the kind of brief research rabbithole I'd go down...

gooneruk | Homepage | 12.01.21 - 12:21 p.m. | #

It's fascinating for someone who lives in a town with a street number that my brother's address is Low House, Great Musgrave, Cumbria. I always thought that the postman there must have an amazing memory for his route. But then it is a small village.

Tones | 12.01.21 - 4:17 p.m. | #

-leaze, -leas, -lees AND Leys ...

Sarah | 12.01.21 - 4:27 p.m. | #

Not the shortest if you count Apsley House which (historically at least) rejoiced under the address "No. 1, London"

James | 12.01.21 - 5:15 p.m. | #

I wonder if people who live at such short addresses find that they need to spend time convincing people over the phone that their street address really is that short, and is simply Hide rather than, say, Hide Street.

Chris | 12.01.21 - 5:59 p.m. | #

Feels more like an imperative (missing a !) than a nominative.

MilesT | 12.01.21 - 6:46 p.m. | #

It would have been nice if they had called a neighbouring street SEEK.

popartist | 12.01.21 - 7:58 p.m. | #

There are villages in Poland where the houses on a street are numbered in the order they were built.

Helen | 12.01.21 - 8:44 p.m. | #

Reminded me of York Place formerly 'Of Alley' off Villiers Street. I think George Villiers Duke of Buckingham insisted after his death that all street names around his estate had to be named after him. So one became 'Of Alley'. If only they just named it 'Of' and kept the name it would be the shortest in UK haha

SJM | 12.01.21 - 10:01 p.m. | #

I wonder which is the longest street name - in terms of number of words or letters? Possibly DG has got this lined up for a future post.

dg advises: Read the other comments.

Martin | 13.01.21 - 11:02 a.m. | #

Re the shortest named street, Sandwich has a street known as "No Name Street"

Does this count as 0 letters?

JOHN LISSAMAN | 13.01.21 - 11:56 a.m. | #

Speaking of one-word street names in London, Hampstead has the incredibly confusing Frognals: “Frognal”, “Frognal Lane”, “Frognal Parade”, “Frognal Way” and “Frognal Court”.

Fazal Majid | Homepage | 13.01.21 - 12:05 p.m. | #

'Hide' was originally a medieval field measurement (approx 30 modern acres), supposedly a field large enough to support one family. Undoubtedly the local 'Hide' field names derive from this. My guess is that Howard Bloch had the original meaning in mind.

I wonder if the street covers a similar area, thus the name?

dg writes: Hide covers half an acre, so no.

Peter Moore | 13.01.21 - 1:06 p.m. | #

In the Netherlands, the small village of Ottoland has streets named simply A and B (note, not A-straat, A-laan, A-weg or similar)!

Alex G | 13.01.21 - 4:42 p.m. | #

I so want there to be another street called Seek!

aikon | 13.01.21 - 6:58 p.m. | #

"This is odd because Beckton was in East Ham, not West Ham,"

Several London Boroughs have had a strong policy of "One Borough" that treats the whole territory as one unit and the combined histories as a single pot to dip into. Under such a policy it would not be considered out of place to use historic West Ham names for a development in historic East Ham - it would all be in the history of what is now Newham.

Tim Roll-Pickering | 14.01.21 - 1:01 p.m. | #

Air Street which runs off Regent’s Street.

Jim | 18.01.21 - 2:00 a.m. | #











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