please empty your brain below

And the four London places which don't exist are...








down a bit







down a bit more,
in case you didn't mean to read this yet








Burley Green
Luxton
Rensham
Southdean


How did you get on?

You forgot my favourite, Nork ... just outside Sutton.

dg writes: Alas, Nork's (just) in Surrey.

Bit unfair so I did not enter being an ex London cab driver for donkeys years.

Got none - now I'll have to check where Cranham, Lamorbey, Osidge and Tokynton are. Tsk.

shirley you can't be serious?

I got all four. I get into heated debates with a friend of mine over the existence of Shacklewell, in spite of the fact that it clearly exists and is less than two miles away from the area we both live in.

The Hidden London website (and it's offshoot London Gazetteer book) were instrumental in introducing me to a lot of these unlikely sounding places. As for Monken Hadley, when you pull Barnet out of the jam jar, it might be worth a visit.

four out of four: clearly I lived in London for too long.

Of the real ones, I've never been to Furzedown, Tokyngton (although I've passed nearby) and Yiewsley.

Three out of 4 here.

Andrew... Shirley is inbetween croydon and west wickham near bromley..

One funny name that is true is Pratt's bottom. Nr orpington.

What I forgot to say in DGs list is
Locksbottom,
Well Locksbottom and Pratts Bottom are
the place where two farms met owned by
Farmer Pratt and Farmer Lock...
True Story.

3/4 for me, very disappointed with myself! Never heard of Roxeth...

No doubt all four of these will be appearing in estate agent-speak as synonyms for less salubrious areas or made up names for new developments just as soon as the credit crunch is over.

Andrew - I lived in Shirley for 2 years of my life! I even remember the last part of my address (although not the postcode) - Shirley, Croydon, Surrey.

And strangely enough - our then-phone number. I am talking about the early seventies, too!

I am serious, and don't call me Shirley!

I got Rensham, but purely by guessing - it just sounded too much like a stereotypically English place name to be real.

Actually, by that logic I should've probably come up with Burley Green as well.

Blimey. I walked right past Seething Wells on the Thames Path and never noticed. I guess four years isn't enough to get to know London very well.

Shirley is in Surrey, London Boro of Croydon, so surely Nork, Surrey in the London Boro of Sutton is in the same situation? Nice places both of them, done a bit o' courting in them there Shirley Hills many years ago!

I tried this earlier, but didn't get to comment. Anyway, I got three out of four. Not bad, I suppose.

hey DG you forget my two favourites...

Badgers Mount and Pratts Bottom

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl...038538&t=h&
z=15


I didn't get any. Haven't lived here long enough to take some of those names seriously. Freezywater?Seething Wells? Come on. Too weird for me.

I used to live in Tokyngton, in Chippenham Avenue, HA9. This was in 1990-92. Most of the locals called it "Monks Park" or "the south end of Wembley". I never heard "Tokyngton" used in speech; indeed the only uses I came across were in the name of the local library and the ward name, come local election time. The local tube/rail station is Stonebridge Park - unlike many areas people didn't call the area after the station (eg "Farringdon" for places actually in Clerkenwell) because that was a distinct area (a grim estate) further south.

And I went all round Cranham last Sunday (courtesy of the 248 bus) as well!











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