please empty your brain below
Distances in London measured from Chas I at Charing Cross? Maybe so for cab charging purposes before meters (and the police HQ was then adjacent) - but before that, there were numerous alternatives.
For instance, the still-extant mileposts on the old A11/A121 reckon London to measure from Shoreditch church - a bit of a cheat!

dg writes: see link in first paragraph.

Crispy | 22.04.24 - 8:01 a.m. | #

So now I know, getting off my train from Reading, heading down the escalator to the loos in the Sidings (or walking to the end of platform 24), I pass the real centre of town. Even better last week when I took the tube to Elephant and Castle and passed the other candidate at Lambeth North. And went nowhere near Charing Cross! Oh, and thanks for the news that the WHS down there is now closed, I thought that was the worst possible place they could have put it.

davews | 22.04.24 - 8:28 a.m. | #

Other possible centroids
-the City
-Circle Line (without its tail)
-Zone 1 (but difficult to define the boundary except where it crosses a railway)
-North and South Circular Roads
-London postal area ("compass point" postcodes)
-M25
-Network South East "Gold Card" area

And of course, the centroid of all the centroids

Timbo | 22.04.24 - 8:44 a.m. | #

I'd like to see a centroid that is weighted for population. eg if you took the metal shape of central london and everybody was represented by a small weight, where would the balance point be. I suspect it'd move north of the normal one.

dg writes: see post, and map linked in post.

Alistair twin | 22.04.24 - 8:51 a.m. | #

Wetherspoons are opening a new pub in 'The Sidings' this year which may attract a few more people.

Jeremy | 22.04.24 - 9:14 a.m. | #

The sidings is really an apt name for the place which clearly illustrates the end of what was the retail takeover of public transport facility floor space. The end now, after 40 years of that most Thatcherite of all virtues: making money out of empty space. Something which I believe, had its beginnings not that far away on the Waterloo station concourse, with the opening of the first Tie Rack & Sock Shop. It has now come full circle, the retailers all samey and invisible. Who needs them?

As for the centroid. What about a competition and a blue plaque for the winner. “You are in/This is the middle of London”

Steve | Homepage | 22.04.24 - 10:17 a.m. | #

In the same spirit as Ollie O'Brien's calculation of the incentre, we could look for the outcentre: the centre of the smallest circle containing all of London. The circle touches the boundary in at most 3 places all of which are outer corners. I have no idea where the centre is though it should be quite easy to calculate. But I'm not going to.

HTFB | 22.04.24 - 10:23 a.m. | #

Another majestic piece, with some fine writing.

The Sidings should come good when the Elizabeth House development is complete. It's Network Rail's hard luck that the development was started before January 2020.

For another stranded retail centre, also subterranean, see Canary Wharf directly above the Liz Line station.

William | 22.04.24 - 10:34 a.m. | #

Always knew the centre of London was in South London. Clues in the name!

south london lad | 22.04.24 - 11:38 a.m. | #

I find the contents of todays blog very comforting. Namely that you can get almost the same result with a map, packet of M&S cheese crackers,scissors and a knitting needle as with higher Math and lots of computing power. I wonder if they got the idea from Blue Peter. Then again if they had done an empty Squeezy bottle or sticky back plastic would almost certainly have been required.

Keith the Kraut | 22.04.24 - 12:06 p.m. | #

Steve, to be fair the Sidings occupies former Eurostar immigration and customs space, I really can't think of any other use for such an area, as it's certainly not needed for normal passenger use. Indeed having the shops and bars downstairs or upstairs in the Waterloo mezzanine level is much preferable to cluttering up the main station concourse.

Mikey C | 22.04.24 - 12:35 p.m. | #

I'm with the Londonist for their preferred method, but also because my Grandfather was born in one of the slums that was demolished in 1936, just behind Lambeth North station and Baylis Road!
Its a fancy apartment building now. Not the sort of place my Gt grandfather would have died of TB in at the very young age of 30 leaving 2 toddler sons!

Cornish Cockney | 22.04.24 - 5:32 p.m. | #

HTFB: I tried accurately calculating the outcentre, but autocad couldn't handle the 1gb file i found and crashed. The quick and dirty version puts the outcentre somewhere in islington. around Canon St N1. near this bike shop perhaps. but that could easily be 300m out. [screenshot]

Alistair Twin | 22.04.24 - 6:26 p.m. | #

Did I miss something in the article? I was asking about a population weighted centroid, meaning one which accounts for where people are, not where the land is. So the less densely populated south and west would have less influence on where the centre is.

dg writes: yes

Alistair Twin | 22.04.24 - 6:30 p.m. | #

I am evidently blind of losing my marbles (or both) as I still cant find it.

Found this chap did it though.. and it turned out to be waterloo as well, the page is now lost to the digital world though.

dg writes: I linked to his page in the post, and specifically to his map in the reference you haven't spotted.

Alistair Twin | 22.04.24 - 6:47 p.m. | #

Little could I have known, when I bought those M&S cheese crackers, that people would still be talking about them 14 years later.

Matt from Londonist | 23.04.24 - 7:01 p.m. | #

I think I would like to know the point at which 50% of the Greater London population (resident or maybe daytime population) is North/South of the point and also East/West of the point. Presumably similar to the centre of the weighted population (but not exactly the same), and presumably both calculations shift over time (but not a lot).

I am not keen on the physical boundaries determining the centre, since some of the low populated outer edges are fairly meaningless to what the real London really is (i.e people).

Rob | 24.04.24 - 11:23 a.m. | #











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