The Book of London Place Names by Caroline Taggart

The Book of London Place Names Reviews

• 
  Thalia

  Etimology, History, Humor and London! Loved it!
• 
  Ashley

  Best for:
  Those who like to have access to basic trivia about places they live or visit.
  
  In a nutshell:
  Author Taggart provides some history in an accessible way.
  
  Worth quoting:
  “…no one seems to be sure, but there was probably once …”
  (Seriously, it seems like for half the names, this is the answer.)
  
  Why I chose it:
  Moved to London. Wanted to learn more.
  
  Review:
  I think this is the last of the books I bought on sort of a whim when I first moved here and wanted to learn as much as I could about London. Considering I’ve been here for well over two years and am just getting to them now, clearly I didn’t dive right in.
  
  I’ve now read a few books like this one, and I think overall it’s probably the easiest read. It feels a bit repetitive at times, but that’s because most of the places have similar stories - they are names for someone royal, or for someone no one can remember, or for a geological feature.
  
  I appreciated that Taggart didn’t include stories about ever street or every part of London - she picked some highlights. Now, I’m not sure how much cultural awareness went into her decision-making; it’s entirely possible that she systematically left out areas that might have significance to BAME groups or immigrants. But she did at least cover London south of the river, which I think some folks forget even exists. To that end, I live and work (when I’m not in lock-down) in south London, so I especially enjoyed learning about the history of the places I used to walk by every day.
  
  Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
  Donate it
  
• 
  Justin Neville

  I doubt there's anything new here, but it's a nicely structured whip around London, explaining what seems like a not too shabby and pretty reflective set of place names in a reasonably entertaining manner.
  
  Some entries suffer, by necessity, from a brevity that raises more questions than it answers. But overall, it's pitched well. It's also a good mix of street and area names, as well as the occasional building or other sight.
  
  I've deducted one point for the woeful lack of usable maps, let alone illustrations of any of the places discussed. (There is a map of sorts on the end boards but you'd be hard pressed to find it of any value in locating anything much.) Given that the book is specifically structured by geographical area within London, this is a poor showing.
• 
  Gavin Felgate

  Streets and districts in London have a lot of fascinating names, and this book analyses their origins.
  
  I found this to be an enjoyable read, although in many cases I found that a lot of the streets were named after people, while my favourite stories were about how the street name was derived from an old word (e.g. in Anglo-Saxon) regarding how the area appeared many years ago. The book had a lot of intriguing historical facts about London.
  
  Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in history.
• 
  Louise

  For anyone who likes etymology and has an interest in London this is an excellent book.
  
  I found it to be really interesting. And while I know and am aware of the fact that many places that are now in London proper haven't always been it became much more obvious when I learned the origin of the names and how they definitely couldn't be considered names that would have originated in a city.
  
  I really liked this book.
• 
  Carolina

  London is by far my favorite city in the world and I often found myself wondering about the names of some tube stations and streets. For those with curiosity and history enthusiasm, this book is the perfect blend of fun facts and history.
• 
  Katharine

  Covers a lot of ground and humorously written. A great read for anyone interested in the history of London.