'Distance' Signs

[waynedear]

Say you are driving down a motorway and the distance sign says 80 miles to Birmingham or 40 miles to Liverpol, where in Birmingham/Liverpool is it, is it the recognised town/city limits or a specific place or the very center ???

[s70rmp]

I believe it was set to the main post office of the location.

[chilistrucker]

s70rmp said:

I believe it was set to the main post office of the location.

think this is right.
same as door numbers, i was led to believe, the street always starts at 1 and 2 as in odds and evens, with the lowest numbers closest to the post office in town or city, and then working up the scale going away from town.

[Inny]

Cool fact. So cool. Don't want to check it. Thanks.

[Hugo a Gogo]

chilistrucker said:

same as door numbers, i was led to believe, the street always starts at 1 and 2 as in odds and evens, with the lowest numbers closest to the post office in town or city, and then working up the scale going away from town.

quite a few streets the numbers go up one side and down the other

[Vipers]

In the days of telegraph poles, I was always led to believe the side the horizontal bits are nailed onto the pole is the direction to London, old wives tale I wonder.

[Who me ?]

Vipers- I'd think so. I spent time as an apprentice GPO Telecomms tech with the overhead squad many moons ago and from memory no such rule. From memory the arms were moved from pole to pole to coincide with ease of work, or depending on the mood of the overhead foreman on the day .
On the siting of the "centre " idea- I tried some town/city centres I know. None use the HPO( HEAD POST OFFICE) as a centre on Google maps or my autoroute 2010 .

Edited by Who me ? on Saturday 9th November 21:09

[Vipers]

[quote=Who me ?] Vipers- I'd think so. I spent time as an apprentice GPO Telecomms tech with the overhead squad many moons ago and from memory no such rule. From memory the arms were moved from pole to pole to coincide with ease of work, or depending on the mood of the overhead foreman on the day .
[/quote]

God the lies they told me. Thanks for that.






PS can't figure out the bad formatting......

Edited by Vipers on Friday 20th December 09:23

[rix]

I've heard from a couple of people that 'London' is Charing Cross (Station?). No idea why.

[waynedear]

I did have to go with a delivery to the Lister Hospital on Chelsea Bridge Road, whatever the distance signs said for 'London' my sat nav said exactly the same distance to destination..

[mph1977]

chilistrucker said:

s70rmp said:

I believe it was set to the main post office of the location.

think this is right.
same as door numbers, i was led to believe, the street always starts at 1 and 2 as in odds and evens, with the lowest numbers closest to the post office in town or city, and then working up the scale going away from town.

village i grew up in numbered from the 'village green' on the historically present roads, then the post war private estates numbered from the start of the development , and the council estate was originally numbered as one road addresses were simple <number>, <estate Name > , <village> ...

[mph1977]

Hugo a Gogo said:

chilistrucker said:

same as door numbers, i was led to believe, the street always starts at 1 and 2 as in odds and evens, with the lowest numbers closest to the post office in town or city, and then working up the scale going away from town.

quite a few streets the numbers go up one side and down the other

e.g. Lincoln High st.

no1 is on the west side at south park , it goes up to 260 something at the bottom of steep hill ( the St John Ambulance building is the top or second to top address on the east side at 268 ) and then down the east side ofthe road back to south park

[Red Devil]

rix said:

I've heard from a couple of people that 'London' is Charing Cross (Station?). No idea why.

Close, but no cigar.

It's Trafalgar Square. People get this wrong because the original Queen Eleanor's Cross was in a different location from the replica outside the station.

[tommytee01]

Interesting, I always thought it was the post office theory!

[Snowboy]

Hugo a Gogo said:

chilistrucker said:

same as door numbers, i was led to believe, the street always starts at 1 and 2 as in odds and evens, with the lowest numbers closest to the post office in town or city, and then working up the scale going away from town.

quite a few streets the numbers go up one side and down the other

If it's a closed street they can go up one and down the other.
But, on a road that might one day be lengthened they use the odds and evens to allow new numbers to be added later.

It was a system invented back in Victorian times to allow town planners to build streets in stages without having the numbers having to restart half way up the road.

[OvalOwl]

tommytee01 said:

Interesting, I always thought it was the post office theory!

The main post office for London is deemed to be the one at Trafalgar Square, so you're not a million miles wrong.

Cycling's Road Records Association has four points in London for it's place to place records: Hyde Park Corner, Marble Arch (two slightly different places depending on destination) and by the Rowland Hill statue in King Edward Street EC1. This last one was the main post office for the City of London.

[GTiFrank]

Vipers said:

In the days of telegraph poles, I was always led to believe the side the horizontal bits are nailed onto the pole is the direction to London, old wives tale I wonder.

Motorway markers heading away from London begin with an A and towards London start with a B, on all UK motorways.

[williredale]

GTiFrank said:

Motorway markers heading away from London begin with an A and towards London start with a B, on all UK motorways.

How does that work on the M25?

[GTiFrank]

Good point. Was mentioned as part of an advance driving course I did.

[williredale]

GTiFrank said:

Good point. Was mentioned as part of an advance driving course I did.

Wasn't trying to be clever but just curious. This thread has been quite informative.