10:14am Tuesday 14th August 2001
Have you ever wondered how your local Tube station got its name? Cyril Harris did so he wrote a book about it. MATTHEW NIXSON reports.
It was the young American niece of regular Tube passenger Cyril Harris who gave him the original idea for his book.
"Why is the Edgware Road station so far away from Edgware or Tottenham Court Road so far away from Tottenham?" she wondered. And why, for that matter, is Finchley Road nowhere near Finchley and what's all this about a Burnt Oak anyway?
This got Mr Harris, of Holders Hill Road, Mill Hill, thinking. "It seemed a puzzle so I began looking into archives, books and libraries to discover why the stations were given their names," he recalls.
After two years of research, his resulting study: What's in a name? was published in 1977 and sold nearly 18,000 copies. With some three million passengers a day using the system, it's reasonable that one or two might have wondered about the root of station names.
Now, 24 years later, he has dusted it off and revised it and this week the book, which traces the origins of the names of stations on the Tube network, is being republished.
"I think there must have been a lot of Tube passengers out there asking the same questions as my niece," says Mr Harris.
"I was quite surprised at the amount of interest in my book first time round so it is nice it is being republished."
Now 72, the retired print production manager and history buff's book now includes the Jubilee Line extension and Docklands Light Railway. And it makes quite fascinating reading.
Mr Harris's nearest Tube station, Mill Hill East, was recorded as Myllehill in 1547 and, as the name suggests, means "the mill on the hill". The original site, Mill Field, lies to the north of the present Mill Hill Village, but, curiously, there is no evidence a mill ever actually existed.
The station was opened by the Great Northern Railway on August 27, 1867 as Mill; renamed Mill Hill East on March 1, 1928. It was first used by Underground trains on May 18, 1941, mainly to serve the nearby army barracks.
Filled with interesting facts, Mr Harris is hoping the new edition of his book will be just as successful as its predecessor.
"People are always complaining about Tube trains being late, my book gives them something to think about when they're waiting," he laughs.
What's in a name? by Cyril Harris is out now, published by Capital Transport in association with London's Transport Museum, priced £4.95.
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