Omaha daily bee., 1909-02-28
London Drops
Little Street
One Of 1879 John Streets is Merged
with St. James Square
Sixty Feet in Length.

LONDON, Feb. 25.-(special)-London has
just lost its smallest thoroughfsre-John
street, off Pail Mall in the West End. 1t
has not been swallowed up in an earth
quake. exactly, but the London county
council has merged it into 81. James
square, of which 1t is really a part. II Is
only a little over sixty feet in length.
The main reason for wiping out the little
street is because the residents Of John
street perfer to consider themselves as
denizens Of "St. James square" for in
London ones address makes a world of diff
ference. People living in a swell neigh
borhood" can sport the address in their
letter heading. Thus a floor walker in a
scent bazaar can have his letters sent TO
Buckingham palace Mansions conveying
the impression that he lives just around
the corner from the king. John street resi-
dents rather pride themselves on their near.
ness to the aristocrstic square. where the
duke of Norfolk. Lord Avebury, better
known as Sir John Lubbock, and other
leading lights Of the nobility live and move
and have their being.
The loss Of John street will not be
greatly felt by the postoffice authorities.
considering the fact that there are still 1872
John streets In the London directory.
Nearly every district has one or W John
streets. and some have four or five. This
strange state of affairs is due to the fact
that London has grown up by the merging
Of q lot OF separate villages, and, in the
early days, each village, OF course, named
its streets Irrespective of other nearby
hsmlets. Thus, you will find scattered all
over London q number OF High" streets,
which simply means that when that par
ticular section composed a village, 1t had
its High or Main street. Where In
American the principal thorouEhfare Of a
town is often called Main street, the
term High" is used in England. as it is
the principal highway through the viii
lage.
This multiplication of street names often
leads to great confusion. especially for
Americans and other tourists stopping in
London FOR a short time. Hence 1t is most
important that street names should be ad-
ditionally identified by the mention OF
their proximity to larger t~horoughfares,
also the direction in which they lie from
the city OF London proper is usually APP
pended, such as IS. w" for southwest,
ll"E. c." 70 east central, and so forth. II
you simply address a letter to High street,
the chances are that your missive will
literally. box the compass before It
reaches its proper destination.
While John street. st. James Square,
s. W., holds the record for being the short
est street in the metropolis. 1t is by no
means the queerest. There are many
streets In London which are noted for their
strange endings. For instance, no less
than twelve streets end in flights Of stone
steps, while some so-called streets pass
right through buildings. There are other
streets which. though winding about in a
veritable circle, carry the same name
throughout their tortuous career. The rea-
son for this confusion and lack Of system
Is that. after the great fire of London. the
city was rebuilt without any definite plan
whatever. Though Sir Christopher Wren
regarded the fire as a veritable godsend
from the architectural point OF view and
unlimited an excellent scheme for rebuild
ing, his suggestions were rejected by the
authorties Of the day, and thus has the
worlds largest city Just growed," like
Topsy.
Since the London county council took
hold of London several attempts to i'm
prove the condition of the streets have
been made, but. with expensive property
Ito deal with. and all sorts OF interests
claiming compensation in case of projected
improvements, the work OF r%eplanning Lon
don is an almost hopeless task.