Evening star., 1912-08-31
LONDON TOPOGRAPHY.
Miles of Streets With Hidden
Names-Puzzle to Strangers.

From the London Standard.
The greatest puzzle in the world today
for foreign tourists is London 8 topog-
raphy The LonGoner himself, rccogniz-
ing the futility of the effort makes no
attempt to solve 1.-THE asks policeman
The spectacle, on the other hand, OF the
intelligent foreigner. armed with guide
book and map, va.nly scanning the out
side walls and buildings in frantic en-
deavor to discover his whereabouts, once
again calls particular attention to the
faults of the English system of naming
and numbering throughfares and houses.
Many schemes have. at one time and
another. been considered by indiV .dual
borough councils for remedying this de-
feet, but such ideas are nearly always
allowed to fall through again, without
anything being done In the meantime,
with the growth of the metropolis condi-
tons are becoming steadily worse
1t is possible to find more than one main
thoroughfare in London along which one
can proceed for something like two miles
without finding a single name plate to n
d:cate the name of the street If it is not
placed within two feet of the ground well
hidden beneath the overhangtng coping
of a garden wall, it may sometimes be
discovered, with the aid of a pair of
field-glasses. high up on the wall of
house standing we'll back from the street
look for the name of street in London
This lack of any universal. recognized
plan of displaying street names Is one
OF the worst points of our street nOmen-
clature: but the manner N which the
various houses in street are numbered
is equally ridiculous. Very often build
ing bears no number at all. and where
the numbers are visible the stranger
might be forgiven for concluding that the
tenant of each building chose the number
which best suited his own particular
fancy.
When the simple and effective methods
adopted in other countries are contrasted
our own absurd system, or, rather, lack
of system. appears to be all the more
amazing. The American method of call
ing all the thorOughfares running in one
direction streets, and all those running
i'm the cross direction avenues and
numbering them cOnsecutively, is too well
known to require any description. Owing
TO the absence of any attempt at scientific
town-plannng i'm this country It would
be hardly feasible to apply the American
method TO English cites, but it is sug-
gested that something on the lines of the
German system might be tired with ad-
vantage.
In German towns there is at every
street corner, without exception. lamp
post, which, after the manner of finger
board. bears not only the names of the
two streets at the juncture of which it
stands, but also the numbers of the build
,ngs in that particular block. The stran-
ger. then. has only to walk to the nearest
corner to discover the name of the street
lie Is in and the approximate ate distance
to the number which he is in search of
Every building. too, is numbered in large
and uniform figures, and beneath the
figures is an arrow which indicates the
directon in which the numbers rise in
sequence 1t is also the German rule to
give all the streets i'll one particular die
trict certain class of names. Thus in
Berlin all the streets bearing the names
OF different Bavarian towns are situated
close together, and form the Bavar an
quarter