My first time coming to the UK and caught the Cockfosters tube train from Heathrow, and I 1) thought it was some Fosters beer tie-in, and 2) some weird joke to have on a public transport.
Not sure it qualifies as weird but ‘Stratford International’ is pretty misleading. Not sure why it still hasn’t been renamed Olympic Park or Stratford North or something.
I would totally stop at Stratford and walk home. Being in a train or coach that passes your home and you know you'll need another hour to come back is literally worse than Hitler
It was supposed to serve Eurostar trains between Paris and Manchester or Leeds. But they never started running (and the trains that were bought for them were sold to France)
It's got to be Elephant and Castle.
I once saw a couple of middle aged Scandinavian tourists getting excited as we approached the station on the Tube, and as we got closer they obviously decided they had to get off the train and check the place out. I wish I could have followed them to witness their disappointment.
It's back! It's at the new Castle Square shopping centre, on the opposite side where it used to be (outside the current station entrance)
[https://maps.app.goo.gl/8x1poXQ4h5MUb3tW9](https://maps.app.goo.gl/8x1poXQ4h5MUb3tW9)
It's apparently the original that's been restored!
With the redevelopment of elephant and castle I need to see a fountain of an elephant on top of a castle with water coming out the trunk, so that future generations will think that’s why it’s called it.
I did the same - even asked the staff at the station where the castle is and the elephant must be in it. I'm sure the city could build an elephant themed park and profit a lot from the tourists.
Many years ago the 29 often terminated at Palmers Green Cock. The miserable sods at TFL changed the name of the stop to Palmers Green North Circular Road.
True, but at least there's other stuff at cutty sark, and it's the river service connection. Though Cutty Sark is enough of a station name to let folk know what is there. Otherwise with these things it's like having Moorgate for TK Maxx.
I once overheard station staff sending somebody to Woolwich Arsenal when they clearly wanted the football ground. Must have been a Chelsea or Spurs fan 🤣🤣🤣
As someone who lives in Shepherd's Bush, I don't think it is that strange. The name derives from the green being used as a resting place by shepherds on their way to the markets at Spitafields.
If you are sniggering at the use of "Bush", a far more snigger some name is Cockfosters.
Finchley Road & Frognal. I remember waking by it and having to do a double take to check whether it was a fake name station sign for an event or something
People have already mentioned Mudchute and Cockfosters which are my two favourites but King George V has got to be up there as well. Like… is he managing the place from beyond the grave or something??
A certain drum intro pops into my head whenever I hear that place.....
>We've got some half priced cracked ice
And miles and miles of carpet tiles
TV's, deep freeze and David Bowie LP's
Pool games, gold chains, wosernames
And at a push, some Trevor Francis track-suites
From a mush in Shepherds Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush...
Anerley. Named when they were building the line and the surveyors asked a passing Scotsman what the area was called and he said ‘I own the only house in the area’
It was originally planned to be called "Millwall", which is where it is, but as Millwall FC left to go to the other side of the river decades ago, you can see why they chose something else...
Cockfosters.
I'm 40 years old and still snigger every time it's announced on the tube...
I always have a little giggle and wonder if I'm the only immature one haha
I visit London often and my wife Always acts like I am the only one that laughs.
I’m 56 I’ve been laughing at that since I was a kid.
We're Gonna Be Talking About The Cockfosters!
Would be a better name for an Aussie strip show than ‘The thunder from down under,.
Only if you serve it warm 😉
"You don't actually buy beer. You only rent it!"
After a nearly 24 hours in the air from Australia, the jetlag delirium adds to the amusement
Came to say this.
My first time coming to the UK and caught the Cockfosters tube train from Heathrow, and I 1) thought it was some Fosters beer tie-in, and 2) some weird joke to have on a public transport.
Absolutely
Battersea Power Station Station
Shame it's not on the Elizabeth line Line
But the Elizabeth line isn't part of the underground - different roundels, different metrics on usage - so does it count as a "line"?
You’re right but in reality it’s part of the underground for most people.
I don’t understand the downvotes - you’re right.
This website isn't about being correct, it's about cheap jokes and confirmation bias.
It's a 'mode' and as such has its own roundel, purple. Hence you head for 'Elizabeth Line' as you would 'DLR' or 'Overground'
Station station station
Theydon Bois, Bushey, Cockfosters
I'd love to see a tube map of every station's literal/etymological meaning.
[There already is one!](https://londonist.com/london/transport/etymology-tube-map-london-station-names)
Amazing thanks!
I've got a book on the subject, it's a little coffee table thing that's fun to flick through
Hol’ up Hol’ up! Theydon Bois!
Yeah bro. They already done some boys 😉
Chalfont & Latimer too
Not sure it qualifies as weird but ‘Stratford International’ is pretty misleading. Not sure why it still hasn’t been renamed Olympic Park or Stratford North or something.
Pretty stupid name for a station that has never carried an international service, and quite possibly never will.
Wait a god damn minute! Stratford International doesn't have international services!? I've always assumed it did. That's such a stupid name
It was meant to be an Eurostar stop
Even if they did run them I'd have a hard time telling non-London friends they want change in Stratford and not St Pancras.
Depends if you're visiting London or going home to Herts/Cambs/Essex I suppose
I would totally stop at Stratford and walk home. Being in a train or coach that passes your home and you know you'll need another hour to come back is literally worse than Hitler
It was supposed to serve Eurostar trains between Paris and Manchester or Leeds. But they never started running (and the trains that were bought for them were sold to France)
Yep. There are 'extra bits' they'd need to build for the passport control area if they ever did decide to stop Eurostars though.
But to quote their website, they *aspire* to one day be an international station. Kind regards, Your Royal Highness King joakim_
It's got to be Elephant and Castle. I once saw a couple of middle aged Scandinavian tourists getting excited as we approached the station on the Tube, and as we got closer they obviously decided they had to get off the train and check the place out. I wish I could have followed them to witness their disappointment.
[удалено]
What the fucks an elephant doing in the middle of a city? I need a drink
In a castle no less
Elephant and Castle is a historic name lol. It's where an old coaching Inn used to stand called Elephant and Castle.
There’s neither an elephant or castle. Very disappointing
There used to be a statue of an elephant with a castle on her back outside the shopping centre (sadly long gone)
It's back! It's at the new Castle Square shopping centre, on the opposite side where it used to be (outside the current station entrance) [https://maps.app.goo.gl/8x1poXQ4h5MUb3tW9](https://maps.app.goo.gl/8x1poXQ4h5MUb3tW9) It's apparently the original that's been restored!
Glad someone else remembers
There was a statue of an elephant with a chess castle on it's back.
The Starbucks in Vauxhall has the elephants with castles on their backs above it.
There used to be a statue of an elephant with a castle on her back outside the shopping centre (sadly long gone)
With the redevelopment of elephant and castle I need to see a fountain of an elephant on top of a castle with water coming out the trunk, so that future generations will think that’s why it’s called it.
That deformed pink elephant was so ugly
I did exactly this as a child visiting London. And yes, it was a bit underwhelming. 😁
I did the same - even asked the staff at the station where the castle is and the elephant must be in it. I'm sure the city could build an elephant themed park and profit a lot from the tourists.
https://youtu.be/Jhrw2Vvigmk?si=BQ6jEwnL3EgJbKjr
It’s not a tube or train station, only a bus terminus destination, but I love seeing buses going to World’s End (Chelsea)
Many years ago the 29 often terminated at Palmers Green Cock. The miserable sods at TFL changed the name of the stop to Palmers Green North Circular Road.
Also North finchely ' Tally ho!'
YES.
Tooting Bec - Rebecca has flatulence?
Hahah never thought of it that way 😂
My wife’s name is Rebecca. We visited London in March and our four year old still laughs hysterically if you mention “Tooting Bec”
Tingtong from Tooting..
Mudchute
Sounds like a pokemon
Shitpipe
Especially in between stops like “paradise gardens”.
Well, the alternative was Millwall, which back in the day had a strong association with football violence.
Had? 🤔
Poopshoot
Gallions reach - where’s the sea? The cliffs ? The beautiful old ships ???
Fucking stinks. No really, it does
There's a hill, in Gallion's Reach Park, which is on the other side of the Thames, called Gallion's Reach here.
I feel like we are so used to Barking . But from an outside perspective i think it would be weird 😭
Cyprus
Used to travel from East India to Cyprus daily
This. Although it's perfect for Dad jokes, telling people you went to Cyprus for a few minutes.
Custom House for ExCel No other station is named after literally the only thing it exists for.
Cutty Sark for meantime greenwich??
That one's actually even better when you learn what a cutty sark actually is. It's basically naming your ship *Skimpy Nightie*.
True, but at least there's other stuff at cutty sark, and it's the river service connection. Though Cutty Sark is enough of a station name to let folk know what is there. Otherwise with these things it's like having Moorgate for TK Maxx.
Arsenal?
London City Airport?
Mornington Crescent
I’m sorry I haven’t a clue what you’re going on about.
Nope! Terrible move!
I think it can be excused in exhibition play
Only if they weren’t in nid
They were on a diagonal anyway
Full marks to tankingtonIII. Samantha is tallying the scores and I can see that she needs an extra finger or two.
Rain in the southeast
IYKYK
I think this means you've just won this thread. (Wheeeey)
Chalk Farm
A whole farm of chalk?! What is this wonder??
Canada Water
Yea. So silly
Ok, it’s outside London but only just and it’s on Thameslink, but I enjoy the name Bat and Ball.
Cockfosters for sure
Tube passenger to neighbour: Is this Cockfosters? Man responds: No madam, it's mine
Marylebone
Marghleebohne
Marry-lee-bone it's alternative pronunciation, even the people that live there can't make their mind up.
The Marylebone area is dying, share this if you have a maryleboner in your life
She's a virgin actually.
Mudchute.
Theydon Bois
Represent.
St John’s Wood
Must be very impressive for a whole area to be named after it.
I thought it was after he woke up hard in the morning.
The only station which doesn't contain any letters in the word "mackerel".
Swiss Cottage and Manor House
When they run out of ideas they have to name a station after a pub cosplaying as an alpine chalet in the middle of a gyratory on an A road.
Yes Swiss Cottage is for sure a weird one.
As a swedish tourist, Morden always makes me chuckle as I can't help reading it in swedish, which is *The murders* 🥴
They get even funnier if you turn them round Finsbury Park becomes Crappy Rubsniff \[krap yrubsnif\] Upton Park becomes Crap Not Poo. \[krap notpu\]
Piccadilly Circus 🤡
If we're veering into names that bear no resemblance to the place they represent: Wood Green.
Not so much weird as misleading. Edgware and Edgware Road and they are miles away from each other. My tourist friend went to the wrong station
I once overheard station staff sending somebody to Woolwich Arsenal when they clearly wanted the football ground. Must have been a Chelsea or Spurs fan 🤣🤣🤣
Nunhead
Bromley-by-bow has quite an oldy-worldy jaunt. Honorable mention to turkey street as well.
Mudchute
No one for Pudding Mill?
Burnt Oak.
I guess a tree was once set on fire. Pretty fitting tbh.
Lee
Cyprus
Never knew this existed
Goodge Street
All the Mario 3 levels like Island Garden , Star Lane , etc
As someone who lives in Shepherd's Bush, I don't think it is that strange. The name derives from the green being used as a resting place by shepherds on their way to the markets at Spitafields. If you are sniggering at the use of "Bush", a far more snigger some name is Cockfosters.
Redbridge since it’s neither red nor is there a bridge nearby
Mudchute. At least Cockfosters makes you laugh!
Pimlico
Penge is a pretty unusual name (at least within London) because it’s Celtic - not Roman, Anglo-Saxon or Norman
I'm fairly sure it's a contraction of penis + minge.
Cyprus.
Cyprus
Cockfosters - Peter Crouch referred to it as ‘Vagina Heineken’ on his pod one week and that’s all I call it now
Loughborough Junction, it's weird because it's 117 miles from Loughborough.
Tooting Bec. What is a Bec?
Cockfosters
White City
For years I pronounced it Kings Cross St Pancreas.
Wait… I pronounce it like that..
Any excuse: https://youtu.be/8jPyg2pK11M?si=iNQLknuETeafihXc
Fenchurch Street railway station
Elephant and Castle is a classic example. I always thought Fairlop was funny for some reason.
As an American, Cockfosters is a hoot.
I remember a tourist being baffled by 'Kilburn' thinking it meant literally kill+burn. It makes me wonder if other visitors assume the same thing.
I was even more surprised to learn it meant "church by a stream", which doesn't resemble present day Kilburn at all
Crossrail 4 will be from Shepherd’s Bush to Cockfosters, and later come to be known as the Shepherd’s Cock Line.
Upminster Bridge. It refers not to the railway bridge, but the much smaller bridge over the River Ingrebourne.
I find Pudding Mill Lane so charming
Pontoon dock
Finchley Road & Frognal. I remember waking by it and having to do a double take to check whether it was a fake name station sign for an event or something
For me it's Charing Cross but only because charing is a word in Filipino gay slang that means like a joke. So everytime I pass by it makes me chuckle.
Mud Chute
Totteridge and Whetstone was always funny to me.
Bat and ball
Leicester Square. Just to listen to foreigners trying to pronounce it. Ditto Marylebone, and Holborn.
Merrilybone
Old joke: I took my dog on the underground to teach it the trumpet - it went from barking to tooting.
Tooting 💨
Water loo
I presume you chuckle at Cockfosters
COCKFOSTERS
Tooting bec or theydon bois i would say
Carshalton. What the hell is a Carshalton
King Crustacean
Mudchute. Sounds wrong to me.
as a SW local, tooting bec makes me smile every time
Cockfosters and Barking.
Cockfosters
People have already mentioned Mudchute and Cockfosters which are my two favourites but King George V has got to be up there as well. Like… is he managing the place from beyond the grave or something??
Mornington Crescent!!
Goodge Street
Blackfriars is pretty intense the first time you hear it.
Canada water
A certain drum intro pops into my head whenever I hear that place..... >We've got some half priced cracked ice And miles and miles of carpet tiles TV's, deep freeze and David Bowie LP's Pool games, gold chains, wosernames And at a push, some Trevor Francis track-suites From a mush in Shepherds Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush...
Cockfosters (hilarious too)
I was once on the Victoria line and a drunk man shouted “PIMLICO! THAT’S NOT EVEN A REAL WORD!” and everyone judged him and laughed
Anerley. Named when they were building the line and the surveyors asked a passing Scotsman what the area was called and he said ‘I own the only house in the area’
Cockfosters! Lol everytime
Tooting Bec. Mudchute.
Turnham Green. Like, do you use paint or dye or something?
Theydon Bois
For me it’s Cockfosters
I bet you’ve never heard of Turkey Street. But you’ll see it there on the map.
Mudchute
Mudchute is literally a shit hole (I have never been there but for the purposes of this stupid comment)
It was originally planned to be called "Millwall", which is where it is, but as Millwall FC left to go to the other side of the river decades ago, you can see why they chose something else...
7 sisters.
Arsenal… named after a joke.
Bank.