Road names beginning with X

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TS
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Road names beginning with X

Post by TS »

I notice that a new development in Salisbury here* has the name Xanten Way, named after the city's twin town. (Google StreetView doesn't yet have the development but if you revert to the satellite imagery you can see the construction site.

I don't think I've come across any other 'X' roads, so does anyone know of any others?

* It has a primary school, whose address is confirmed here:
http://www.stpeters.dsat.org.uk/contact-details/
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IAN
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by IAN »

None in the UK according to this website.

https://www.streetlist.co.uk/gazetteer/x.html

But some in the US according to this one.

http://www.livingplaces.com/streets/X.html

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Euan
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by Euan »

IAN wrote: Mon Dec 24, 2018 17:38 None in the UK according to this website.

https://www.streetlist.co.uk/gazetteer/x.html
As expected, none of the other letters of the alphabet lack a road name beginning with them. Of the remaining 25 letters, Z is perhaps unsurprisingly the least popular leading letter with 120 matches. However, Qwysson Avenue in Bury St Edmunds is the only name with a leading Q that is not immediately followed by U.
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by yen_powell »

There used to be an XX Place in Stepney, east London. It was demolished in 1956 but every so often someone tries to use it illegally. I had to have one cast iron street sign taken down on the instructions of the naming and numbering officer for the area in the 1980s. The owner of the cast iron plate never claimed it back so a few years later I had it mounted on wood and gave it to the head of Highways as a leaving present. He has spent most of his retirement writing a street name history of the area and I looked up his entry on XX place and have pasted it below.

XX Place, Globe Road E1 [c1823-c1956] [MEOT] (E6, F6) {49, 59} <G64> XX Place was a narrow street, first on the left off Globe Road from Mile End Road, serving ten small cottages on the north side. One of the houses in this narrow passageway had an inscription on a stone projection that showed a half barrel marked XX and the initials I.S. XX Place with the date 1823. "I" was a character frequently used in earlier times for the modern letter "J". This indicated that the owner was J Stayner, a brewer by trade and there used to be a small brewery near this alley. Note Stayners Road just to the west. It is listed in the LCC 1901 volume as both "Double X Place" and XX Place. All the houses in XX Place were demolished about 1956 in an LCC clearance area and the street closed. It no longer exists as a street although the name has been revived commercially on a number of occasions, probably for its novelty value.
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by trickstat »

The Royal Mail Postcode Finder gives options as soon as you type in a letter in the search box. Typing X in there only gives some house names and some business names but no road names.
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by Big Nick »

yen_powell wrote: Mon Dec 24, 2018 18:40 There used to be an XX Place in Stepney, east London. It was demolished in 1956 but every so often someone tries to use it illegally. I had to have one cast iron street sign taken down on the instructions of the naming and numbering officer for the area in the 1980s. The owner of the cast iron plate never claimed it back so a few years later I had it mounted on wood and gave it to the head of Highways as a leaving present. He has spent most of his retirement writing a street name history of the area and I looked up his entry on XX place and have pasted it below.
This is visible on Sabre Maps under the London Five Feet option.
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by WHBM »

In Washington DC the main east-west streets north of The Capitol are named A Street, B Street, etc in sequence, ascending northwards. However this only lasts up to W Street, then changes to names. Wonder why they stopped just before X.
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by KeithW »

WHBM wrote: Wed Dec 26, 2018 23:41 In Washington DC the main east-west streets north of The Capitol are named A Street, B Street, etc in sequence, ascending northwards. However this only lasts up to W Street, then changes to names. Wonder why they stopped just before X.
Hopefully because it was a deeply confusing system for vistors.

The Central District is divided into four quadrants Northwest (NW), Northeast (NE), Southeast (SE), and Southwest (SW) with the intersection of the NS and EW axes being the U.S. Capitol building. All road name include the quadrant abbreviation to indicate their location, and house numbers are assigned based on the approximate number of blocks away from the Capitol. So you can have a 45 5th street SW , 45 5th street SE, 45 5th street NW and 45 5th street, NE .

A similar rule applies to north south roads except that they are numbered (e.g., 4th Street NW).

The system falls apart in the Mall area bounded by Constitution Avenue and Independence Avenue each side of the Mall where most streets are designated by names rather than the original letters and numbers.

There are in fact many exceptions to the rule , there is no J Street in any quadrant. This is because, until the mid-19th century, the letters "I" and "J" were indistinguishable when written.

"I" Street is often written as "Eye" Street, to distinguish it from the letter "L" and the numeral "1", and "Q" Street, is often written "Que," "Cue," or "Queue." and there is no J Street. There is a Jay Street but it is not one of the lettered streets. There are however two locations usually referred to as J Street, one is the food court in the student union at George Washington University while the other is the name of a Jewish lobbying organization. There are no X, Y, or Z streets in any quadrant, and most or all of A and B streets are called by other names in the Mall area.

Walking to 175 K Street NW instead of 175 K Steet SE will involve quite a trek back to where you want to be, getting confused - it happens.

Incidentally if you are ever in DC on a budget you could do worse than book in to the Hotel Harrington on the corner of E St NW and 11th Street NW. its old fashioned and quirky but cheap, safe and within walking difference of all the main attractions.
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by WHBM »

Many US cities use this style of quadrant street identification. Seattle, for example, is another https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_layout_of_Seattle. It theoretically allows the concept to begin from the centre, and as the city expands the structure can be maintained for ever. US city street maps often have an introductory page which explains that particular city's approach,

It's often said that the concept in Washington, with major straight axes looking semi-randon (though to a purpose) overlad on a separate pattern of smaller streets, was copied by Washington from Paris, not realising that the Washington plan came first, designed in the 1790s by L'Enfant (a Frenchman), while the Paris redesign by Haussmann came some 60 years later, in the 1850s, and the latter doubtless drew on the concepts of the former.

US street surveying leads to such interesting points as 24560 177th Street being on a narrow curved cul-de-sac in the suburban forest with eight houses. Not to mention 12½ Street.
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by KeithW »

WHBM wrote: Thu Dec 27, 2018 08:34 Many US cities use this style of quadrant street identification. Seattle, for example, is another. It theoretically allows the concept to begin from the centre, and as the city expands the structure can be maintained for ever. US city street maps often have an introductory page which explains that particular city's approach,

It's often said that the concept in Washington, with major straight axes looking semi-randon (though to a purpose) overlad on a separate pattern of smaller streets, was copied by Washington from Paris, not realising that the Washington plan came first, designed in the 1790s by L'Enfant (a Frenchman), while the Paris redesign by Haussmann came some 60 years later, in the 1850s, and the latter doubtless drew on the concepts of the former.

US street surveying leads to such interesting points as 24560 177th Street being on a narrow curved cul-de-sac in the suburban forest with eight houses. Not to mention 12½ Street.
Indeed but Washington DC is unusual in its implementation, more typical is NYC where the post independence naming system started north of the historic district at the southern tip of Manhattan and incremented as you headed north. The nearest I can recall elsewhere in the USA are cities which were specifically established as State Capitols such as Columbus Ohio which was picked as it was roughly in the centre of the state.

Washington was as you say designed to be the capital city in what was at the time open country. The problem is that the city became much larger than anyone ever envisaged. Before the US Civil War it was still little more than a market town in terms of population. In 1830 the population was about 30,000 and even by 1860 there were only 75,000 people in what is now the District of Columbia and 15,000 of them were black slaves. Everybody else worked in or for the government and its supporting services such as hotels, restaurants, boarding houses etc. The federal government was responsible for little more than defence and running the US Mint to produce coins. there was no US paper currency issued until the civil war.

Federal power increased immensely as a result of the civil war and so did the population of Washington, By 1870 the population had almost doubled in a decade and Washington had outgrown its original boundaries and begun to merge with Georgetown and Alexandria. As a result in 1871 the settlements were officially merged into the District of Columbia and the original street naming system basically lapsed.
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by Vierwielen »

St Xavier is a well-known saint's name. Google maps shows "Xavier House, Priory Court, London" as a valid address (but not a road name).
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by RichardA626 »

I remember my family looking for a particular bar in Washington, & found we were in the wrong quadrant.

While the grid system in Manhattan starts in the south west, it seems a low of lower Manhattan wasn't developed until later on, as the streets there are named rather than numbered.

Since I started my current job I've been surprised at how many British places have numbered streets, before then I was only familiar with the one in Trafford Park.
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by Rob590 »

They're relatively common in the North-East - Horden, Heaton and Consett all have some I believe. There may be a few others too.
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by bothar »

In Ireland we have a Xerox Technology Park in Dundalk.

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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by KeithW »

RichardA626 wrote: Fri Dec 28, 2018 12:44 I remember my family looking for a particular bar in Washington, & found we were in the wrong quadrant.

While the grid system in Manhattan starts in the south west, it seems a low of lower Manhattan wasn't developed until later on, as the streets there are named rather than numbered.

Since I started my current job I've been surprised at how many British places have numbered streets, before then I was only familiar with the one in Trafford Park.
The lower part of Manhattan was laid out by the Dutch in 1626 and called New Amsterdam at the time :) It was then owned by the British who renamed the streets and they were in control for the best part of 120 years. The grid system is a newcomer only being adopted in the 19th century.
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by Batesy65 »

yen_powell wrote: Mon Dec 24, 2018 18:40 There used to be an XX Place in Stepney, east London. It was demolished in 1956 but every so often someone tries to use it illegally. I had to have one cast iron street sign taken down on the instructions of the naming and numbering officer for the area in the 1980s. The owner of the cast iron plate never claimed it back so a few years later I had it mounted on wood and gave it to the head of Highways as a leaving present. He has spent most of his retirement writing a street name history of the area and I looked up his entry on XX place and have pasted it below.

XX Place, Globe Road E1 [c1823-c1956] [MEOT] (E6, F6) {49, 59} <G64> XX Place was a narrow street, first on the left off Globe Road from Mile End Road, serving ten small cottages on the north side. One of the houses in this narrow passageway had an inscription on a stone projection that showed a half barrel marked XX and the initials I.S. XX Place with the date 1823. "I" was a character frequently used in earlier times for the modern letter "J". This indicated that the owner was J Stayner, a brewer by trade and there used to be a small brewery near this alley. Note Stayners Road just to the west. It is listed in the LCC 1901 volume as both "Double X Place" and XX Place. All the houses in XX Place were demolished about 1956 in an LCC clearance area and the street closed. It no longer exists as a street although the name has been revived commercially on a number of occasions, probably for its novelty value.
According to the old electoral rolls, there were 11 cottages in XX Place - I had direct ancestors living at number 5 until at least 1936. The son of those in number 2 married a great-aunt of mine and they too were living in that property until 1936 when her father-in-law, reportedly the chief brewer for the nearby Charrington's Anchor brewery, died and they moved to Walthamstow.
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by booshank »

Maybe pedantic, but was XX Place 20[th] Place, written in Roman numerals? If so maybe its claim is weakened as XX is just a variant of 20.
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by Chris Bertram »

booshank wrote: Wed Nov 11, 2020 11:03 Maybe pedantic, but was XX Place 20[th] Place, written in Roman numerals? If so maybe its claim is weakened as XX is just a variant of 20.
Probably not. XX is/was a designation for a type of beer, very often a brewer's ordinary mild or bitter, and may still be found on barrels today, even if the beer is sold under a different name. Wadworth's of Devizes have a best-seller called 6X, which is perhaps bragging somewhat, but it's a fine premium bitter.
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by booshank »

Chris Bertram wrote: Wed Nov 11, 2020 11:09
booshank wrote: Wed Nov 11, 2020 11:03 Maybe pedantic, but was XX Place 20[th] Place, written in Roman numerals? If so maybe its claim is weakened as XX is just a variant of 20.
Probably not. XX is/was a designation for a type of beer, very often a brewer's ordinary mild or bitter, and may still be found on barrels today, even if the beer is sold under a different name. Wadworth's of Devizes have a best-seller called 6X, which is perhaps bragging somewhat, but it's a fine premium bitter.
Ah I see, Roman numerals would probably have been rather grand for such a street thinking about it.
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Re: Road names beginning with X

Post by Fenlander »

booshank wrote: Wed Nov 11, 2020 11:03 Maybe pedantic, but was XX Place 20[th] Place, written in Roman numerals? If so maybe its claim is weakened as XX is just a variant of 20.
20 written in words is Twenty, a village on the A151 between Bourne & Spalding.
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