Charing Cross

The scenes depicted on the walls of Charing Cross Station got me thinking about what the current centre of London may have been like in times gone by.

 Charing comes from the old English word "cierring" meaning to turn, which referred to a bend in the River Thames.  The Cross was added to the Hamlet's name after the memorial cross to Eleanor  was erected in 1291-94.  

An inn stood in the area now known as Trafalgar Square, a chapel and hospital occupied the land from Northumberland Avenue to the river.  Much of the land in the area was seized by the King a few years later during the crusades.  In later centuries houses of nobility were built in the area, no doubt due to the proximity to the Palace of Westminster.