Head to Charing Cross and look for a plaque set in the ground that marks the official spot where all distances from London were once measured: 198 miles to Liverpool; 257 miles to Paris; 1118 miles to Rome; 5455 miles to Los Angles; and 10, 500 miles to Sydney. The plaque rests in the middle of a traffic island at Trafalgar Square across from Nelson’s Column and directly behind a statue of Charles I. The plaque reads: ‘On the site now occupied by the statue of King Charles I was erected the original Queen Eleanor’s Cross, a replica of which stands in front of Charing Cross Station. Mileages from London are measured from the site of the original cross.’ Although, the spot is not actually geographically central, the history dates back over 700 years to the reign of Edward I. In the year 1290, when King Edward was grief-stricken upon the death of his wife, Queen Eleanor, he decided to install twelve memorial crosses as resting points along her funeral procession from Lincoln to Westminster Abbey. The final cross was placed at Charing Cross where the plaque exists today. A more ornate replica of the original cross can still be found outside Charing Cross Station. The replica is believed to be more ornate than the original, and it was designed by architect E. M. Barry and installed in 1863.
- The Centre of London
- Trafalgar Square
- www.english-heritage.org.uk
- www.bbc.co.uk
- Underground: Charing Cross