Official Use As Central Point
Since the second half of the 18th century Charing Cross has been seen as the centre of London. From the early 19th century, legislation applicable only to the London metropolis used Charing Cross as a central point to define its geographical scope. Its later use in legislation waned in favour of providing a schedule of local government areas and became mostly obsolete with the official creation of Greater London in 1965.
| Use | Scope |
|---|---|
| Metropolitan Police District | The Metropolitan Police Act 1829 made provision that all parishes within 12 miles of Charing Cross could be added. This was expanded to 15 miles by the Metropolitan Police Act 1839. |
| Metropolitan Buildings Office | The London Building Act 1844 allowed that any place within 12 miles of Charing Cross could be added to the area of responsibility. |
| Hackney carriage licensing & The Knowledge | The London Hackney Carriage Act 1831 and subsequent legislation set the radius within which cab drivers were obliged to take a fare. Streets within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross are still included in taxi driver training. |
| Street Trading | The Metropolitan Streets Act 1856 gave the Commissioner of Metropolitan Police the power to control various activities within a six mile radius of Charing Cross. Powers to licence shoeblack pitches are still in force but in practice are superseded by individual London boroughs' street trading arrangements. |
Prior to the selection of Charing Cross many locations were used. They were Hyde Park Corner, Whitechapel Church, the south side of London Bridge, the south side of Westminster Bridge, Shoreditch Church, Tyburn Turnpike, Holborn Bars, St Giles's Pound, Hick's Hall, the Standard in Cornhill, and the Stones' End in The Borough. Some of these objects had been moved or destroyed with their former locations being used for distances.
Read more about this topic: Charing Cross
Famous quotes containing the words central point, official, central and/or point:
“The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage. That is a commonplace truth, but one to which my studies are always bringing me back. It is the central point in my conception. I see it at the end of all my reflections.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“I know one husband and wife who, whatever the official reasons given to the court for the break up of their marriage, were really divorced because the husband believed that nobody ought to read while he was talking and the wife that nobody ought to talk while she was reading.”
—Vera Brittain (1893–1970)
“In inner-party politics, these methods lead, as we shall yet see, to this: the party organization substitutes itself for the party, the central committee substitutes itself for the organization, and, finally, a “dictator” substitutes himself for the central committee.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)
“From the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, the AIDS problem has already been solved. After all, we already have a drug which can be sold at the incredible price of $8,000 an annual dose, and which has the added virtue of not diminishing the market by actually curing anyone.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)