Etymology
Westferry station is in Limehouse and given its proximity to the former Limehouse station on the London & Blackwall Railway, could have been given this name, but instead Stepney East was renamed Limehouse and the DLR station there given that name. West India Quay was reserved for the station at the other end of West India Dock, so there was no obvious choice.
There is no place called Westferry; the name is derived from the nearby Westferry Road. Nor was there ever a west ferry. There was a passenger ferry at the southern tip of The Isle of Dogs run by the Greenwich watermen. It was accessed by two roads, East Ferry Road (also known locally as Farm Road) and Westferry Road, built in 1812 when a horse ferry was introduced alongside the passenger ferry. The two roads still exist, running down the centre and west side of the Isle of Dogs respectively. But the road names refer to an ancient service at the far end of the Isle of Dogs from the station.
Preceding station | DLR | Following station | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Limehouse towards Bank or Tower Gateway | Docklands Light Railway | Poplar towards Beckton or Woolwich Arsenal | ||
West India Quay towards Lewisham |
Read more about this topic: Westferry DLR Station
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of style. But while stylederiving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tabletssuggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. Taste: The Story of an Idea, Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (16881744)