JonesNY

I'm trying to find the name of the area that starts with "Mary" in the Notting Hill area of London, UK including approximate boundary streets and it's N,S,E or W location to Notting Hill Gate. Also, is there an internet site showing these (whatever they're called). I'm not referring to "counties" (are they "towns", with post offices?), as these areas are not labeled on Google Maps. I'd also appreciate a generalized crash course in the rhyme and reason of London's layout (how it's organized--???). Example: In the north of London you find, in the South, across the Thames is, and so on. It seems a bit confusing at first, no doubt in part because of it's wonderful history. Thanks and Happy Travels!

StCirq

I don't know London well at all, but are you referring to Marylebone?

Avalon2

I was thinking the same as St Cirq. Nearby is Baker Street

skyking

The easiest way to learn about London is to spend $25 and spring for a good guidebook. Or go to the library and borrow one. To expect an online forum to completely educate you about London is unreasonable.

You also need to look at a map of London. You can find this in any good guidebook or you can google it. Here's a simple neighborhood map of London: http://phonybeatlemania.wordpress.co...ith-fire-1965/

map of the London Underground:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/travel/d.../tube_map.html

A general description of London neighborhoods: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g1...hborhoods.html

It took me about 30 seconds total to find these. Google is your friend.

nytraveler

London neighborhoods have grown up and together into one city over the last 2,000 years. There is little rhyme or reason why things where they are - except the oldest sights are naturally along the river.

You need to get a good guide book, city map and tube map and locate the places you want to see. Every sight in the guide book will have the closest tube station listed.

flanneruk

The "definitions" of an area have constantly changed over time, and are still subject to both administrative adjustment and status inflation/deflation (aka "estate agent geography")

Marylebone these days is generally thought to refer to the area between Marylebone Rd and Wigmore St, for about 200 yds east and west of Marylebone High St/Mandeville Place, though some extend it a hundred yards or so north to include Marylebone Station

For the first half of the 20th century, the Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone (now merged with others into the City of Westminster) covered an area of several miles. From its foundation around 1400, the boundaries of the parish of St Mary's at the Bourne were in almost perpetual flux, though the Metropolitan Borough established in 1899 had pretty much the boundaries of the parish vestry at that time.

Partly because administrative boundaries change so often, London geographical terms are used very loosely, with users choosing the name that suits their purposes. Estate agents and hotel chains expand the boundaries of "desirable" areas as far as they can get away with - but one decade's uninhabitable slum inevitably becomes a global mecca a couple of decades later, often with very little real change in the buildings or street patterns (Notting Hill is possibly the extreme example of this).

Add to that the fact that central London isn't ghetto-ised by class (you're scarcely ever more than 150 yards from the nearest social housing, or "project" as others call it), and you've got a city where neighbourhood terms are very rough guides indeed to what's actually being described.

Ackislander

The standard for this stuff used to be a book of maps called an "A to Z", ("Z" is pronounced "Zed" in the UK). Everyone who needed to get around London had one.

They are certainly still available for sale, but I would be delighted to find that they are also available online, even if I had to pay for one (horrors).

The A to Z is well-indexed, and the type is actually large enough to read.

PatrickLondon

Some online streetmaps will use one of the major mapmakers' systems, which will often overlay a general district name, as well as the names of tube and rail stations (which is often the first port of call when Londoners refer to where they live).