London place name pronounciations
 

For the non-English speaker, London place names can be pronounced differently than they appear to be. For example, Southwark is not &quot;south-wark&quot; but rathe &quot;sa-thark&quot; and Greenwich is not &quot;-witch&quot; but &quot;itch&quot;<BR><BR>How about Islington (is or I like Isle)? How about Marylebone? Any other common goofs that you know of?

Well, what about Lewisham (Lewi-sham), Ruislip (Rye-slip), Yiewsley (near Heathrow - You-zly), Tottenham (Tot-nam), Chiswick (Chizik), Woolwich (Wulich), Fulham (Fulam), Berkeley Square (Barkly), Grosvenor Square (Grove-na).

Marylebone is 'marry-ler-bone' (ler like the French 'le'). <BR>There is also Plaistow, which is pronounced plars-toe, but it is highly unlikely tourists would want to go there.

Islington is pretty much as it looks - Iz-ling-tun<BR><BR>Then there's Holborn - Ho-burn<BR><BR>I can't think of any others that haven't already been mentioned.

Islington is pretty much as it looks - Iz-ling-tun<BR><BR>Then there's Holborn - Ho-burn<BR><BR>I can't think of any others that haven't already been mentioned.

What about Beauchamp Place -- pronounced Beecham Place?<BR><BR>

It's a general British (and not just English thing):<BR><BR>Leicester = Lester and Worcester = Wuh-ster and Gloucester = Gloster (but you knew those, of course). But there are several views about Cirencester (Siren-sester or Sissister or..?) and Shrewsbury (Shroe or Shroo?).<BR><BR>And it used to a be a trap for prospective BBC newsreaders to give them in their test bulletin some places in Scotland - Kircudbright (Cur-coo-bree) and Milngavie (M'll- guy) - most English people wouldn't know about them.

Hi<BR> As Mr P G Wodehouse pointed out, there is also Bluffingham. Rhymes with Moffam.

Although it was mentioned above don't miss the one I hear all the time,<BR>&quot;I'm going to Lie-chester-er-shire&quot; Square to get half price tickets. It's a simple &quot;lester&quot;.

I believe that the flea market at Bermondsey is pronounced <BR>&quot;Bermsey&quot;<BR><BR>marges's comment about Beauchamp Place made me smile. <BR>I know there is a place in England called Beaulieu that is pronounced<BR>&quot;Bew-lee&quot;. And Beauchamp is pronounced<BR>&quot;Bee cham.<BR>Last year when I stayed in a hotel on Beaufort Gardens (a street name) I wasn't sure how the heck to say it.<BR>Turned out to be &quot;Boe-fort&quot;.<BR>Go figure.<BR><BR>

PatrickLondon,<BR><BR>I spent several nights at a hotel in Cirencester owned by Norman Shales called La Ronde. He was born and raised in Cirencester and was a student of Roman history. He was adamant that the pronunciation was &quot;Siren-cester&quot;. I could send him into fits by calling it &quot;Sirenster&quot; as in &quot;Worcester.&quot;

Also Cheyne(rhymes with rainy)as in<BR>Cheyne Walk.

Another classic mistake is <BR>Welwyn Garden city - pronounced well-in garden city as opposed to wel-win garden-city...I think a mcD's advert did a good parody of that once...<BR>tudor princess, i assume you live in UK, where? I ask as I live 2 mins away from a cheyne walk, quite a common name tho i guess...

Elaine, I think it's only 'Bermsey' if you're eating a sandwich at the time &lt;g&gt;<BR><BR>As for Cirencester, most people probably do say it in full, I just have this recollection of an older wouldbe-aristocratic elided form.<BR><BR>Not to mention the family names (Marjoribanks, Cholmondeley, Featherstonehaugh). So I won't.

Sure would be interested in knowing how &quot;Featherstonehaugh&quot; is pronounced, PatrickLondon. Go ahead, please? Thanks

It's 'Fanshaw'.

In Wales a town named Porthmadog,is not pronounced Porth-ma-dog,but Porth-ma-d-ig.

<BR>My favoutire is the surname &quot; St. John-Smith &quot; pronounced 'sinjinsmythe'.

In fact, Marylebone is pronounced Marlibun.

Since davidess asked, I'll mention Marchbanks, Chumley and Fanshaw (as nigel said).<BR><BR>As for Porthmadog, Welsh is a different language after all, so it's not so odd that the pronunciation isn't what you'd expect if it were English.