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The name Charing Cross, now given to a district of central London in the City of Westminster, comes from the original hamlet of Charing, where King Edward I of England placed a memorial to his wife, Eleanor of Castile.
It was one of twelve places where Eleanor's coffin rested overnight during the funeral procession from Lincolnshire to her final resting-place at Westminster. At each of these, Edward erected an "Eleanor cross", of which only three now remain. The one which stands at Charing Cross, in front of the railway station, is a re-located Victorian "copy" (designed by architect Edward Middleton Barry) of the original, the latter having stood where a statue of King Charles I of England is now to be found. According to historians, the original cross was not nearly as large or ornate as the Victorian version.
The name Charing Cross derives from the old English word charing, meaning a bend in the river; thus, the Charing Cross is "the cross by the bend in the river".
As London is such a large city, all distances (e.g. as seen on road signs) are measured from a particular point. A plaque in Charing Cross, near Trafalgar Square, marks the place from which distances from London are measured.
Samuel Johnson is quoted as saying "I think the full tide of human existence is at Charing-Cross." Source: Life of Johnson (J. Boswell), Vol. II. This may be as true now as it was then.
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