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Today we are used to alternate house numbering,
odds one side, even the other with the general rule
being that the odd numbers will be on the left hand
side as viewed from the centre of the town or village
with the lowest numbers at the end nearest the town
centre. Useful to know - instead of scrabbling
around in your car trying to track down a house
number ending in a row with the driver or a smashed
wing mirror, pull up at the side of the road and
orientate yourself to where the centre of town is.
However until the mid 19
th
century English streets
were numbered in sequence down one side of the
street and then back up the other like oxen ploughing
a field. The term for this is
boustrophedon
from the
Greek for oxen turning. Ancient Greek writing,
especially on stone follows this bi-directional form
instead of going from left to right as in modern
English (or right to left as in Hebrew and Arabic).
Also in boustrophedon writing the individual
characters in every other line of writing are reversed
to form a mirror image of characters in the preceding
line. But I am digressing. One source I read states
confidently that boustrophedon is a term used by
English postmen to describe streets where the
numbers go in series up one side and then continue
back down the other. Really? I am not sure about
this, in fact there are days when I’m not convinced
the postman on my home walk (as postie routes are
known) can read so much of my mail goes missing!
It’s a different world to the Edwardian one when
there were up to five collections and deliveries a
day. Our regular postman at work comes once a day
around lunchtime and uses his own car to deliver
mail – he has it all sorted in the boot. Nice chap.
Big fellow. Examples of boustrophedon numbering,
survive in Pall Mall and most famously Downing
Street where number 10 is next door to number 11.
Then there are capital curios like Apsley House at
Hyde Park Corner. The official address of Apsley
House is 149 Piccadilly, W1J 7NT. It was originally
part of a line of huge terraced mansions along
Piccadilly, one of which, number 145, was Her
Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s childhood home but
they were all demolished to widen Park Lane. When
the new numbering of houses was introduced The
Duke of Wellington’s home was given the popular
nickname of Number One, London because it was the
first house passed by visitors who came into London
through the old tollgates at Knightsbridge.
No Good For Navigation
Postcodes are a relatively recent phenomenon only
introduced over a 15 year period from 1959. Norwich
got theirs first and in a joyful example of bureaucratic
circles they got theirs last too when in 1974 they were
completely recoded. London adopted its N, W, SE etc
system from the 1850s but later discarded the prefixes
S and NE. This year a new postcode was crested for
the Olympic Park – E20 The Olympic Stadium is
E20 2ST, and the Aquatics Centre is E20 2AQ. Royal
Mail do this sometimes - assigning a semi
postcode to a high profile organisation. It means you
couldn’t navigate by post code, for example although
they are not next to each other the House of Commons
is SW1A 0AA, Buckingham Palace is SW1A 1AA and
Number Ten Downing Street is SW1A 2AA.
HM Customs and Revenue VAT central office is
BX5 5AT - V being the Roman numeral for 5. I make
my own guess as to what BX stands for.
So it turns out that before maps and literacy became
commonplace we found our way about by our wits
using a whole range of visual clues and prompts.
In a sense we still do. High Street brands have taken
over from the street signs of old - most of us can spot
a Sainsburys or God forbid a MacDonalds from some
distance. Today maps are giving way to the increased
use of satellite navigation aids and we’re just as likely
to explain route directions as a sequence of lefts and
rights at pubs just as our ancestors did. Unless it’s my
old dad you ask, a former cinema projectionist.
Ask dad for directions and you’ll likely to get
‘you
want to go past the Gaumont Finchley Road...’.
Never mind that it was demolished in 1987 - it must be
the differences in the old parietal lobe playing up
again!