London is full to the brim with fascinating street names ranging from the classics like Abbey Road, Portobello Road, and Columbia Road, to the surprisingly rude and giggle-inducing such as Cock Lane, Balls Pond Road, and Beaver Close.
There’s also the oldest street name in London, Bishopsgate whose name dates all the way back to Roman times and the longest street in London whose title goes to South London’s Rotherhithe Street. But which London street name is the shortest?
On a quiet unsuspecting residential road in East London, you’ll find Hide, the London street with the shortest name in the city coming in at four letters. Despite taking the title of London’s shortest street name, Hide in Beckton is as plain as any residential street in the city and, to match its concise address, is a fairly short street in itself.
On one side of Hide you’ll find seven terraced houses extending the length of the street, and on the other side is a small block of flats. It’s an easy to miss street being sandwiched between Covelees Wall and Downings Street and behind the main road of Woolwich Manor Way suggesting it is a fairly well-kept secret quirk of London.
Blogger Diamond Geezer explored the area Hide is found in at the Winsor Park Estate and discovered its surrounding residential streets had some equally peculiar and pretty short street names. These include Ashen at five letters and Oxleas at six. After some digging, Diamond Geezer found that many Beckton street names come from Medieval features in the area and mainly take their names from old field names.
Whilst taking the number one spot for the briefest street name in the big smoke, Hide is not the shortest street name in England. That title goes to Rye, a lane in Somerset coming in at three letters, which we’d think is pretty tough to beat.