Charing Cross

Origin of: Charing Cross

Charing Cross

British rhyming slang for ‘horse’, Charing Cross/horse, because Cockney Londoners pronounce the word cross as ‘crorse’, which rhymes with ‘horse’. It is one of the oldest examples of rhyming slang and dates from 1857. Charing Cross is a major road junction in the centre of London, and is so-called because ‘Charing’ derives from an Old English word cierring, which means a river-bend, the river being the River Thames, of course. The ‘Cross’ derives from the 21-metre, wooden, sculpted cross that Edward I erected there for his wife, Eleanor in 1291. The original cross was destroyed during the English Civil War in 1647. A more ornate Portland Stone and Aberdeen Granite replica of the original cross was erected in front of Charing Cross railway station in 1865.