London Banter - View Single Post

Charles Ellson

On Tue, 27 May 2008 11:12:44 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

On 27 May, 19:09, Charles Ellson wrote:
On Tue, 27 May 2008 15:18:55 +0100, James Farrar

wrote:
On Tue, 27 May 2008 06:47:09 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

On 25 May, 07:53, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 07:46:19 on Sun, 25
May 2008, Martin Edwards remarked:

Also it is debatable whether Luton or Stanstead are actually in the
London area. The names are a product of London's self-obsession and
the international obsession with it.

Luton qualifies under your description (even though it's as well
connected to London as Gatwick and arguably better than Stansted) but
Stansted is the official "third London Airport".

Surely Luton isn't closer to London than Stansted is? I'd have thought
they were about equi-distant.

Luton looks to be about 5 miles closer than Stansted.

According to DirectGov journey planner:-
To Charing Cross from -
Stansted 40.8 miles
Lu'on 34.7
Gatwick 29.4
Thiefrow 17.4
Northolt 14.1
London City 8.6

Fair enough. But I still think it's difficult to argue that 35 miles
away in Bedfordshire is London, while 41 miles away in Essex isn't...

Leaving aside the dishonest claims made in airline advertisements
(where they won't necessarily land you in the same country never mind
the named town), the name "XYZ airport" normally indicates the nearby
place served rather than the actual location as in practice many (if
not most) large towns haven't got anywhere to put an airport within
their own boundary. The distances above do not directly relate to the
time taken to reach London (or e.g. somewhere two or three miles from
the station in London which might take longer than the journey into
London); IIRC you'll get to London quicker from Stansted than you will
from Luton (and in the past from Heathrow?).