Nick Cooper wrote:
On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 08:51:44 +0000 (UTC), "Troy Steadman"
wrote:

"Mark Brader" wrote in message


Which disaster that took place in what is now (and maybe was then,
I won't be specific) a part of the London Underground system is
mentioned in the Oxford English Dictionary?

Google suggests the London Underground has been mercifully spared
too many disasters - not sure where "accident" finishes and
"disaster" starts mind you...

The crush at Bethnal Green and the wartime bombing of the other "B"
stations...

Bamden Town? Bambeth North??? Barble Arch???? Brafalgar square?????

Bank and Balham, I assume, though I wouldn't have thought these
warranted a mention in the OED. I don't think that any disaster of this
sort has coined a new word in the language, so I assume that there is a
reference to the disaster in an entry for the part of London where it
happened. The disaster would therefore have to be very significant in
the history of either the location or London's railways in general.

Moorgate can be ruled out, as the location of the disaster is no longer
in the LU system. Harrow (1952) is a possibility but here too the
mainline tracks on which it occurred aren't part of the LU system.
King's Cross seems the most likely, as the disaster had a huge effect
thereafter on the physical and procedural aspects of the Underground
system. There's no entry for King's Cross in my 1-volume New Oxford
Dictionary of English, but maybe in the OED itself ...?
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)