Many believe that Middlesex no longer exists as it was abolished in 1965. Greater London was formed and, with that, Middlesex County Council was dissolved. But Middlesex is still used as a reference to where people live all the time.
Well, OK then, but it is not a very good reference to locality, is it! London used to be within the County of Middlesex, until it became a county in its own right in 1889. This left Middlesex with a rather odd and elongated shape. Nowadays, quite rightly, it is not shown on maps, which show instead the modern London boroughs. It is difficult to relate somewhere like Enfield as in the same locality as Twickenham, almost on the other side of London, especially with Hampstead, not associated with Middlesex, roughly on a line midway between. A better and more accurate reference to where people live would be to use the actual London borough names, thus Uxbridge is in Hillingdon, London.
I suggest that the persistent usage of the name Middlesex is more to do with old habits dying hard than with desire to express location. It particularly grieves me when I find young people using the term, having been inculcated with this idea by an older generation resistant to change.
Many believe that Middlesex no longer exists as it was abolished in 1965. Greater London was formed and, with that, Middlesex County Council was dissolved. But Middlesex is still used as a reference to where people live all the time.
Well, OK then, but it is not a very good reference to locality, is it! London used to be within the County of Middlesex, until it became a county in its own right in 1889. This left Middlesex with a rather odd and elongated shape. Nowadays, quite rightly, it is not shown on maps, which show instead the modern London boroughs. It is difficult to relate somewhere like Enfield as in the same locality as Twickenham, almost on the other side of London, especially with Hampstead, not associated with Middlesex, roughly on a line midway between. A better and more accurate reference to where people live would be to use the actual London borough names, thus Uxbridge is in Hillingdon, London.
I suggest that the persistent usage of the name Middlesex is more to do with old habits dying hard than with desire to express location. It particularly grieves me when I find young people using the term, having been inculcated with this idea by an older generation resistant to change.
