看看伦敦地铁名字的起源无异于挖掘其各个地名的来历。一边乘着地铁逛，会有不少和语言相关的事实供你消磨时间。如下是语言学上最为有趣的一些站名。

Oxford Circus

牛津马戏团站

　　The oldest sense of circus is ‘a large building, surrounded with rising tiers of seats, for the exhibition of public spectacles’but, in this instance, it is simply a ‘circular open space at a street junction’.

　　circus最古老的意思是“一幢大楼，由层层座椅围绕着，可以作展览和公开表演之用”。但这里就是“十字路口圆形空地”的意思。

King’s Cross St Pancras

国王的十字圣潘克洛斯站

　　This tube station services King’s Cross and St Pancras National Rail stations. The former is now perhaps best known for being Harry Potter’s entrance to Hogwarts, but the king in question is King George IV (who reigned 1820-1830), and the cross, a monument that was demolished in 1845. St Pancras was born around 289, and beheaded for his Christian faith when he was 14 years old.

　　这个地铁站监管国王的十字和圣潘克洛斯国家火车站。前者即哈利波特通往霍格沃茨的车站，广为人知；但引人热议的国王是指乔治四世（1820-1830执政）；而十字毁于1845年。圣潘克洛斯出生于约莫289年，14岁时因其基督信仰而被斩首。

Angel

天使站

　　It’s named after a former coaching inn on the Great North Road called the Angel, dating from the 17th century.

　　这个站名来源于大北方之路过去一家名为“天使”驿站，可以追溯到17世纪。

Baker Street

贝克街站

　　The most famous resident of Baker Street is, of course, Sherlock Holmes. You might think that it was named after a maker of cakes of pastries, but its namesake is actually William Baker, a builder who laid out the street in the second half of the 18th century.

　　贝克街最著名的居民自然是夏洛克·福尔摩斯。或许你觉得这名字是根据蛋糕点心师傅取的，但事实上，街名来自建筑师威廉·贝克，18世纪下半叶，贝克对这条街做了布局规划。

Bank

班克站

　　Bank is named after the Bank of England. Incidentally, it was voted the most disliked tube station in 2013.

　　班克（英语中”银行“的音译为”班克“）取自英格兰银行。顺便一提，2013年班克被投票选为最受人讨厌的地铁站。

Canary Wharf

金丝雀码头站

　　Canary Wharf takes its name from a warehouse, built for the Mediterranean and Canary Islands fruit trade.

　　金丝雀码头的名字取自一间仓库，仓库是为地中海和金丝雀岛屿水果贸易而建的。

Hainault

海诺特站

　　This unusual name comes from the old English ‘Hyneholt or ‘Henehout’ and means ‘wood belonging to a religious community’.

　　这个不同一般的名字来自古英语的Hyneholt或者Henehout，意为“宗教社区的树木”。

Hanger Lane

汉格巷站

　　The lane is named after Hanger Hill. hanger comes from the old English hangra, ‘a wood on a slope’.

　　这条巷子根据汉格山命名，"汉格"来自古英语hangra，意为“斜坡上的树林”。

Swiss Cottage

瑞士小屋站

　　This area owes its unusual name to a local inn. The Swiss Tavern, built in 1803-4, was in the style of a Swiss chalet – later renamed to the humbler Swiss Cottage.

　　这块地区名字独特是因为当地的一家小旅馆。“瑞士酒店”建于1803至1804年间，是瑞士小木屋风格，“瑞士小屋”这个名字要低调很多，是后来重新命名的。

Turnpike Lane

登碧里站

　　It’s a historical term for a toll gate, though was originally a spiked barrier – thus a sense of pikemeaning ‘a spiked staff or stick’.

　　收费站史称"登碧里"，尽管最初指带刺的障碍物，因而pike有“带刺拐杖或棍子”之意。

　　（来源：沪江英语）