Editing Eleanor cross (section)

=== Charing (now Charing Cross) ===
[[File:Old Charing Cross.jpg|thumb|upright|The cross at [[Charing Cross]], Westminster]]
<small>({{Coord|51|30|26|N|00|07|39|W|region:GB}})</small>
Eleanor's bier spent the final night of its journey, 16 December 1290, in the [[Royal Mews]] at Charing, [[Westminster]], a few hundred yards north of Westminster Abbey.<ref name="pow194"/><ref name="cock345"/> The area subsequently became known as [[Charing Cross]]. The cross here was the most expensive of the twelve, built of [[Purbeck marble]] from 1291 onwards by Richard of Crundale, the senior royal mason, with the sculptures supplied by [[Alexander of Abingdon]], and some items by Ralph de Chichester. Richard died in the autumn of 1293, and the work was completed by Roger of Crundale, probably his brother. The total recorded cost was over £700.<ref name="colv483"/><ref>Powrie 1990, pp. 177–78.</ref><ref>Hunter 1842, pp. 184–85.</ref><ref>Galloway 1914, pp. 77–78.</ref>

[[File:John Norden's Map of Westminster - Charing Cross.jpg|thumb|left|Charing Cross shown on [[John Norden]]'s map of [[Westminster]], 1593. North-west is to the top.]]
The cross stood outside the Royal Mews, at the top of what is now [[Whitehall]], and on the south side of what is now [[Trafalgar Square]]. [[John Norden]] in about 1590 described it as the "most stately" of the series, but by this date so "defaced by antiquity" as to have become "an old weather-beaten monument".<ref>Galloway 1914, p. 78.</ref> It was also noted by [[William Camden]] in 1607.<ref>{{cite book |first=William |last=Camden |author-link=William Camden |title=Britannia |location=London |year=1607 |page=311 |url=http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/midlesexeng.htm#mids20 }}</ref>

It was ordered to be taken down by Parliament in 1643, and was eventually demolished in 1647.<ref>Powrie 1990, pp. 177–79.</ref><ref>Galloway 1914, p. 79.</ref> Following the demolition, a contemporary ballad ran:<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Mackay |editor-first=Charles |chapter=The lawyers' lamentation for the loss of Charing-Cross |title=The Cavalier Songs and Ballads of England from 1642 to 1684 |location=London |publisher=Griffin Bohn & Co. |year=1863 |page=55 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t21c1zb1c&view=1up&seq=77 }}</ref>
<blockquote><poem>Undone! undone! the lawyers cry,
They ramble up and down;
We know not the way to ''Westminster''
Now ''Charing-Cross'' is down.</poem></blockquote>

After the [[Restoration (1660)|Restoration of Charles II]], an [[Equestrian statue of Charles I, Charing Cross|equestrian statue of Charles I]] by [[Hubert Le Sueur]] was erected on the site of the cross in 1675, and this still stands. The location is still known as Charing Cross, and since the early 19th century this point has been regarded as the [[Charing Cross#Official use as central point|official centre of London]], in legislation and when measuring distances from London.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2005/08/15/charingcross_feature.shtml |title=Where is the centre of London? |publisher=BBC |date=24 September 2014 |access-date=23 June 2019 }}</ref>

A new Eleanor cross was erected in 1865 outside [[Charing Cross railway station]], several hundred yards from the original site: see [[#Replicas and imitations|Replicas and imitations]] below.

[[File:David Gentleman Charing Cross 1.jpg|thumb|Detail of [[David Gentleman]]'s mural at [[Charing Cross tube station|Charing Cross underground station]]]]
A {{convert|100|m|ft|abbr=off|adj=mid|-long}} mural by [[David Gentleman]] on the platform walls of [[Charing Cross tube station|Charing Cross underground station]], commissioned by [[London Transport Executive (GLC)|London Transport]] in 1978, depicts, in the form of [[wood engraving]]s, the story of the building of the medieval cross by stonemasons and sculptors.<ref>Gentleman 1979.</ref>

[[Folk etymology]] holds that the name Charing derives from French {{lang|fr|chère reine}} (dear queen);<ref>{{cite web|title=The Eleanor Crosses |url=http://archive.museumoflondon.org.uk/medieval/People/147014/ |work=Eleanor of Castille|publisher=[[Museum of London]]|access-date=12 November 2013}}</ref> but the name "Charing" for the area in fact pre-dates Eleanor's death and probably comes from the Anglo-Saxon word ''{{lang|ang|ċerring}}'', meaning a bend, as it stands on the outside of a sharp bend in the River Thames (compare [[Charing]] in Kent).<ref>{{cite book |first1=J. E. B. |last1=Gover |first2=Allen |last2=Mawer |first3=F. M. |last3=Stenton |author3-link=Frank Stenton |title=The Place-Names of Middlesex apart from the City of London |series=[[English Place-Name Society]] |volume=18 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1942 |pages=167 |quote=The old forms show that the traditional association of the name with Fr ''chére reine'', with reference to Queen Eleanor, has no justification. }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://library.eb.co.uk/eb/article-9022531?query=charing%20cross&ct= |title=Charing Cross – Britannica Online Encyclopedia |publisher=library.eb.co.uk |access-date=7 July 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Helen |last=Bebbington |title=London Street Names |url=https://archive.org/details/londonstreetname0000bebb |url-access=registration |location=London |publisher=Batsford |year=1972 |isbn=9780713401400 |page=[https://archive.org/details/londonstreetname0000bebb/page/81 81] }}</ref>