Editing Charing Cross (section)

==Official use as central point==
By the late 18th century, the Charing Cross district was increasingly coming to be perceived as the "centre" of the [[metropolis]] (supplanting the traditional heartland of the [[City of London|City]] to the east).<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K6qxPXnzLR8C&q=centre+of+London+charing+cross&pg=PA34 |first=John |last=Barrell |title=The Spirit of Despotism: invasions of privacy in the 1790s |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |isbn= 978-0-19-928120-6 |pages=20–27, 34 }}</ref> From the early 19th century, legislation applicable only to the London metropolis used Charing Cross as a central point to define its geographical scope. Its later use in legislation waned in favour of providing a schedule of local government areas and became mostly obsolete with the creation of [[Greater London]] in 1965.

{| class="wikitable"
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!Use||Scope
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|[[Hackney carriage]] (colloquially London cab/taxi) licensing and [[Taxis of the United Kingdom#The Knowledge of London|The Knowledge]]|| The [[London Hackney Carriage Act 1831]] and other Acts set the radius within which licensed London cabs illuminated or otherwise advertising for business had to take a fare (and convey passengers). The legacy of this is that streets within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross are the basis of 'black taxi' driver training. Such cabs can turn down exceptionally long journeys.
|-
|[[Metropolitan Police District]] || The [[Metropolitan Police Act 1829]] stated all parishes within 12 miles of Charing Cross could be added. This was expanded to 15 miles by the [[Metropolitan Police Act 1839]]. It has since been harmonised to Greater London, as to stations and main conurbations.
|-
|[[Metropolitan Buildings Office]]|| The Office (superseded in 1855 and today by each local authority's Building Control departments or teams) could regulate use and building standards under the [[London Building Act 1844]], within 12 miles of Charing Cross 
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|Street trading|| The Metropolitan Streets Act 1856 gave the Commissioner of Metropolitan Police power to control some acts within six miles of Charing Cross. Powers to license shoeblack pitches remain, heavily superseded by the [[London borough]]s' street trading licensing laws.
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|Amateur radio|| 431MHz-432MHz are banned for amateur radio use within 100km of Charing Cross.
|}

[[File:Mileages from London (16049013071).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|right|Plaque by the [[Equestrian statue of Charles I, Charing Cross|statue of Charles I]], stating that "Mileages from London are measured from the site of the original Cross"]]
Road distances from London continue to be measured from Charing Cross. Prior to its selection as a commonly agreed central [[Geodetic datum#Horizontal datum|datum point]], various points were used for this purpose. [[John Ogilby]]'s ''Britannia'' of 1675, of which editions and derivations continued to be published throughout the 18th century, used the "Standard" (a former conduit head) in [[Cornhill, London|Cornhill]];<ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Ogilby |author-link=John Ogilby |title=Britannia |chapter=Preface |place=London |year=1675 }}</ref> while [[John Cary]]'s ''New Itinerary'' of 1798 used the [[General Post Office]] in [[Lombard Street, London|Lombard Street]].<ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Cary |author-link=John Cary |title=Cary's New Itinerary |chapter=Advertisement |place=London |year=1798 }}</ref> The [[milestone]]s on the main [[Turnpike trusts|turnpike road]]s were mostly measured from their terminus which was peripheral to the free-passage urban, London roads. Ten of these are notable: [[Hyde Park Corner]], [[St Mary Matfelon|Whitechapel Church]], the southern end of [[London Bridge]], the east end of [[Westminster Bridge]], [[St Leonard's, Shoreditch|Shoreditch Church]], [[Marble Arch|Tyburn Turnpike]] (Marble Arch), [[Holborn Bars]], [[St Giles's Pound]], [[Hicks Hall]] (as to the [[Great North Road (Great Britain)|Great North Road]]), and the Stones' End in [[Southwark|The Borough]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Daniel |last=Paterson |author-link=Daniel Paterson |title=A New and Accurate Description of all the Direct and Principal Cross Roads in Great Britain |edition=12th |place=London |page=x }}</ref><ref name="1831 Census">{{cite book |title=Answers and Returns Made Pursuant to an Act: Passed in the Eleventh Year of the Reign of His Majesty King George IV. Intituled "An Act for Taking an Account of the Population of Great Britain, and of the Increase Or Diminution Thereof" |date=January 1833 |page=498 |url=https://archive.org/stream/abstractofanswer03grea#page/n559/mode/2up }}</ref> Some roads into [[Surrey]] and [[Sussex]] were measured from [[St Mary-le-Bow]] church in the City.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hissey |first=James J. |title=The Charm of the Road |year=1910 |publisher=Macmillan |place=London |page=58 |oclc=5071681 }}</ref><ref>{{National Heritage List for England |num=1252622 |desc=Bow Bell Milestone 35 miles from London |access-date=9 July 2015}}</ref> Some of these structures were later moved or destroyed, but reference to them persisted as if they still remained in place. An exaggerated but well-meaning criticism was that "all the Books of Roads ... published, differ in the Situation of Mile Stones, and instead of being a Guide to the Traveller, serve only to confound him".<ref>{{cite book |title=The Traveller's Pocket-Book: or, Ogilby and Morgan's Book of the Roads Improved and Amended, in a method never before attempted |place=London |year=1760 |page=iv }}</ref>

[[William Camden]] speculated in 1586 that [[Roman roads in Britain]] had been measured from [[London Stone]], a claim thus widely repeated, but unsupported by archaeological or other evidence.<ref name="1831 Census"/><ref>{{cite journal |last=Clark |first=John |title=Jack Cade at London Stone |journal=Transactions of London and Middlesex Archaeological Society |year=2007 |volume=58 |pages=169–89 (178) |url=http://www.lamas.org.uk/transactions-archive/Vol%2058.pdf }}</ref>