1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Charing Cross

CHARING CROSS, the locality about the west end of the Strand and the north end of Whitehall, on the south-east side of Trafalgar Square, London, England. It falls within the bounds of the city of Westminster. Here Edward I. erected the last of the series of crosses to the memory of his queen, Eleanor (d. 1290). It stood near the present entrance to Charing Cross station of the South-Eastern & Chatham railway, in the courtyard of which a fine modern cross has been erected within a few feet of the exact site. A popular derivation of the name connected it with Edward’s “dear queen” (chère reine), and a village of Cherringe or Charing grew up here later, but the true origin of the name is not known. There is a village of Charing in Kent, and the name is connected by some with that of a Saxon family, Cerring.