There is an otherwise anonymous road deep in Stonebridge Park, NW10 called Elgar Avenue. While modern audiences may not know what I’m talking about with the term ‘named telephone exchange’, it is possibly uniquely in London named after its former local exchange. Many other such exchanges were named after roads - the other way around.
The local exchange was called ELGar. To reiterate, local telephone exchanges actually having names is an obscure thought for a twenty-first century audience.
These days, we can now speak into our mobile phone, say “Call Ashley Grebbens” and as if by magic, Ashley is summonsed from her kitchen. You ask her to do your a favour and she hangs up. She has wet hands from draining the pasta and can’t use her fingerprint to unlock the phone to achieve the favour for quite a few minutes.
Before the invention of the rotary dial - the in-between technology - a customer would need to call the operator to be connected to another subscriber. Neither the rotary dial nor direct calls to the operator were hindered by wet fingers.
On calling the operator - the first system chronologically - they would take your wire with a plug and connect it directly to the other number with the other end of the plug. And you two were connected.
London had a lot of districts and so ended up with a lot of telephone exchanges.
To simply life for the operator who was using look up tables - names against locations - customers were eventually each given telephone numbers to use.
Each exchange was different. Two, three, four or sometimes five digits long, depending on how big the subscriber base was for a particular exchange.
Exchange names were usually closely tied to the physical location of the exchanges, being the name of a city, town, village or district.
Almon Brown Strowger (1839 - 1902) was an American undertaker turned inventor and who gave his name to the Strowger switch - an electromechanical telephone exchange technology that he had invented. More of why he invented such a thing is in the notes far below.
The Strowger switch was the first commercially successful electromechanical stepping switch telephone exchange system. In November 1922, the General Post Office in the UK adopted this new system.
For London this required the development of the so-called DIRECTOR telephone system which enabled operation with a mixture of both automatic and manual local exchanges until everything got to be fully automatic.
In 1927, the first DIRECTOR exchange was brought into service in Holborn and rolled out progressively across greater London.
People started to be supplied with rotary phones and telephones began to display letters alongside the numbers 2-zero on the dial.
Each London exchange name was three letters long. Subscribers could now remember the three-letter code for the exchange, and dial that before the number.
So if you wanted a number in Perivale, you’d remember PERivale as the local exchange name. On the phone in the image above, the letter P is next to the 7. E is next to the 3. R is also next to the 7. So you’d dial 737 for the exchange followed by the subscriber number.
London telephone numbers were displayed in advertisements, posters and directories in this format. Below is a poster for London Transport enquires - you’d dial 222 1234 given the position of A and B on the dial
Telephone dials had the numbers 1 through to zero. The 1 was a reserved number, never appearing in an exchange name - it had no letters next to it.
You could dial 100 to reach the operator to place a call from, say, London to Aberdeen.
Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) was introduced nationally only as late as 1958. Finally all exchanges were automatic and this allowed people to dial all long distance numbers without operator assistance.
The system was still alphabetic. To phone outside London, you’d first dial a zero and then the alphabetic city code.
Aberdeen was zero-ABE. 01224 is still the all-number code for Aberdeen. If you are eagle-eyed you’ll notice that many all number city codes still have a correlation to the first three letters of many city names. A 1 was hammered into the second digit during the number reorganisation of late twentieth century.
But back to London.
No London exchange names could begin with a 1. Indeed no exchange names could have a converted 1 in them in any position in the mnemonic since there were no letters on a phone next to a 1. These 1-beginning numbers were Post Office (who ran the telephone service for decades) reserved numbers. 100 was the operator. 192 was directory enquires.
No London exchange names could begin with a 0 either as dialling a 0 to begin with meant you were dialling another city. The three-letter exchange names could however have a zero in the second and third positions as it corresponded to the letters O or Q.
999 became the emergency number.
Each exchange code being three characters long meant that the London telephone exchange name designers were left with numbers stretching from 220 to 998, never using a 1, to match the letters on the dial.
Let’s consider how the designers choose the system beginning with the 22 series.
220 - we’ll come back to this one
221 - it has a one so it wasn’t allowed
222 - the Westminster exchange became called ABBey. Westminster had an Abbey so easy to remember. The customer dialled 222. Why not WEStminster - 937? Because there were so many suburbs beginning with the word West -West Norwood; West Ealing. You could only assign 937 once. It was easier to assign an easy mnemonic for Westminster instead: ABBey.
223 and 224 were left unused awaiting future exchanges and unnamed new suburbs called BAFlington or CAGshaw.
225 was Balham - BAL
226 was CANonbury
227 was BARnet
228 was BATtersea
229 was BAYswater
So what about 220, which we left to come back to later?
Acton, deep in West London, had a telephone exchange.
Now ACTon, logically, would be 228.
But 228 was already BATtersea. There was an oak tree on the Acton Borough coat of arms. Perfect. Acton could be ACOrn (220). A bit crazy but - well - why not? Want a number in Acton? Remember the little acorns on the coat of arms.
All over London exchange names were needed and - with a limited choice of available numbers between 220 and 998 (not with a 1), so many district names on the telephone dial would conceivably be duplicates of each other.
So let's come finally to the wonderful and utterly wacky exchange names of London.
Most were simple district names - CHIswick (244), PECkham Rye (732), HENdon (436)
Some came with dubious local justifications for their names.
A few were just weird made-up nonsense.
There were some simply superb names you had to dial when telephone exchanges were alphabetical: Frobisher, Byron, Flaxman, Reliance and many others.
Roger Haworth has done an excellent analysis of the telephone exchange names of London, including research into some of the more obscure of them:
rhaworth.net/phreak/tenp_01.php
Here are some of the more obscure names that Roger Haworth has listed:
220 ACOrn Acton - on the borough coat of arms
238 ADVance Bow and Mile End
262 AMBassador Paddington where some embassies are located
264 AMHerst Hackney after Amhurst Road
276 ARNold North Wembley
285 ATLas Isleworth
283 AVEnue City of London (Monument) after Throgmorton Avenue
258 BLUebell Addiscombe and South Norwood
278 BRUnswick King’s Cross
297 BYRon South Harrow
299 BYWood Purley and Kenley - several woods around there
236 CENtral City of London’s Central Markets
243 CHErrywood Merton and South Wimbledon Cherry Wood (Shaldon Drive)
254 CLIssold Dalston Clissold Park
250 CLOcktower East Ham - a noble local feature
206 CONcord South Harrow
207 COPpermill Walthamstow Coppermill Lane
273 CREscent Barkingside and Redbridge
286 CUNningham Maida Vale
326 DANson Park Bexleyheath Danson Park
337 DERwent Worcester Park
342 DICkens Highbury
345 DILigence Wembley
306 DOMinion Dagenham
373 d DREadnought Earls Court
378 DRUmmond North Wembley
379 DRYden Kingsbury
385 DUKe Fulham
386 DUNcan Catford
327 EASt Poplar “East End” of London
362 EMBerbrook Thames Ditton
367 EMPress West Kensington
368 ENTerprise Southgate
324 FAIrlands Sutton and Cheam
343 FIEld End Pinner and Eastcote after Field End Road
348 FITzroy Hornsey and Highgate - former Fitzroy Farm
352 FLAxman Chelsea
350 FLOral Mortlake
308 FOUntain Streatham
309 FOX Palmers Green Fox Lane
372 FRAnklin Wallington and Carshalton
373 FREmantle Earls Court
370 FRObisher Earls Court
425 GALleon Worcester Park
430 GEOrgian Ealing
437 GERrard Soho Gerrard Street
442 GIBbon Putney Edward Gibbon (Decline and Fall) was born in Putney
452 GLAdstone Cricklewood and Dollis Hill - local park
472 GRAngewood East Ham
474 GRImsdyke Stanmore - iron age earthworks
470 GROsvenor Mayfair Grosvenor Square
485 GULliver Kentish Town
445 HILlside North Finchley
404 HOGarth Shepherds Bush
407 HOP Southwark historically several hop merchants
409 HOWard Ponders End
483 HUDson Hounslow and Heston
486 HUNter St Marylebone
487 HURstway Hayes, Kent. Hurstfield, Hurstdene Avenue or Hurst Close
493 HYDe Park Mayfair Hyde Park
467 IMPerial Chislehurst and Bickley Louis-Napoléon lived and died here
482 IVAnhoe Woodford and Buckhurst Hill
489 IVYdale Ewell
586 JUNiper St Johns Wood
532 KEAts Enfield
535 KELvin Balham
547 KIPling Mottingham and Grove Park
522 LABurnum Winchmore Hill
523 LADbroke Kensal Green and nearby Ladbroke Grove
524 LAGoon Surbiton Surbiton Yes, a lagoon
525 LAKeside Wimbledon Lake in Wimbledon Park
526 LANgham Bloomsbury Langham Place
527 LARkswood Highams Park Larks Wood
528 LATimer Stamford Hill
542 LIBerty Merton and South Wimbledon
548 LIVingstone Norwood Livingstone Road
507 LORds Maida Vale Lords Cricket Ground
622 MACaulay Nine Elms
626 MANsion House City of London (Monument) Mansion House (building)
627 MARyland Stratford and Forest Gate . Nearby station
632 MEAdway Golders Green Name of a road in Hampstead Garden Suburb
635 MELville Sutton and Belmont
638 METropolitan City of London (Monument)
646 MINcing Lane City of London’s Mincing Lane
606 MONarch City of London
608 MOUntview Hornsey and Highgate
685 MULberry Wood Green
686 MUNicipal Croydon
687 MUSeum Bloomsbury British Museum
628 NATional City of London (Moorgate)
602 NOBle West Kensington
607 NORth Barnsbury area is north of the City
683 NUFfield Hayes and Cranford
727 PARk Bayswater and Notting Hill Hyde Park
705 POLlards Norbury Pollards Hill
707 POPesgrove Twickenham road called Popes Grove named after Alexander Pope
774 PRImrose St Johns Wood Primrose Hill
770 PROspect Mortlake
724 RAGlan Leytonstone
728 RAVensbourne Bromley. River Ravensbourne
733 REDpost Brixton Red Post Hill
734 REGent Soho Regent Street
735 RELiance Kennington, Walworth, Vauxhall
736 RENown Fulham
747 RIPpleway Barking Ripple Road
748 RIVerside Hammersmith beside the Thames
703 RODney Camberwell and Walworth Rodney Road
709 ROYal City of London and Wapping Royal Mint (building)
720 SCOtt Nine Elms
745 SILverthorn Chingford
759 SKYport London Airport Heathrow and Harlington
750 SLOane Sloane Square
772 SPArtan Dalston
773 SPEedwell Golders Green
777 SPRingpark West Wickham Spring Park
780 STOnegrove Edgware Stonegrove (Watling Street)
785 SULlivan Westminster
786 SUNnyhill Hendon
822 TABard Fleet Street Tabard Inn (building)
828 TATe Gallery Victoria Tate Gallery
836 TEMple Bar Covent Garden Temple Bar (monument)
837 TERminus Kings Cross railway terminus
843 TIDeway Deptford Thames tideway
809 TOWnley Dulwich and Camberwell Townley Road
872 TRAfalgar Whitehall Trafalgar Square
873 TREvelyan Ilford
870 TROjan Wandsworth
883 TUDor Muswell Hill
863 UNDerhill Harrow under Harrow-on-the-Hill
875 UPLands Purley and Kenley high ground
825 VALentine Ilford Valentine Public House in Perth Road
826 VANdyke Wandsworth
844 VIGilant Sutton and Belmont
845 VIKing Northolt and Yeading Viking Primary School, Radcliffe Way
847 VIRginia Finchley
927 WARing Park Sidcup Waring Park
929 WAXlow Greenford Waxlow Crescent
935 WELbeck St Marylebone Welbeck Street
937 WEStern Kensington - western part of central London
944 WHItehall Westminster Whitehall
943 WIDmore Bromley Widmore Road
907 WORdsworth Kenton
The ELGar exchange of Stonebridge - right at the beginning of this post was preceded alphabetically in the list by the EDWard exchange of Kingston. "EDWard ELGar" may have been somebody's little joke.
NOTES
Note one. As a Kansas City undertaker in 1878, discovering your rival's wife was redirecting your business calls from her switchboard job left three options:
request her dismissal from the telephone company
pursue legal action against the couple
devise an automated telephone system to bypass operators entirely
Almon Brown Strowger chose option 3, creating a direct-dial system that transformed telecommunications.
Note two. As in many of these Substack posts, there's a video which is designed to save to your trouble of reading all this.
There ought to be a "Dial M" reference in here somewhere, surely?
Rodney 8843 - the number of the house I lived in as a child. Funny how some things never leave you!!