London distances are, I believe, measured from Marble Arch.

Phil


On 24/02/2012 8:23 Richard Mann wrote:

We're kinda proud of the fact that the government doesn't bother with such 
things as defining the centre of the town (or seasons). It's just one of those 
things that makes us different from ze French.

So the place tag will be wherever people feel like (usually the nearest open 
space to the centre of town, to help rendering). And you should choose your own 
centre of the town for measurement purposes. I suppose we could crowdsource a 
set of zeropoints if someone comes up with an appropriate tag. Just don't 
expect the place tags to be in the same location.

Richard


On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 1:14 AM, mick <bare...@tpg.com.au> wrote:

I hope this isn't off-topic, if so I apologise.

Can some one advise me of the official policy for locating the centre of towns 
in the UK, i.e. the spot on the map for a point representing the town and used 
as the Zero Point for measuring distances to other towns.

In Australia this was taken as the centre of the road and the middle of the 
plot of land occupied by Post Office and marked by a triangular concrete mile 
post painted white with black characters about 1 metre high with a bevelled 
top. the vertical faces visibly from the road indicated the distance to the 
next town in the direction of travel. The upper face on the '0' post showed the 
distance to the state capital.

I was told this by a NSW Dept of Main Roads Clerk of Works about 1973.

When the roads went metric in 1976 these posts rapidly disappeared, replaced by 
"International Standard" metal posts with green shields marking the 5 KM 
intervals but with no 'Zero Post'. A few towns kept their Zero Posts and moved 
them to a park.

mick

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