London Bridge

Am delighted to be in London which I always find to be a curious mix of the foreign and the familiar. I especially enjoy riding the Underground and the mix of great names on the various stations: Moorgate, Seven Sisters, Chalk Farm and Pudding Mill Lane. Not to mention the world-familiar Greenwich, Marble Arch, the two Circuses Oxford and Picadilly, Hyde Park Corner, Baker Street and others. These make every journey something of an adventure.

It reminds me of something I read when researching a name for our own company (Islandbridge), how Churchill said: “Broadly speaking, the short words are the best and the old ones best of all”. I took that to suggest the old Norse and Saxon words in particular that litter the English language, many of them to be found in the station-names of London’s Underground.

Apple, Virgin and Riverdeep follow this line and rumble underground in the same way. There are worse places to start when naming a company or putting words on an idea.