London Transport use of + instead of X

Well I suppose there's this sign, for a start: level crossing sign in the States.

Well, of course, we must remember that unicode is a standard for distinct, separable symbols. Font designers then design their own version of each symbol, so it's up to the font designer, for instance, if they want to have - for the sake of example - a "w" with crossing over (as in the wikipedia logo). I would imagine that the form of the cross you see in the bus blinds is merely a one-time Johnston rendering of a standard Greek cross or of a +. What I'm saying is that I don't necessarily think the cross you see on the blind would necessarily be considered a separate symbol - merely one way it happened to be rendered. In the same way that "w" and the wikipedia logo style of w are not really separate symbols

Oh no definitely not! When I was involved in the project in 1995/6 it was most definitely CrossRail and somewhere amongst my personal papers I still have a copy of the notice I was given at the time regarding the exact spelling. I find it interesting that since the project started up again that seems to have been dropped altogether, I had expected it to be used as an official logo.

That would certainly have been the simplest way to do it - and indeed it was unlikely the crosses used would have been a beautiful piece of joinery as usually depicted, but a rough cross-beam or plank lashed firmly to a convenient tree.
Certain of the saints, notably Peter and Andrew, not feeling worthy of dying in exactly the same manner as their Messiah, elected to be crucified in other configurations - respectively head-down and on an X-shaped "St Andrews Cross".

The classic vertical shape is of course a very convenient one for marking a grave - easy to make, easily-recognised, and with a convenient surface on wich to write an inscription.

The cross outside Charing Cross station is a replica of one destroyed in the iconoclastic frenzies of the Civil War. That one was on the site at the top of Whitehall where the statue of Charles I now stands.



Eleanor's father was Ferdinand III of Castile. Henry III was her father-in-law. It was his grandfather (and her great-great- grandfather) Henry II, who rebuilt Westminster Abbey. Henry II's wife was another Eleanor - of Aquitaine.

They were an unimaginative lot in the late middle ages - all the Plantaganet (and Tudor) kings for over 400 years were named Henry (II-VIII), Richard (I-III) or Edward (I-VI). King John is an exception, but he had three older brothers.

It was my understanding that LT used an upright cross to avoid confusion, as it couldn't then be mistaken for Charing Ex, or Charing Ten.

Sorry for this being off topic. You're right about Eleanor's father-in-law being Henry III, not her father, a silly mistake to make, but it was Henry III, not Henry II who rebuilt Westminster Abbey. 



Henry III was a pious man (though not pious enough to dislike the Jews) and took Edward the Confessor as his patron saint. Henry II, as you say, several generations earlier, took power from Stephen and rebuilt the country after the civil war that had lasted for the best part of 30 years. Eleanor was imprisoned for many years after she and each of her sons rebelled against him.

my mistake - although Henry II did initiate the cult of Thomas Becket after the "who will rid me of his troublesome priest" episode. He didn't actually take power from Stephen - following the death of Stephen's only son during the First (Stephen & Matilda) Civil War, the only surviving male descendants of the Conqueror were Stephen himself, and Matilda's eight year old son Henry. It was agreed that Stephen would reign for his lifetime and then be succeeded by Henry.
(Matilda was still alive when Henry succeeded to the throne - the idea that a woman could herself succeed to the throne, rather than the succession simply passing through her, was not accepted until 1553 - for example Edward IV and Henry VII both claimed the throne through their mothers' lines, whilst their mothers were still living. It was only on the death of Edward VI, when all six surviving descendants of Henry VII were unmarried women (his two sisters Mary and Elizabeth, and his cousins-once-removed (i.e his aunts' grand-daughters) Mary Queen of Scots, and the three Grey sisters (Jane, Catherine and Mary), that it was reluctantly accepted that having a girlie as a monarch was the only way to continue the Tudor dynasty. (The Wars of the Roses, and subsequent Tudor purges, had killed off most of the previous Plantagenet dynasty - the nearest (legitimised) male-line relative was William Somerset, a fourth cousin to Edward VI - great-great-grandson of an uncle of Henry VII's mother)