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A comment on How many High Streets are there in London?. Parent comment

Re:How many High Streets are there in London? by MarcusE1W on Sunday June 09, 2024 @07:03AM (#40623613)
Near where I live is Wapping High Street (Just next to the Tower of London, City outwards). There are maybe 1,2,3 shops sprinkled around. A barber. That sort of thing. The rest are Warfs (Warehouse at river Front) which were part of the port of London before it moved down the Thames. If you wanted to go to the main shopping area you nowadays would go to Wapping Lane.

Now, the warehouses are there only for a few centuries and Wapping is much older. I don’t know if Wapping High street at that time was a vibrant shopping street with exciting retail opportunities, maybe. My point is things change over time.

This could be an interesting research project as you suggest and I wait with great anticipation for the first results that you hopefully will present here in some time. I am sure the history of High Streets in London could be fascinating.

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Re:How many High Streets are there in London? by fanf2 on Sunday June 09, 2024 @08:40AM (#40624044)
Wharf is not an abbreviation.
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Re:How many High Streets are there in London? by zeristor on Sunday June 09, 2024 @09:16PM (#40629142)
It sounds like the sort of thing an Estate Agent would make up to emphasise the word river and warehouse living.
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Re:How many High Streets are there in London? by adolph on Monday June 10, 2024 @07:41AM (#40632490)
It could be a backronym for some buildings owned by someone.

According to the 2010 United States Census, Warf is the 17883rd most common surname in the United States, belonging to 1564 individuals. Warf is most common among White (91.43%) individuals.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Warf

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Re:How many High Streets are there in London? by YurgenJurgensen on Monday June 10, 2024 @09:31AM (#40633491)
You mean a back-formation. "Warf" as "warehouse at river front" is a backronym, it totally has the same feeling as those other famous nonsense backronyms like "fornication under consent of king" or "port out starboard home".

...except that "wharf" has an 'h' in it, so it's not even a backronym.

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Re:How many High Streets are there in London? by adolph on Monday June 10, 2024 @12:59PM (#40635598)
Yes, a back-formation of the sur-name “Warf” into an acronym for “warehouse…” Is it known if the buildings were never owned by or associated with someone or a family named “Warf?”
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Re:How many High Streets are there in London? by MarcusE1W on Monday June 10, 2024 @02:41PM (#40636719)
Warf was a typo. The Warehouses are called Wharf.
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Re:How many High Streets are there in London? by adolph on Monday June 10, 2024 @04:34PM (#40638667)
Oh, ok, my next conjecture would have been the involvement of a Star Trek TNG aficionado. (Albeit with an o->a typo)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worf

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Re:How many High Streets are there in London? by oniony on Sunday June 09, 2024 @09:22AM (#40624251)
https://www.etymonline.com/word/wharf
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