It is situated at the busy intersection of the streets called the Strand and Whitehall, just south of Trafalgar Square. The name derives from the Old English cerring ("a bend in the road" or "a turn") and refers either to the nearby great bend in the River Thames or to a bend in the Roman road that ran west from London. There Edward I erected the last of the series of the 12 crosses in memory of Queen Eleanor (d.1290) that marked stages of the funeral procession to Westminster Abbey. The cross was destroyed in 1647, during the English Civil Wars, but a replica was place (1863) in the forecourt of Charing Cross Station.
