"The"

[GrannyHaddock]

My friend does not like to hear his country called "the" Ukraine. I suppose it makes it sound more like a region rather than a country. I think I am hearing "the" Gambia called just Gambia now. Then I got to thinking why do we talk about the Fulham Road, the King's Road, but never the Oxford Street or the Acacia Avenue? "The Avenue", yes, when the town hall has run out of names. I can see that the Edgware Road is the road to Edgware, but the Cromwell Road does not take us to Cromwell.

I think there are similar issues with (the) Crimea.

Arts centres are changing their names too. What I always think of as 'the' Royal Festival Hall or 'the' Barbican now appear officially to have dropped the 'the' from their titles. So has 'the' Colston Hall in Bristol. I can't get used to them. As far as I know it is still the Royal Albert Hall though.

On road names, I heard my husband recently saying that he would meet someone in 'High Street'. When I queried it, he pointed out that the street sign didn't include a 'the', but it still sounded very odd to me.

A driver wouldn’t let me on a bus once until I’d explained that Kingsland Rd was in fact the same as The Kingsland Rd.
I don’t think he enjoyed his job.

Wirral. Or The Wirral???

You're right, fifth, the High Street; I hadn't thought of that one, but I suppose it is a general name like The Avenue, though. "The" Crimea is in a tremendous muddle at the moment, pulled between Ukraine and Russia. I have no sense that it is a separate country, though the Russian side calls it a republic.
Gotta, it's always been *the Wirral" to me.

That's a really good point: why do we say "the Ukraine"? I didn't realise that wasn't correct.
But yes I do say "the Wirral".

Wirral and Gower.