Ooty’s own Charing Cross and his London disconnected

Heart of the City: Adam’s Fountain has become the irreplaceable centerpiece of Charing Cross in Udhagamandalam (popularly known as Ooty). It was built in 1886 as a memorial to William Patrick Adam, former Governor of Madras. | Photo credit: M. Sathyamoorthy

There is amusement among residents of The Nilgiris that visitors to the hill station who want to find Charing Cross on navigation services are confused when they are redirected to the place of the same name in London.

Charing Cross, which has also come to be spelled Charring Cross over the years, has long been the gateway to Udhagamandalam (popularly known as Ooty), the district headquarters. However, little is known about how its name came about. “The name of this busy London railway station has long been used for the road junction in Ootacamund below Breeks School, where Coonoor Road joins Mysore Road, Kotagiri Road, Garden Road and Commercial Road… At its center is an ornate public fountain commemorating Madras Governor William Patrick Adam,” writes Ncycloped anthropologist Paul Hockings.

‘stone cross’

Hockings says that “Ootacamund Junction and London Station could not be more dissimilar, for while Ootacamund’s Charing Cross is just a junction”, while Charing Cross in “Central London commemorates the now defunct memorial stone cross erected by Kind Edward I, the last of a series spread across the country from Lincolnshire, where his queen Elesenor died, where his queen Eleacorp20 rested on the return journey to London.”

Despite these observations about the differences between the two places, it has become a persistent myth among many residents that Charing Cross in Udhagamandalam is modeled after the one in London.

PJ Vasanthan, a resident interested in the history of the Nilgiris, told The Hindu that the name first appeared in 1838, a few years after the Coonoor Ghat Road was opened and a junction was created at the entrance to Udhagamandalam. In 1847, British explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton derided the name as “established but not threatening”.

View of Charing Cross with Adams Fountain at Udhagamandalam | Photo credit: M. Sathyamoorthy

Local historians believe that Charing Cross in Udhagamandalam may have been named for its function as a crossroads of four roads, similar to its namesake in London. Mr. Vasanthan said that after the opening of Coonoor Ghat Road, shops and businesses sprang up in the area and people started calling it Charing Cross because of the influence of the British administration. “Before the Coonoor Ghat Road was opened, travelers took the slopes to Dhimbatty village near Kotagiri, passed through Thummanatty and Doddabetta and went down into the heart of what is now Udhagamandalam town,” he said. “As a cluster of shops was forming at that time due to the opening of Ghat Road, the name Charing Cross was retained,” he said.

When visiting the Nilgiris in 1835, Baron Charles von Hugel had not yet used its current name to describe it. It was not until 1838 that DeBurgh Birch first mentioned the area as Charing Cross in his topographical report. Due to its central location, Charing Cross was a place where important figures were welcomed to the district and where some of them even gave speeches. “In the early 1800s, Lord Curzon made his closing remarks at Charing Cross. He said, ‘I came, I saw and I was captivated by the magic that is Ootacamund’,” Mr Vasanthan said. The locality itself has undergone considerable changes since it was first called.

The famous fountain

Adam’s Fountain, a photo spot for tourists, was built in 1886 as a memorial to William Patrick Adam, former Governor of Madras. The fountain, which has become an irreplaceable centerpiece of Charing Cross, was previously installed outside the Collector’s office. It was moved to its current location in 1898. A melanoxylon tree had to be removed to make way for the fountain, which some guides described as a “rather grotesque Victorian cast-iron fountain”.

Over the centuries, the square has become famous for welcoming dignitaries, including Nikita Khrushchev and Jawaharlal Nehru. Even today, most dignitaries coming down the Coonoor Ghat Road make a brief stop at Charing Cross before being welcomed into the city.

Published – 20 February 2026 05:30 IST