Word on the Street is an occasional post about discoveries found on London’s streets, from street furniture, urban byways and trivial roadside facts.

I like to tell anyone who’ll listen that there are no ‘roads’ in The City of London, just streets, passages, alleys or other curious titles like Crutched Friars.

Goswell Street was renamed Goswell Road, in the past the northern section (that being furthest away from the City) was named Goswell Street Road. In 1994 boundary changes brought the eastern half under the jurisdiction of the City of London, while the western carriageway remains firmly in the Borough of Islington.

The boundary now runs down the middle of the road, pedants might argue that this still, technically, means that there isn’t a single road within the City of London, merely a half-road.

Curiously The Square Mile also doesn’t have street lamps, not on the pavements, anyway. Thanks to an old bylaw, all street lighting must be attached to buildings, or else run along a central reservation – you won’t find a single lamp jutting out from the pavement proper. What are dogs to do?

In all my journeys driving a cab in London, how could I have missed this major peculiarity?