Bez - Staines High Street was 'pedestrianized' some years ago, I'm afraid. It has all the atmosphere of a funeral now.
The council apparently felt that 'Staines-on-Thames' might repair some of the damage done to the reputation of the place by Ali G and his 'Staines Massive' routines!
I Live in Stanwell which has postal address of Staines upon Thames . Staines high st on weekends and market days could be mistaken for any Asian town selling cheap junk.
Sounds snobbish to me, like talking about Henley upon Thames, when I was a child we just called it Henley. How soon before London becomes London on Thames?
I worked in Staines for some years, it was a nice place to work with a good High Street.
It used to be in Middlesex when I was a child and then changed to be in Surrey at one of the boundary change times. I gather the high street has seen some changes in the last few years too - would be nice to think it was doing well. Being called Staines upon Thames is it now a county borough etc on its own or is it still part of Surrey?
Yes getting used to the new name grumble grumble more ink to waste, longer name, grumble grumble! Seriously it is not bad once you get used to the planes!