Nobody spells it the way they say it, so Greengate Street and Balaam Street end up doing the work the area name cannot.

Plaistow

A High Street you cannot spell from hearing it, and side roads that rescue it.

The pronunciation is PLAHST-oh, and the origin is contested. One suggestion is Sir Hugh de Plaiz, who married Philippa de Montfitchet in 1065; another derives it from the Old English pleg, meaning sport or playing, and stowe, meaning place, recorded around 1200 as Plagestoue. The sources record both and settle neither. Either way the spelling and the sound have not matched for a very long time, which is why the streets here - Plaistow High Street, Greengate Street, Balaam Street - carry more weight on a website than the area name does.

The trading is local, independent and service-led, along Plaistow High Street, Greengate Street and Prince Regent Lane, with Balaam Street among the oldest roads in the area, possibly named after Hugh de Balun in the 12th century. Plaistow tube station is served by the District and Hammersmith and City lines. St Mary's became the parish church when Plaistow split from West Ham in 1844, the Memorial Baptist Church was built in 1921 as a First World War monument and opened in 1922, and the Black Lion public house is reputed to date back to at least 1742.

The second problem is duplication. There are other places called Plaistow in Britain, which is why the canonical name for this one carries its borough. For a business, that means a search or a directory entry using the name alone may not resolve here at all. The 2011 census recorded 31,874 residents across the Plaistow North and Plaistow South wards combined, so this is a substantial place competing under a name that does not identify it.