Mind the trap: 20 London Underground stations with tricky pronunciations

Rachel Handley 06.Apr.2022

The English language has a famously confusing spelling system, and one place this quickly becomes apparent is on the London Underground and DLR. What's written on the station wall doesn't always seem to match up with what the voice announcement says.

And these spellings don't just trip up tourists and locals — they can mislead AI voices, which typically pronounce untrained words based on a 'best guess'.

However, at BeyondWords, we have a team of computational linguists who can fix mispronunciations. And they've added all the trickiest London Underground station pronunciations to our British-English rulebook.

Listen to our AI voice 'Joe' read 20 of the most commonly mispronounced tube stop names below.

1. Bermondsey

Location: Jubilee, zone 2
Pronunciation: ber-mun-zee (IPA: ˈbɜːməndzi)
Mind the trap: The 'd' is silent.

2. Borough

Location: Northern, zone 1
Pronunciation: buh-ruh (IPA: ˈbʌrə)
Mind the trap: Lots of people mistakenly pronounce this like 'burrow'.

3. Bow Road

Location: District / Hammersmith & City, zone 2
Pronunciation: b-oh road (IPA: bəʊ rəʊd)
Mind the trap: It's 'bow' as in 'bow tie', not 'take a bow'.

4. Canary Wharf

Location: Jubilee / Elizabeth, zone 2
Pronunciation: ka-nare-ee worf (IPA: kəˌneəri ˈwɔːf)
Mind the trap: 'Canary' rhymes with 'Mary' (not 'Harry'), and 'Wharf' rhymes with 'or' (not 'barf').

5. Chiswick Park

Location: District, zone 3
Pronunciation: chiz-ik park (IPA: ˈtʃɪzɪk pɑːk)
Mind the trap: The 'w' is silent.

6. Clapham (Common/North/South)

Location: Northern, zones 2 and 3
Pronunciation: kla-pum (IPA: ˈklæpəm)
Mind the trap: The 'h' is silent.

7. Deptford Bridge

Location: DLR, zones 2 and 3
Pronunciation: det-fud brij (IPA: ˈdɛtfəd ˈbrɪdʒ)
Mind the trap: The 'p' is silent.

8. Euston

Location: Northern / Victoria, zone 1
Pronunciation: yoost-uhn (IPA: jˈuːstən)
Mind the trap: Lots of people get this confused with 'Houston'.

9. Gloucester Road

Location: District / Piccadilly / Circle, zone 1
Pronunciation: glos-tuh road (IPA: ˈɡlɒstə rəʊd)
Mind the trap: The 'uce' is silent.

10. Greenwich

Location: DLR, zones 2 and 3
Pronunciation: gren-itch (IPA: ˈɡrenɪtʃ)
Mind the trap: Don't say 'green' or the 'w'.

11. Holborn

Location: Central / Piccadilly, zone 1
Pronunciation: ho-buhn (IPA: ˈhəʊbən)
Mind the trap: There are two common pronunciations, but neither include the 'or'.

12. Ladbroke Grove

Location: Hammersmith & City / Circle, zone 2
Pronunciation: lad-bruk grow-v (IPA: ˈlædbɹʊk ˈgɹəʊv)
Mind the trap: Despite the spelling, it's pronounced like 'brook' not 'broke'.

13. Leicester Square

Location: Piccadilly / Northern, zone 1
Pronunciation: less-tuh square (IPA: ˈlestə ˈskweə)
Mind the trap: Ignore the 'ice'.

14. Loughton

Location: Central, zone 6
Pronunciation: lau-ton (IPA: ˈlaʊtən)
Mind the trap: 'ough' is one of the most varied pronunciations in English; in this case it rhymes with 'cow'.

15. Marylebone

Location: Bakerloo, zone 1
Pronunciation: mar-li-bun (IPA: ˈmærələbən)
Mind the trap: Don't be tempted to pronounce 'Mary' or 'bone'.

16. Plaistow

Location: District / Hammersmith & City, zone 3
Pronunciation: plaa-stow (IPA: ˈplɑːstəʊ)
Mind the trap: The play-stow pronunciation used in Derbyshire and Kent isn't used in London.

17. Ruislip

Location: Metropolitan / Piccadilly, zone 6
Pronunciation: rye-slip (IPA: ˈraɪslɪp)
Mind the trap: There's an unusual pronunciation for 'ui'.

18. Southwark

Location: Jubilee, zone 1
Pronunciation: su-thuk (IPA: ˈsʌðək)
Mind the trap: Most British-English speakers pronounce 'Suffolk' very similarly.

19. Vauxhall

Location: Victoria, zones 1 and 2
Pronunciation: voks-all (IPA: ˈvɒksɔːl)
Mind the trap: The 'Vaux' isn't pronounced like 'faux'.

20. Warwick Avenue

Location: Bakerloo, zone 2
Pronunciation: woh-rik a-vuh-nyoo (IPA: ˈwɒrɪk avɪnjuː)
Mind the trap: The second 'w' is silent.

Our British-English AI voices know how to pronounce these London Underground and DLR station names, and now you do too! You can save yourself some embarrassment next time you're asking for directions.

AI voices