Willis’s Rooms. See “[Almack’s].”
Will Scarlet. A euphonism invented by Robin Hood for William Scathelocke, the real name of one of his merry men.
Wilton. See “[Wiltshire].”
Wiltshire. A corruption of “Wiltonshire,” or the Shire of Wilton, which name in its original form, “Willy Town,” expressed the town on the River Willy.
Wimbledon. Originally Wibbadon, expressing the Celtic for a low-lying meadow or common belonging to one Wibba.
Wimpole Street. After the country seat of the Harleys on the Herefordshire and Cambridgeshire border.
Winchester Yard. From Winchester House, the ancient town mansion of the Bishops of Winchester.
Windermere. Expresses the Anglo-Saxon for “clear water lake.”
Winchester. Inhabited by the Belgæ, this stronghold, called by them Cær-Gwent, “fortified enclosure on the plain,” was after the Roman invasion made a great centre of military activity under the Latinised name of Venta Belgarum, which the West Saxons changed into Wintancæstre, “the camp town of the Winte,” whence its modern name has been derived.
Windmill Street. A name suggestive of peaceful rusticity. The thoroughfare in Finsbury so denominated marks the site of three windmills that were erected on a mound formed by the deposition of a thousand cart-loads of human bones from the Charnel-house of St Paul’s Cathedral by order of the Lord Protector Somerset in 1549.