I have a question about Harry Potter/England

[conuly]

In book 5, it says that Sirius' house (number 12) is in between numbers 11 and 13. Is this normal for England? In the US, streets are all even on one side, and all odd on the other, so number 12 would be in between 10 and 14, not 11 and 13.

Comments

[doyoudream.livejournal.com]

IT happens. lol

[stejcruetekie.livejournal.com]

Just to nit-pick... While it's common to have odd/even numbered sides in the US, it's by no means a sure thing. I can't think of any specific instances, but I know there have been plenty of times where the houses are just numbered more or less sequentially.

But then, that beats say Hong Kong, where number 12 might be next to number 327...

[literalgirl.livejournal.com]

Wow. I have never seen that in the States. I live on a cul-de-sac, but it still follows the conventions.

BTW, Japan also has maddeningly disjointed and utterly illogical addressing policies! :-)

Also, the neighbourhood in Los Angeles where I live is actually an incorporated city of its own, and it is 46% Chinese. You would be amazed at how many people petition to get their house numbers changed, in order to have numerologically-beneficial house numbers. 8 is VERY popular, and the city will allow that, so there are houses with interesting 8-related numbers. But I have never NOTICED an even being on the odd side, That of course doesn't mean it's impossible. :-)

Also, the area is loaded with customized license plates with multiple 8s. :-)

[conuly]

But then, that beats say Hong Kong, where number 12 might be next to number 327...

THat could happen in the US too. At least, in NY the numbers aren't completely sequential, they have something to do with lots. So if your house is on the space of TWO lots, there'll be a null between you and the next house (so 12 would be between 10 and 16, maybe), so that if the house is torn down later they can build two new houses there without having to turn to phrases like "12.5" or 12 B"

[marveen.livejournal.com]

I thought the whole point of it being between 11 and 13 was that it was magically hidden and on the "wrong" side of the road besides.

[thornleaf.livejournal.com]

I suspect the magic, hidden house answer is correct... but I've seen the numbering done like that on cul-de-sacs.

I don't recall Sirius living on one of those, though.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

I know that in small towns they won't bother with the even-odd rule. So a town of 200 people might have houses numbered 1-100 and all in whatever order they like.. small towns are often an exception, I find. ^_^

[conuly]

But wouldn't that mean there's another, NONmagical number 12 on the other side?

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Precisely! Now you're getting the hang of it!

Visualized dialogue:

Dumbledore: Sirius, I hope you don't mind moving your house--
Black: Not at all. Burn it down if you like.
Dumbledore: I don't think that will be required. But I am going to put it on the wrong side of the road, opposite another number 12, and THEN I'm going to go to work with the Fidelius Charm.
Black: Sounds good. Let's see any of the Death Eaters figure this out, eh?

[conuly]

*laughs*

Sometimes I use my useless trivia knowledge for good!

[thren0dy.livejournal.com]

I believe in the UK that they do indeed number houses on one side 1, 2, 3, etc. - and the only reason I know this is from a compliation of The Straight Dope (http://www.straightdope.com) articles I have. I have a weird memory for useless trivia. It was mentioned in an article about the Prime Minister's house (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_433.html).

The neighborhood also isn't what you could call overcrowded. Number 10 is one of only three remaining houses on Downing, the other two being numbers 11 and 12 (all of which adjoin--having even and odd numbers on opposite sides of the street is an American practice).

Re: Sometimes I use my useless trivia knowledge for good!

[conuly]

Thanks, I was wondering.

How does that work, though? Does it go 1-15 on one side of the street, for one block, and the other side goes 16-30 for a block? Or does one side go all the way through to 1000, and then the other side starts at 1001?

Re: Sometimes I use my useless trivia knowledge for good!

[missfahrenheit.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I have explored a fair amount of Kent and the Medway towns (and SW London, now- I get lost a lot) and I have never seen a street that doesn't have odd numbers on one side and even on the other, and would probably have been surprised to see anything different. I mean, I know there are some places where houses are numbered like that, but I don't think I've actually seen any myself. It tends to happen more when there are only houses on one side of the road, or something like that.

Grimmauld Place always put me in mind of a sort of square (is that canon or me jumping to conclusions?), and I assumed the houses would have been numbered in a clockwise pattern and no 12 just... wouldn't have been there most of the time. Of course, the magical argument above is excellent :)

[deceptica]

I wouldn't say that it's an exclusively American practice... here it's done the same way.

Re: Sometimes I use my useless trivia knowledge for good!

[eofs.livejournal.com]

I've lived in England for all 19 years of my life (except the past month, but let's ignore that) and I can tell you that the convention in England *is* to number odd on one side, even on the other (and the numbers are smaller at the town end.) However, I don't find it hard to believe that there are many roads in the country where the numbering is sequential, even though I can't think of any off the top of my head. It is probably more common in villages, or on older roads (I don't know how far back naming conventions go, but roads and buildings can go back to at least the 11th century and I don't know if they would renumber them.)

In England we don't operate on a block system - there is only a single city in the UK that does in fact, Milton Keynes (have you read Good Omens?)

On the estate that my best friend lives on, the numbers skip from 14 to 41 :0) *Talks to him about this query* He reckons it's mostly older Victorian Terraces that do the 1, 2, 3 thing (I have a vague feeling a road I once studied in school might have been 1, 2, 3) He points out that even roads with no houses on one side can be numbered just odds or evens :0)

Re: Sometimes I use my useless trivia knowledge for good!

[thren0dy.livejournal.com]

I was wondering that when I first read it - how do they determine when to stop on one side and start on the other?

I'll have to research this. :D

[the-lady-aurora.livejournal.com]

The house where I grew up was number 63 but the house to the left was number 20 because it fell into a new road. The house opposite was number 150 which was next to number 21. Again, number 21 was in the same raod as number 20 but 150 was in our road. The odds went to the right and then, when they got so far, they became a new road. The evens then started on the opposite side and worked their way back towards the top.

Where I live now, we don't have house numbers just names and not everyone displays their house name easily. Plus, I live in Wales and most of the house names are really hard to pronounce or remember even if you see them :0)

[eavanmoore.livejournal.com]

In Berlin, the numbers start going continuously down one side of the street, then back up the other side. The streets are generally fairly short (by which I mean a continuous street changes names), so it works.

Re: Sometimes I use my useless trivia knowledge for good!

[conuly]

In England we don't operate on a block system - there is only a single city in the UK that does in fact, Milton Keynes (have you read Good Omens?)

Do you mean that you don't operate on a grid system? Because when I say "block" I just mean "a row of houses across the street from another row of houses". So one block would be, say, the stretch of St. Paul's avenue from Taxter (that's a cross-street) and Beech (that's the next cross-street). My street is two blocks on one side and one long block on the other (because there's a street that stops at our street, so one side of the street has that street in the middle, and the other doesn't)

[kynn.livejournal.com]

Where do you live? Monterey Park?

It's interesting, BTW, that 8s mean one thing to the cultural Chinese...and another thing entirely to white supremacists. You can never tell if one of those "88" license plates is the good guys (but superstitious) or the bad guys...

--Kynn

[literalgirl.livejournal.com]

Hehehe. Why do you know where I live? :-D

NO ONE knows where I live. I spend my life saying "Near Pasadena". They should change the name of the city to "Near Pasadena"...

[literalgirl.livejournal.com]

This is SO aggravating. The same (continuous) street can end up with a different name every time it is crossed by another street sometimes! Makes navigation extremely difficult, if one is not a local...

[kynn.livejournal.com]

I grew up in Alhambra, on Hellman Avenue, half a block from Cal State LA. (That's across the freeway from Monterey Park.) I went to Alhambra High, graduated in 86.

--Kynn

[literalgirl.livejournal.com]

OMG.

That is so weird. :-)

At least people kind of know where Alhambra is!

You ever go back? The new hotspot area over on Main is pretty cool. Nice new theatre, Coldstone, Johnny Rockets, lots of restaurants blossoming up over there...

But the people talk during the movies, so as much as I like the new theatre, I don't go there often. It makes me crazy and when I ask people to be quiet they tend to be threatening in return. So, I stick to the Arclight, where talking isn't tolerated and seats are assigned. :-)

[kynn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, every now and then. My folks live in Alhambra (but are moving to my late grandmother's house in South Pas) and I checked out the new Main street a while ago.

It's certainly a nicer place than when I was in high school.

It sucks that people talk during the movies.

I saw from your LJ info that you're an Aspie (so is my wife) and so because of that and the Monterey Park/Alhambra connection, I added you as a friend.

--Kynn