File:The Site of the Original Charing Cross. The Official Centre of London.jpg

English: On a lonely traffic island - you wouldn't notice the plaque.

In 1290 Eleanor of Castile, the beloved wife of Edward I and mother of his 14 children, died at Harby in Nottinghamshire. The places where her body rested during the journey south to its tomb in Westminster Abbey were marked by stone crosses.

The twelve crosses were at Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Hardingstone, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St. Albans, Waltham (Cross), Westcheap (Cheapside), Charing (Charing Cross). Of these only three of the original crosses survive, those at Geddington, Hardingstone and Waltham Cross.

Queen Eleanor was three times buried. The tomb, containing her viscera, is in Lincoln Cathedral. Her heart was buried at Blackfriars Monastery in London and her body in Westminster Abbey.

Edward was determined to mark the death of his remarkable Queen in significant and elaborate fashion. There has been nothing like the cortège of Eleanor, before or since, on this island. Her embalmed body was dressed in loose robes, crowned, and placed on an open bier. The procession, with the Queen’s chaplain at its head and Edward following the bier, left Lincoln on 4 December. The journey back to Westminster took just under two weeks, with much of the route following the ancient roads of Ermine Street and Watling Street, and most of the overnight stops on or close to Eleanor’s landholdings. She was buried in Westminster Abbey on 17 December 1290.

Eleanor's bier spent the final night of its journey, 16 December 1290, in the Royal Mews at Charing, Westminster, a few hundred yards north of Westminster Abbey. The area subsequently became known as Charing Cross. The cross here was the most expensive of the twelve, built of Purbeck marble from 1291 onwards by Richard of Crundale, the senior royal mason, with the sculptures supplied by Alexander of Abingdon, and some items by Ralph de Chichester. Richard died in the autumn of 1293, and the work was completed by Roger of Crundale, probably his brother. The total recorded cost was over £700. The cross stood outside the Royal Mews, at the top of what is now Whitehall, and on the south side of what is now Trafalgar Square. John Norden in about 1590 described it as the "most stately" of the series, but by this date so "defaced by antiquity" as to have become "an old weather-beaten monument". It was also noted by William Camden in 1607. It was ordered to be taken down by Parliament in 1643, and was eventually demolished in 1647. Following the demolition, a contemporary ballad ran:

Undone! undone! the lawyers cry, They ramble up and down; We know not the way to Westminster Now Charing-Cross is down.

After the Restoration of Charles II, an equestrian statue of Charles I by Hubert Le Sueur was erected on the site of the cross in 1675, and this still stands. The location is still known as Charing Cross, and since the early 19th century this point has been regarded as the official centre of London, in legislation and when measuring distances from London.

A new Eleanor cross was erected in 1865 outside Charing Cross railway station, several hundred yards from the original site.

The Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross at Charing Cross in London was erected in 1865 outside Charing Cross railway station on the Strand, a few hundred yards to the east of the site of the medieval cross. It does not pretend to be a faithful copy of the original, being larger and more ornate. It stands 70 ft (21 m) high and was commissioned by the South Eastern Railway Company for their newly opened Charing Cross Hotel. The cross was designed by the hotel architect, E. M. Barry, who is also known for his work on Covent Garden. It was constructed by Thomas Earp of Lambeth from Portland stone, Mansfield stone (a fine sandstone) and Aberdeen granite. It was restored to a substantial extent in 2009–10.

A 100-metre-long (330-foot) mural by David Gentleman on the platform walls of Charing Cross underground station, commissioned by London Transport in 1978, depicts, in the form of wood engravings, the story of the building of the medieval cross by stonemasons and sculptors.

Folk etymology holds that the name Charing derives from French chère reine (dear queen); but the name "Charing" for the area in fact pre-dates Eleanor's death and probably comes from the Anglo-Saxon word ċerring, meaning a bend, as it stands on the outside of a sharp bend in the River Thames (compare Charing in Kent).