What's in a name...?

Everyone who is actively following Puneet's blog will have read his entry about our Saturday night adventure at A&E. Apart from the drunken antics of some individuals that shall remain unnamed we also had an interesting conversation about English locations that cannot be pronounced correctly be foreigners due to their rather misleading spelling. It all started with our mate Robin who was asked by an Australian about the location of 'louga-bouruga'. It turned out he wanted to get to Loughborough. Hilarious you think? Now here is a list of other places around London and England that get frequently pronounced incorrectly often to the amusement of locals.

1. Leicester Square (less-tur) = tourist: Ley-chester square
2. Greenwich (greh-nich)= tourist: Green - ish
3. Lewisham (lewi-sham)= tourist: Lewis-ham
4. Barnesbury(barns-bury) = tourist: Barn-es-bury
5. Edinburgh (eh-din-bur-uh)= tourist: Edin-burg
6. Reading (red-ing)= tourist: Read-ing
7. Gloucester (glah-stur)= tourist: tourist: glou-chester

Now I am sure there are many more and to be honest,being a foreigner myself,I too had to learn how to pronounce these names. I remember quite well how I got on the tube on my very first day in London and said to my friend that we have to get off at Glou-chester Road. I don't remember anyone laughing out loud but I'm sure I cause a few giggles. On the other hand there are names, many of them in Wales, that most people simply can't get their head around and I applaud everyone who can pronounce 'Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlll'.
BTW, yes this place actually exists as I was told it is in fact a train station in Wales.

Now all you foreigners out there - don't despair - keep practising.