In Kent, in England, there’s a town called Sandwich. Nearby is a village called Ham. Which means that you get this street sign calling out “Ham Sandwich”.
There’s also a bus that starts at Samdwich, goes through Ham, before finishing at the coastal town of Deal.
English, eh?
@Gazimoff this is amazing. Some city planner was chuckling when they were helping plan that
@bearmine @Gazimoff the sandwich is named after its inventor (or, perhaps, not the inventor but the one who popularised it) - the Earl of Sandwich, who lived in Sandwich, and wanted to eat without interrupting his card games or getting greasy fingers
there's a lot of small towns named Ham and it's just occurred to me, maybe "hamlet" meant "small ham" i.e. village at some point
no idea what's the deal with Deal though
@Gazimoff amazingly, that Ham/Sandwich sign doesn’t look like it gets stolen every two days.
@Gazimoff Can't see that sign without reading it in the voice of Austin Powers.
https://youtu.be/mhcqKZLj6DA&t=38
(Note: It's worth remembering that Mama Cass did not die from a ham sandwich. Austin Powers not a great source of historical accuracy, of course.)
Aug 19, 2026, 9:51 AM@Gazimoff the British Isles are stuffed full of places with names that are just downright silly, especially if you're not a native English speaker.
There are two places called Twatt in Scotland, for example. Cockermouth in the Lake District. Wetwang. Brawl. Ae.
See https://brilliantmaps.com/weird-place-names-uk/ for more examples.
@Gazimoff
I know it was like the Earl of Sandwich or whoever that invented the sandwich, and presumably he was earl of the same place(?), but this has finally made me realise that the word really is a place name and parses perfectly as one. Ipswich, Sandwich, etc.
Aug 19, 2026, 10:10 AM@Gazimoff not any more alas. They moved all the signs around so that Ham Sandwich no longer can appear in that order. It was a very popular road sign back in the day. Used to be a new sign put up on a regular basis...How would I know?
Well... I was once from round those parts.
@Gazimoff can you please write better alt text for the first image? genuinely just "a bunch of street signs, one of them reads "ham sandwich" would be a *huge* improvement
@buffet done! Apologies, the precious was just text recognition. Hope the change works better!
@Gazimoff a lot better, thank you!
@Gazimoff that bus isn't too far off the Tesco colours. Meal deal anyone?
@patterfloof there’s a Tesco express in Deal. So you could get a Deal Meal Deal.
And I guess, if you ate it nearby, it would be a Deal Meal Deal Meal.
@Gazimoff the town of sandwich dates back to roman times. it used to be a sea port, but the sea moved. if you are looking for "picturesque", bring a camera, it's here. ❤️
i don't think town planners had much to do with it.
@Gazimoff We all appreciate a good ham sandwich deal. (Well except vegans/vegetarians I suppose.)
@Gazimoff proof!
(Took me a while to find Ham, had to ask the search tool :)
Aug 19, 2026, 3:02 PM@Gazimoff perhaps my favourite address:
Ham House
Ham Street
Ham
@reiddragon so if you buy your meal deal in deal and eat it on the seafront, would that be a meal deal deal meal?
@Gazimoff English makes fun phrases happen! 😀
@Gazimoff I first read it as "coastal town of DELI"!😂
Aug 20, 2026, 1:23 PM@Gazimoff having grown up in this part of the world, I should say "that's nothing!" I fondly (or fondle-ly, perhaps?) remember the days when my friend David and I would take summer bike rides out to wonderful pub, "The Duck" in the tiny village of "Pett Bottom".