golden milen.
/ˌɡəʊld(ə)n ˈmʌɪl/, U.S. /ˌɡoʊld(ə)n ˈmaɪl/ Chiefly with the.
1. (A nickname for) any of various areas or strips of land of approximately one mile, renowned for being particularly fertile, profitable, splendid, etc.
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1675 J. Ogilby Britannia 32 Hence between Penllyn Church and Castle, your Way Mountainous, brings you to the Golden Mile at 178 Miles.
1802 Morning Chron. 7 Aug. 1/2 The premises..give the proprietor a right of common over a very excellent tract of land called the golden mile.
1877 Illustr. London News 29 Sept. 307 This fertile plain bordering the Rhine has been known for centuries past as the Golden Mile.
1926 Financial Times 4 Oct. 2/4 Lord Tredegar exacted a toll on all traffic..and..[received] about £20,000 a year.., this substantial revenue being the origin of the title, ‘golden mile’.
1997 Manawatu (N.Z.) Standard (Nexis) 5 Aug. (Farming section) 11 With more Romney sheep than you can shake a stick at, this stretch of land..has been described over the years as the Golden Mile, or Ram Alley.
2. A reef area rich in gold deposits between Kalgoorlie and Boulder, Western Australia.
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the world > the earth > minerals > mineral sources > [noun] > tract of land > specific
Gold Coast1625
Pottery Coalfield1811
rand1839
golden mile1899
reef1903
1899 Kalgoorlie (W. Austral.) Miner 2 Dec. 3/1 The 86 acres of the heart of the golden mile..now promise to eclipse all other mines in the extent and richness of the lodes disclosed.
1929 Austral. Q. Mar. 48 It is confidently anticipated,..with important developments on the Golden Mile, that the output will be considerably greater in the near future.
1971 C. Simpson New Austral. 557 The Golden Mile..is actually about two miles long and a third of a mile wide and has been mined to thousands of feet.
1995 D. Mller & D. I. Groves Potassic Igneous Rocks & Associated Gold-copper Mineralization vii. 134 About half of the total gold production has come from the Golden Mile at Kalgoorlie.
3. (A nickname for) an area of a town or city, famous for its nightlife or other attractions or for having a high concentration of wealthy inhabitants or financial businesses.Esp. (and in earliest use) with reference to the promenade between the North and South piers, Blackpool, where many sideshows sprang up and (later) amusement arcades with slot machines.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > part of town or city > [noun] > fashionable part
court-end1712
west end1823
up-town1946
golden mile1951
1951 G. Winn This Fair Country vi. 94 That traditional stretch of sideshows which for so many years now has been known as Blackpool's Golden Mile.
1961 Univ. Edinb. Jrnl. 20 57 The High Street—the Golden Mile at the heart of the town [sc. Edinburgh]..sliding off so rapidly into the pathetic slum of the Cowgate.
1985 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 23 May The financial district's ‘golden mile’ along the River Thames.
1986 Guardian 13 Sept. 9/7 An exclusive non-sectarian watering hole..has clearly found its time. Twenty new restaurants have sprung up around it on the Golden Mile [Belfast].
2006 Independent 19 July (Property section) 23/4 Jimbaran Bay, Bali's ‘golden mile’, where properties with private pools start from $285,000.
2016 Liverpool Echo (Nexis) 12 Sept. 15 Take a trip down the Golden Mile and enjoy watching your children's faces light up with the razzle dazzle of the Illuminations.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2018; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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