Charing Cross (/ˈtʃærɪŋ/ CHARR-ing) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross has been the notional "centre of London" and became the point from which distances from London are measured. Clockwise from north, the routes that meet at Charing Cross are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City; Northumberland Avenue leading to the Thames Embankment; Whitehall leading to Parliament Square; The Mall leading to Admiralty Arch and Buckingham Palace; and two short roads leading to Pall Mall and St James's.

Historically, the name was derived from the hamlet of Charing ('Riverbend') that occupied the area of this important road junction in the middle ages, together with the grand Eleanor cross that once marked the site. The medieval monumental cross, the Charing Cross (1294–1647), was the largest and most ornate instance of a chain of medieval Eleanor crosses running from Lincoln to this location. It was a landmark for many centuries of the hamlet of Charing, Westminster, which later gave way to government property; a little of the Strand; and Trafalgar Square. The cross in its historical forms has lent its name to its locality, including Charing Cross Station. On the forecourt of this terminus station stands the ornate Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross, a taller emulation of the original, built to mark the station's opening in 1864.

A bronze equestrian statue of Charles I, erected in 1675, stands on a high plinth, situated roughly where the medieval monumental cross (the 'Charing Cross') had previously stood for 353 years, since its construction in 1294, until it was destroyed in 1647 by the revolutionary government of Oliver Cromwell. The famously beheaded King, appearing ascendant, is the work of French sculptor Hubert Le Sueur. Charing Cross is marked on contemporary maps as the road junction around the statue's traffic island. It is a thoroughfare in postal addresses: Drummonds Bank, on the corner with The Mall, retains the address 49 Charing Cross and 1-4 Charing Cross continues to exist. The name previously applied to the whole stretch of road between Great Scotland Yard and Trafalgar Square, but since January 1931 most of this section of road has been designated part of the 'Whitehall' thoroughfare.

Erect a rich and stately carved cross,
Whereon her statue shall with glory shine;
And henceforth see you call it Charing Cross.

— George Peele The Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First (1593)

The name of the lost hamlet, Charing, is derived from the Old English word ċierring, a river bend, in this case, referring to a bend in the Thames. A debunked folk etymology claimed the name is a corruption of chère reine ("dear queen" in French), but the name pre-dates Queen Eleanor's death by at least a hundred years.

The suffix "Cross" refers to the Eleanor cross made during 1291–94 by order of King Edward I as a memorial to his wife, Eleanor of Castile. This place latter comprised little more than wayside cottages serving the Royal Mews in the northern area of Trafalgar Square, and built specifically for the Palace of Whitehall (much of the east side of Whitehall). A variant from the hazy Middle English orthography of the late fourteenth century is Cherryngescrouche.

The stone cross was the work of the medieval sculptor, Alexander of Abingdon. It was destroyed in 1647 on the orders of the purely Parliamentarian phase of the Long Parliament or Oliver Cromwell himself in the Civil War. A 70 ft (21 m)-high stone sculpture in front of Charing Cross railway station, erected in 1865, is a reimagining of the medieval cross, on a larger scale, more ornate, and not on the original site. It was designed by the architect E. M. Barry and carved by Thomas Earp of Lambeth out of Portland stone, Mansfield stone (a fine sandstone) and Aberdeen granite; and it stands 222 yards (203 metres) to the north-east of the original cross, focal to the station forecourt, facing the Strand.