Trivia: Road name changes

[Buzby]

St George’s Place in Glasgow was the home to the Scottish Stock Exchange (before mergers and relocation) as well as the South African Consulate. This prompted Glasgow City Council to rename it Nelson Mandela Square whilst he was still in captivity.

Later, on release and visiting Glasgow as a guest of the Lord Provost, he visited the square (which has a church as a traffic island). Other streets in the city were renamed or extinguished as redevelopment continued across the conurbation.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

on the same estate, a short road is named after the double-agent John Cairncross

OK, I'll bite - why are they naming roads after Russian spies?

What next? Roads named after Philby, Burgess, McLean and Blunt, the other four in the ring he was a member of?!?

 

[The exile]

OK, I'll bite - why are they naming roads after Russian spies?

What next? Roads named after Philby, Burgess, McLean and Blunt, the other four in the ring he was a member of?!?

Slightly off-topic, but a development not far from me has roads named after mass-murderers and paedophiles. Apparently OK if they were also Roman Emperors! Didn’t spot a Caligula Close though - perhaps that would have been a step too far.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Didn’t spot a Caligula Close though - perhaps that would have been a step too far.

There does, however, seem to be a 'Caligula Avenue' in Miami in the U.S. Look to be quite nice properties there!

 

[Dr_Paul]

My favourite is in Chiswick, near where the District and North London Lines cross over the LSWR Brentford loop: Dead Donkey Lane, which is now Magnolia Road.

 

[Merle Haggard]

At some stage between it being built in 1880 and the present day the spelling of my street has change from Argyll to Argyle (and Sand Hill Road has changed to Sandhill Road). On the left a modern map derived from the Ordnance Survey and on the right the 1889 equivalent.

I wonder when it happened and why. Was it an accidental change in the spelling or did the council have a deliberate review?

There's a Sandhills Road just past Kingsthorpe Cemetery so it's odd Sand Hill was made one word, too, - more likely to increase the confusion I think.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Apparently 'Dead Donkey Lane', Chiswick, was renamed as 'Harvard Lane' in or around late 1913 after Chiswick Council had been approached by a local resident to find a more pleasant name for the thoroughfare. Believe there was a subsequent planning committee proposal almost a century later, in 2010, to change the name back again.

 

[joieman]

OK, I'll bite - why are they naming roads after Russian spies?

What next? Roads named after Philby, Burgess, McLean and Blunt, the other four in the ring he was a member of?!?

Many of the roads on the Grange Park estate in the south of Loughborough are named after individuals who worked at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. But yeah, why him?
Regarding other unusual road names, outside nearby Barrow-upon-Soar is a road which probably has the grimmest name of a road I've ever heard of: Flesh Hovel Lane, named for an abattoir where elderly horses were slaughtered to feed the hounds of the Quorn Hunt.
Perhaps the most obscene street name in my vicinity is Butthole Lane in Shepshed. Apparently the townsfolk are rather proud of it! On the other side of Shepshed is Moscow Lane, which, like Butthole Lane, has had that name for well over a century. But I'm slightly surprised someone hasn't demanded that the name be changed for reasons I'm sure everyone here knows. Personally, I'd rather the name weren't changed.
Similarly, Coventry has or had a square named after its now former twin city Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad). The two were twinned in 1944 and thus became the first twin cities in the world (which makes the ending of their relationship rather sorry, in my opinion!). However, Coventry ended their relationship in 2022 - you know why! I'm not sure if the square is still called Volgograd Place or if it's since been renamed.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

In Plymouth a major road in the north of the city is named Novorossiysk Way after its twin city in Russia. Local graffiti artists have renamed it 'Volodymr Zelenskyy Way'. Also in Plymouth, Cemetery Road was renamed Central Park Road many years ago - presumably the old name wasn't doing anything for house prices.

 

[Dr_Paul]

Apparently 'Dead Donkey Lane', Chiswick, was renamed as 'Harvard Lane' in or around late 1913 after Chiswick Council had been approached by a local resident to find a more pleasant name for the thoroughfare. Believe there was a subsequent planning committee proposal almost a century later, in 2010, to change the name back again.

That was the other Dead Donkey Lane, a little to the north of the one in my earlier post. It seems that they were at some point one long lane. There was a call to the council to revert it to its original name, but, sadly, nothing came of it.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

.....Dead Donkey Lane....... There was a call to the council to revert it to its original name, but, sadly, nothing came of it.

Let me guess... they... err... dropped it...?

 

[TrenHotel]

A lot of roads in inner London were renamed in the early 20th century by the old London County Council.

A railway-related one - Queen's Road (Battersea) was renamed Queenstown Road to avoid clashing with Queen's Road in Peckham.

 

[MotCO]

Let me guess... they... err... dropped it...?

You're showing your age! And so am I!

Near where I live is a road which surely puts off perspective buyers - Rabies Heath Road, near Godstone.

 

[Dr_Paul]

A lot of roads in inner London were renamed in the early 20th century by the old London County Council.

A railway-related one - Queen's Road (Battersea) was renamed Queenstown Road to avoid clashing with Queen's Road in Peckham.

The first edition of the A to Z guide was published around the time of the LCC's road renaming operation. I have a reproduction copy of it, and it includes a list of the streets whose names were changed. I was under the impression that this was done in order to ensure that no name was duplicated in any particular postal district, but it appears that some names that were changed were not duplicated within that particular district.

 

[Rescars]

Here's a real railway connection. Cathcart Road in Wallington, Surrey was renamed Clarendon Road to defuse the notoriety created by resident Percy Lefroy Mapleton, who was hanged for the murder of Isaac Gold on a LBSC train in Balcombe Tunnel in 1881.

 

[birchesgreen]

Slightly off-topic, but a development not far from me has roads named after mass-murderers and paedophiles. Apparently OK if they were also Roman Emperors! Didn’t spot a Caligula Close though - perhaps that would have been a step too far.

Though you should always take the crimes of Roman Emperors listed by later sources with a pinch of salt (so to speak), it often suited the regime de jour to bury their prederessor in as much excrement as possible and the surviving sources tend to be faierly scarce so often we are relying on the word of one or two writers a lot of the time, writers who were usually careful to toe the line and not lose their heads (sometimes literally). Even Nero's antics are thought to not have been quite as bad as legend states.

 

[dcbwhaley]

Though you should always take the crimes of Roman Emperors listed by later sources with a pinch of salt (so to speak), it often suited the regime de jour to bury their prederessor in as much excrement as possible and the surviving sources tend to be faierly scarce so often we are relying on the word of one or two writers a lot of the time, writers who were usually careful to toe the line and not lose their heads (sometimes literally). Even Nero's antics are thought to not have been quite as bad as legend states.

Reminds me of |Richard III whose supposed villainies emerged from the pens of later Tudor writers

 

[Gloster]

‘History is written by the victors’ is often attributed to Churchill, but the adage is considerably older and had been evolving for years.

Nowadays when you mention Churchill they are just as likely to think of the insurance dog. Oh, yes! (I wish that this was just a joke, but sadly it isn’t.)

 

[65477]

Harlow councill have a long history of renaming thoroughfares. In the days of the Labour council these were left wing favourites but the current Conservative council have continued the policy and replaced a Labour one

https://www.harlow.gov.uk/news/road-officially-renamed-after-ukrainian-president

 

[Bald Rick]

Even Nero's antics are thought to not have been quite as bad as legend states.

Oh I agree, his coffee is much underated!

 

[DM352]

Highway 2 north of Calgary to south of Edmonton named Queen Elizabeth II Highway in honour of the Queen's visit to Alberta in 2005 as part of the province's centennial celebrations; the first road sign was personally unveiled by the Queen. It was the first highway in Canada to be named for her.

Granted, not a full rename but we call it the QE2 now and not highway 2.

link

Interesting to note, the route passes Airdrie, Carstairs and Didsbury!

 

[Dai Corner]

The bridge carrying the M4 motorway over the river Severn between south Wales and England was renamed from the second Severn crossing to the Prince of Wales Bridge by the then Prince of Wales (now King Charles III). Anti-monarchists and Welsh separatists were not very happy.