LONDON STREET NAMES

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21631, 15 November 1935, Page 21

LONDON STREET NAMES

HISTORY ON HOUSE WALLS FROM DOMESDAY BOOK TO MODERN TIMES LONDON, September 20. Under the prosaic title of "Supplement to the Names of Streets and Places in the Administrative County of London for 1929-1934." the London County Council has just issued a pamphlet of considerable interest. The range covered by these five years of new names is more than a thousand years, and the span reaches from King Harold to a recent Mayor of Westminster (Harold Estate, Bermondsey, where the King held the manor prior" to Domesday. Abady House, Page-street, Westminster, Councillor Jaques Abady being Mayor in 1927-28), and from the Canterbury Pilgrims (Pilgrim House in Tabard street) and Aylwin Child, a Bermondsey citizen of the eleventh century (Aylwin Estate, Bermondsey), to two other recent Mayors of Westminster. Two other very local slices of history are commemorated in the list. One is at Cade road, Blackheath, for it was at Blackheath that Jack Cade, leader of the Kentish rebellion, camped with his followers; the other, Wat Tyler road, Blackheath, near where Wat Tyler campea m 1381. Duke Humphrey road, Blackheath, commemorates the fact that Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (1391-1447) was Lord of the Manor of Greenwich, while Hazelwood House, on the Deptford Park Estate, , is a reminder of John Evelyn, who I lived at Seyes Court, Deptford, and whose family traced its origin to the French word "Avelan," which means filbert or hazel. Remembering Gulliver Gulliver street, Rotherhithe, is a reminder that Swift's imaginary hero lived at Rotherhithe, and Esmond Court, Kensington, that Thackeray wrote much of "Henry Esmond" while living in Young street, Kensington. Thorney street, Westminster, commemorates the old Isle of Thorney in that district, and Tothill House also recalls an old Westminster name. Bagnigge House, Finsbury, recalls Bagnigge Wells; Brightman road, Southfields, is a reminder of the connexion of the district with Magdalen College, Oxford, the freeholders; while General Gordon place, Woolwich, and General Wolfe road, Blackheath, bear witness to the fact that these two famous soldiers were connected with the respective districts. All the new names are not historical. • Arcus road, Downham, is so named from its bow-like shape, while Becher street, Notting Dale, commemorates Captain Martin Becher, after whom Becher's Brook is named, and Goffers road, Blackheath, exhibits the association of golf with the district. The names of sever a] roads in East Dulwich are derived from the chase, since Prince George, of Denmark, Queen Anne's consort, had a hunting-box in the neighbourhood of Dog Kennel hill. Days of Archery Recalled The fact that archery was practised in Finsbury Fields is commemorated in several new streets, named after the targets, and Brixton's connexion with the Civil War, which might seem remote, is also brought to light in a number of street names. Lord Loughborough lived at Loughborough House, in the neighbourhood of the present Loughborough Junction. Akbar House, Arethusa House, and other names in Poplar are named after past and present training-ships of the mercantile marine, while, appropriately enough, in the Kennington district, buildings are named after such famous cricketers as Kilner, Blythe, Hornby, Key, and Lord Alverstone. Royal Academicians flourish in Marylebone, where Cooper, Alma Tadema, Orchardson and others are commemorated, and Kate Greenaway's association with the Finsbury. Schooltof Art is recalled by Greenaway House. At Islington buildings are called alter railway junctions, and there are Andover House, Barmouth House, Yeovil House, and others; and modern writers are made famous at Shooters Hill by Weyman House, Begbie House, Farjeon House, and others. At Stamford Hill fSHouse, Chiltern House, Cotswold House, and others show their builders' live of the hills On the site of Bowling Green House. Putney Heath, William Pitt d i , m ,f ßo6 ' and the names of blocks of dwellings at Bow commemorate the local association of Bromley-at Bow with the baking in times gone by of a considerable proportion of London s bread.