QUAINT STREET NAMES

Hawera Star, Volume L, 10 January 1931, Page 9

QUAINT STREET NAMES

/DUBIOUS street names are far from L y rare in England. Old London is, perhaps, richer in them than anywhere else, for nothing could be quainter as a street name than * ‘Picadilly,” unless it be Pall Mall, which familiarity has robbed of its strangeness. The same applies, in a measure, to Petty Cury in Cambridge and Carfax in Oxford. A competition upon the subject of queer street names was recently conducted by the “Observer.” It revealed that the North of England is particularly well endowed with oddities of this kind. If any one stands out in surpnsinguess from the rest, it is Upper Whiskers, which is found in Northowram, linear Halifax. But The Slonks, which is credited to Shotley Bridge, County Durham, must come verv near to being the last word in nomenclature. Newcastlo-on-Tync is possessed of Pudding Chari, Two Ball Lunnon, and Darn Crook; and Bolton of Stich-mi-line, Salt Pie-yard, and Top o’ th’ Cow.

North of England Oddities

Hull's Land of Green Ginger has evidently a wide celebrity, and so have Oldham's Mumps and Norwich’s Tombland. Bradford's Dole street sounds an invidious address in present circumstances. Hexham has a Priestpopplc, and Bridgnorth a Paw Puddinghill. Glasgow, in addition to the wellknown Cowcadilens street and Goosedubs, also boasts a Spoutsmouth and a Butterbiggins road, while Dundee has a Peep o’ Day lane. In Beverley will be found Poll Gavei, and in Leeds Obodedum terrace ana The Calls. York suggests a derogatory turn, -with its Bad Bargain lane and Mucky Peg lane —in contrast to Salubrious place, tot. Ives. Plymouth's Penny-cum-quiek appears to be as celebrated as Leicester’s Holy Bones street. Other southern curiosities arc Manamcad, Plymouth; Pitch and Pay lane, Bristol; Bock-a-Norc road, Hastings; and Penny Farthing street and Waiii-a-long road, Salisbury.