The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-15 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN STREETS EXTRA-

ORDINA Y !

It has been rather maliciously said that the Me-
tropolitan Board of Works ought to be called the
Board of Words. If they really deserve that title,
now is their opportunity for a display of the divine
gift of language. As all the beasts of the field
were brought before our first father to be named,
all the streets of this great metropolis are to have
their names reviewed by the conscript fathers of
the city. It is a stupendous literary labour ; and,
judging from the report of the committee ap-
pointed to inquire into the subject, it is beyond
our power to comprehend bow the Board are to
overcome the difficulties of their task. We are
told that streets ought never to he called after the
names of places, as there is a chance of letters be-
ing in this way forwarded to some distant town or
village, instead of to the terrace or square which
has received the same appellation. Then, alas for
genius ! the names of our " poets, painters, states-
men, warriors, judges, divines, and other eminent
men" are all used up, and we are so hard pressed
for titlesthatwebave 62 George streets, 55 Charles-
streets, 45 John-streets, and the other Royal and
ducal names in proportion.' What then is to be
done ? Where are the new names to come from,
for the committee declare that the repetition of
titles is an absurdity which cannot any longer be
tolerated ? There are not less than 571 streets pos-
sessed of only 17 names, and the committee are go-
ing to begin with this batch. It is cruel to keep
us in suspense. The streets are to be called, not
after men, not after places, but after what ? Who
does not know that the most arduous task of the
novelist is to invent names for the personages of
his tale t Cliffords and Belivilles and Mordaun ts
are all worn out, and the writer who can paint
a hero to the life, and make the description of a
battle terrible as the reality, is not less at his wit's
end to baptise his hero and localise his battle than
Cassim Baba to find the magic word that opened
the cave of the robbers. Mr. Dickens has achieved
great things, but what has he achieved greater
than the discovery of such names as Lord Frede-
rick Verisopht, Dotheboys-hall, and the Circum-
locution-office ? Who does not read with admira-
tion, what is one of the most remarkable results of
human genius—the list of candidates for the
honours of the Derby, and wonder by what curious
process those singular names, Peepo'day Boy, Fly-
by-Night, Surplice, Blinkbonny,and the rest, are
invented ? Where, then, are we to get the names
for our thoroughfares ? Are they to be called
Street A, Street B, Street C, and then, when the
alphabet is exhausted, Street AA, Street 88,
Street CC, or will the Metropolitan Board, in an
antiquarian fit, begin with Paternoster-row and g,O
right through the Prayer-book, or in an access of
Puritanic enthusiasm, shall we make broad our
phylacteries, and adorn our highways with texts of
Scripture, such as Resist-the-Devil-and-he-will-
flee-street ? or shall we adopt the French mod. ,
and start from the Rue de 29 Juillet

Th 3 task undertaken by our five-and-forty
cdiles, it will be seen, is one of no small magni-
tude, and, if they accomplish it well, it is difficult
to say to what heights their ambition may not here-
after soar. Here is a problem evidently far greater
than the drainage of the city. They began with
the collection of guano, they proceed to the nomen-
clature of streets, and possibly they may end by dis-
covering the universal language. They began as a
metropolitan vestry ; they may end as an academy
of the sciences. The next step will be tointerfere with
the family of the Smiths, the Joneses, the Browns,
and the Robinsons. John Smith gives the postman
as much trouble as George-street. In fact, the
criticism of the committee who have report(icl
on this subject bears not only on the streets of
London, but on the use of the English language
and on the appellations selected by Englishmen all
over the globe. How is it that we find the home
names repeated wherever the English race is to be
found—Cambridge in England and Cambridge in
the United States, Ben Lomond in Scotland and
Ben Lomond in Tasmania ? How affectionately
we cling to particular epithets ! A day is beauti-
ful, and a song is beautiful ; a mathematical
problem, a colour, a form, a motion, a military
manoeuvre, are all alike beautiful ; and one some-
times hears an old lady declare that the oxtail
soup is " beautiful." Then we have a bit of slang
which is eternally the same and means always
something different :—a man rides like blazes,
I smokes like blazes, drinks like blazes, reads
like blazes, sleeps like blazes, laughs like blazes, and
one hears those who deal in slang use the term so
often, that we have a little natural curiosity to
know what is this " like blazes ?" With the
most affluent language in the world we are the
most parsimonious in our use of epithets. The
members of the Board are grieved to observe it,
and so they are going to set us an example by show-
ing how we cau attain a judicious variety in the
denomination of our streets. They have set them-
selves a very difficult task—we are afraid also a
hopeless one.
In all soberness, is there any great advantage to
be obtained by this reform ? By all means let the
reform be carried out, if it can be effected easily.
The Metropolitan Board of Works, like all gram-
marians, are quite right, and we, the public,
are quite wrong. All we say is that the
scheme which the committee have rather pom-

pously proclaimed is about .as useless and as
troublesome as if they had propounded the theory
of a perfect language with eleven genders, sixteen
persons and twenty-five numbers, such as used to
excite the imagination of old Sir Thomas Urqu-
hart. If there are many Charles-streets, for ex-
ample, they are quite well enough distinguished
for all practical purposes by the addition of the
locality—as Charles-street, Berkeley-square, and
Charles-street, Grosvenor-square ; and those who
would blunder such simple addresses would blunder
them were they ever so plain, and would pro-
bably confound the High-street, Oxford, with the
High-street, Edinburgh. But another part of the
scheme which is far less pretentious is likely to be
far more useful. The grand object of the scheme
is to invent 500 new names of streets ; thg supple-
mentary part is to obliterate a inultitude of names
in extensive thoroughfares that form one long line
of communication. The principal advantage to be
gained from the former proposal will fall to the lot
of the nove!ists and dramatists of the next genera-
tion, who, in the confusion of a title-lead cr the
mistake of a rendezvous, will find a ready means of
complicating a story or defeating a conspiracy.
The advantage of the latter proposal will be felt by
all who daily traverse this vast metropolis. Who
has not been tortured by that long line of commu-
nication known as the New road, which is in reality
an infinite series of small streets, or rather rows of
houses, all having different names, and those on
the
one side of the thoroughfares repudiating the
names of those on the other ?' Here we have
" places" and
terraces" innumerable, • nobody
knowing where they
begin,
To cut up suc nor where they end.
h long roads into a few natural divi
sions, and number them straight on, will be an
undoubted improvement
and save a great' deal of
ernbarrassment.---Times.

NEW NAMES POu----777'.------
LONDON 'TRFETS
------us.- "' i •
Our report of the
.proeetd• gs of the Metropolitan
Board of Works, at its meetinth
LoDn'ltlanger's commit-
summary of the labours ne /ii4eFridav last, contained
London. Some further
tee on the street nomenclature of
nrxobably be accept-
informations on the same heal will
hig,r attacked the
ble to our readers. Mr. D'
difficulty in detail, and commences
in baud 571 streets which have but I.;°rk by taking
them; it follows that for the streets in this among
alone 554 names must be found. is fires eection
We give from the Observer of yesterday an a
al _
the proposals which the committee make ou this point.
of
In the. -first place, there are 62 George-streets. G
street, Hanover-square, will remain unaltered, andetohrge-
"
wit! also he a Great George-street and a Little (3,,„:
street in Westminster; that is all of the Geore,,,, ti-17,"t
will remain.' Among their successors we notice scientifin
men, as Liebnitz, Lardner, Hatton, Priestley, and
Shrapnel. Literature and divinity are represented by
Mahon, Paley, Marvel, Strype, Ogilvie, Lowth,
Tbirlwall, Aytoun, Massey, and Baxter. Poor
Power, the actor, has one of the streets. Of the ariato-
cracY' there are Wynford, Vivian, and Rutherford.
Among a number of miscellaneous names of more or
less note are Whittington, Rushwortb, Esdaile, Blake,
MiBkio, Patmore, Reynard, Chaplin, Fairbank, and
cithers—names certainly not of any great renown, with
the exception of that of the far-famed Whittington.
Among the substitrites for the Charleri-streets literary'
, grad
Sons
There are Ainsworth, Lever, Mark-
' sout-Striekland,- KeacsAuarlere, Lingard, Thomson,
Vl,..eitoly,, But wee, and'llemane.. Nen of science
are
represehtM,b,y, lir €14,a1;1
include file names - ' and 'Nnant etre aria tocra cy
and :-_. packtvo,.s.f -VAue, Caledde, RaWr.L,n, Denham
Garrick', and V't,,(-'' There. are three actora—Cit*r,
These three celebrities very aPpro-
.
in the represent the
three Charles-streets which exi.4
theatres—Charle-;:t neighbourhood of the two large
Drury-lane, is to
Gib-
ber-street ; Charfe,r_eseit;. be
Covent-garden. Garrick-
Area ; aid Charle.6.:4,t,
The nitiscellaneon4 n4net,,eee.t; ' LOWY-
,,, acre, Foote-street.
Macneil, tho engineer. slrinde. that of -Eugene Aram
ittrarl Mayne gives his
name to Charles-street, near
CoverdaeieArbour-strs!et, police
staiiopi:there ialliies
street; Lpwndes-scpare; while Chari who takes Char!es-
wooos to be in future named ,1
ea es-stre&-, St. John's
%eel:Teo-vie, ttip late Wented naarn.eron-street," After
trilei.B6-B-ank:_
.. : .
.., . . "137 of the Royal
, • •_ ...

• .-.
a,rss''c'eracY' e:ni...re frequent
Place the.:.`John-streets"
arn9nif.ciaime eropo,ed in the
tit:dila:either the G9ofgearir the Charlene,,. There are
Eltegm-ere, 'Werfehonae, -Lyttettop, and
Porttarid ; Literature is represented by Bremner, 11'orue;
Miall, Groat, Mayhew, Headley, Channinz,
Pct3uti ; P!a7fa'r and Erudie are the men a heienee ;
Caxtt.n, an oid /.66toric. s. ,rthy ; Bvscawen, a name

familiar in the naval glories of the country, and Handel,
the immortal composer, are among the more prominent
of the names, "Faithful" and "Gay." We will not
venture to depict the consternation of some steady ma-
tron who, waking some morning, may find her old
familiar John-street converted into a Gay-street. What,
too, will the conservative or orthodox resident in John-
street say to living in future in a street bearing the name
of Miall or Charming ?
The aristocracy are unusually numerous in the sug-
gested names for the family of King-streets. They in-
clude Lennox, Hotham, Erskine, Wortley, Woraley.
Woodville, Mandeville, Malmesbury, and Paulet. The
House of Commons is represented by one name only,
that of E wart. King-- treet, Pall-mall, is to bear the
name of the Premier, Palmerston ; King-street, Smith-
field, will bear the name of Ridley, one of the martyrs ;
King-street, Aldgate, the name of the present Jewish
Rabbi, Dr. Adler ; King-street, Covent-garden, is to be
improved to Shakspere-street ; King-street, Tower-hill,
to Dibdin-street ; King street, Commercial-road, is to be
transferred to the famous Booker, of protectionist
notor ety ; the name of Flaxman is to supplant King-
street, Northampton-square. Jacquard and Fulton are
among the suggested names, as are these of Beckett,
Sedgwick, Weiston, Bentham, and Hassel, of unadul-
terated food notoriety.
the Queen streets have not so good or so varied a
selection of names as the "King-streets." Queen-street,
Great Russell-street, is to become " Betterton-street,"
and Queen-street, S.ven Dials, " Pepys street." Queer.
street, Lincoln's Inn-fields, Brougham-street ; Queen-
street, Mile-end, claims Alderman Challis. The literary
names include those of Lockhart, Howitt, Dugald
(Stewart), Congreve, and Thackeray ; there are two
members of the House of Commons, Mr. Mackinnen
and Sir Edward Filmer, one Saxon King (Egbert), one
admiral (Plumridge)—there is no Napier—one founder
of a sect (Wesley), for Queen-street, Chelsea—and four
lords, Danby, Loftus, Ebrington, and Egerton.
The suggested names for the Church-streets contain
but one name of"any ornament of the church—it is that
of Wickliffe. Will a member of the Church of Rome
consent to date his letters from such a street ! Church-
street left the question of the rival creeds an open one,
and Mornonites, or high church, might equally be proud
of the street they lived in while it was called Church-
street. The literary men are in the majority among
the suggested names ; they are Waller, Wordsworth,
Farquhar, Some! ville, Dampier, Arbuthnot, Macaulay,
and Chalmers ; Sterudale (Bennet), as a musician ;
Alderman Carden, Huskisson, the financier; Knox, the
divine ; Tulloch, one of the commissioners to the Crimea;
(Roger) Ascham, the chemist ; (Colonel) Sabine, the
man of science ; Lore, Strane r 1 and Sir Cullen Eardley
are among the new names. The remainder of the list
is made up of some modest gentlemen, to whose merits
we shall presently more particularly allude.
The " New streets " are to be converted into Smollett,
Sterne, and Whateley streets ; and some others are to
be named after Smeaton, Nasmyth, and Dollond—each
eminent men in their spheres—Sudgen, the Lord
Chancellor ; Maclise, the ar.ist ; Coke, the learned
Chief Justice ' • Arne, the musician ; Anson. the naval
correnander ; Hansard, well known by his Debates ;
" Sotheby," the successful auctioneer ; Staunton, the
chess player ; Cathcart, one of the heroes of the Crimea;
and there is one Shakspere-street, which is the second
time the name of the dra.uatist bas been suggested to
be used.
The "William-streets" have a somewhat miscellaneous,
but at the same time highly respectable, list of candidates
to take their place. There are Bunket, and Grattan,
and Curran, names honourable alike to the country and
the age ; there is Fullaron, the learned and sagacious ;
Cresswell, one of the most accomplished of English
judges ; Blair, whose liter iry merits and great learning
are universally recognised ; Buller, the amiable and
lamented President of the Poor Law Board ; Byng,

either an admiral or apr.,minent writer of the sewers

commission ; Burrel (Sir Charles), the father of the
House of Comm.-)us ; Bruce, the hero of Scotland, or the

undaunted African traveller; Monckton (Milner), the
poet of the palm leaves and the bottle-holder of the
Premier ; Lords Dynevor and Melford, and Baird, Cor-
bould, Hanmer, and some other names well known to
the public.
The " Erigh-streets" retain their names in a somewhat
_ _

snbjeeive form. The high-streets in the different parts
of London being merely named after the district in which
they are situated, High-street in the Borough being for
the future proposed to be called "Borough High-street."
There will still be thirty High-street:, but they will b.
distinguished by the name of the district being prefixed
to each of them.

The substituted names for the "Union-streets" are
marked by the names of men of science ; they include
Airy, Arnott, Brewster, Davy, Wollaston, Wheatstone,
and, we may add, that of Chesney. Akenside, Alison,
and Hobbes are the literary celebrities, and Wilberforce
and Mrs. Chisholm are among the selec ed benefactors
of their species, while Westrnacott and Eastlake are the
artists who have the honour to be selected. The next
batch of streets are the "North-streets." Literature is
in the ascendant among the suggested names, and the
list includes Defoe, Atterbury, Barbauld, Blackstone,
Chatterton, Coleridge, Pope, and Selden. Babbage is
the only man specially devoted to science, and Balfe
to music. A fitting tribute of respect is paid to the
memory of the gallant Bellot, who perished in the
Arctic voyage. Boleyn (Anne) is brought from the
page of history, C❑antrey, the sculptor, is duly
honoured, Clarkson, the great friend of the slave, and by
his side is placed the name of Dargan, the open-hearted,
liberal, and successful contractor, who taught the world
the virtues of self-reliance, even in Ireland. Cbarlemont
and Clauricarde are selected from the House of Lords,
and an amiable and distinguished representative' of the
daily press, Mr. Delaine, is chosen to give his name to
North•street, Brom pton.

Next come the " Duke-streets." Two of theta, one ?a.
Aldgate and the other in Houndsditcb, give place to the
names of Rothschild and Salomons. Others disappear
before the names of Hobbes and Stowell, both eminent
in their way, though somewhat opposed to each other in
theolo.;ical opinions. Then come Chaucer, Shenstone,
Wycherley, Balfour, and Boileau ; followed by Faraday
and Herschel, by Beechy, the arctic navigator, and with
some other names they effectually clear off all the
" Dukes" save one from the streets of London.

"James-streets" are the next to be immolated, and
their places are supplied by Grote, Hallam, Malone,
Sheridan, Roscoe, Ot,way, among the literati of the past
and present time; by Lance the fruit painter, Logan the
Scottish poet or the Canadian geologist, as the case may
be, Paxton of Crystal Palace notoriety, Ransford, a po-
pular singer of the present day, Macready the tragedian,
Morley the chairman of the effete Administrative Re-
form Association, and Pitcairn the navigator.
Tb• " York-streets" are 25 in number ; they are to 'oe
exchanged for Cattermole, Chalon, and Hogarth among
the artists, Donne, Horne, and Bickerton am.ing literary
men and divines, Forbes, Latham, and Jenner, men of
science, Lake, Cardwell, Slddons, Romilly, Burgoyne,
and others whose names are generally known. The 21
condemned " Park places' will give way to Aldermen
Farncomb and Eagleton, to Dryden, Fielding, and
urtown, Gainsborough (artist), the Countess of
Blessington, and that Lindley (Murray), whose
eerves, if he were now alive, would be often so
sadly shocked in the debates o the Board of Works.
The selection of his name is a graceful attempt•
on the part of the board to appease his angry manes. In
the case of the 20 " Edward-streets," Waterton, Darwin,
and Davenant are t,t take the places of three of them,
and the remainder is to be supplied by Abernethy,
Abinger, Admiral Gambier, Humboldt, Kneller, Lely,
Luttrell, Peto, Rennie, Scsriett, Scoresby, and some
others. " York-places" are 'he last proposed to be now
dealt with, and in the selected names the merits of Jer-
rold, Hepburn, Ligonier, Liston, Acland, Abraham,
and a few others, some unknown to fame, have not been
overlooked.

There yet remains that very modest class of persons,
to whom we have already adverted, whose names it is
proposed to substitute for those of mere frequent occur-
rence. The individuals in question who seek to thrust
themselves into this Walhalla of the metropolitan streets,
are the members of the Board of Works themselves.
Evtimatiog their merits a►►d their claims to such great
honour at t14,-ir own standard, we extract the list of such
members of the Board as are desirous to lend the sanc-
tion of their names to this wholesale re christening of
our streets.

NAME OF STREET. LOCALITY. SUGGESTED NAME.
George-street Rotherhithe Miskin-street
fl Pall-mall Csrpmael-street
„ Marylebone Crellin-street
Charles-street Bermondsey Morland-street
Queen-street Kennington lrvine-street
Church-street ......Islington Pascall-stieet
Pl Bethnal Green Bevan-street
PO Hackney . Offer-street
.
Pt Chelsea
St. Giles's . Seeley-street
William-street Manchester-square .Daltou-street
Union-street Shadwell Dennis-street
- Clarendon-square Woolrych-street
„
Tames-street Adelphi
Lambeth
York-place Camberwell Boyson-place