The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-30 00:00:00

Our Absurd Street Nomenclature.

A correspondent of the Times writes as follows in
regard to our ludicrous no-system in naming the
streets of London :

The repetitions of names are innumerable. The
words " place," " terrace," " square," &c., are often
misused. Numerous dirty streets and narrow lanes
are called " places," when the name should be kept
for wide streets or open spaces not necessarily
thoroughfares, such as Stratford-place, Ely-place,
Audley-square. " Terrace" is becoming subject to
the same treatment. We have a crescent called
A.mpthill-square ; a circular Northampton-square ;
Harrington, Walcot, and the transpontine Gros-,
venor squares are triangular. The frequeryzy
with which the same name occurs .is curi-
ous. TweCp-si:z High-streets mark the. .4122 W! .. -
towns which were once neighbours to the 'cities of
London and Westminster. Thirty-six King-street
may show attachment to the Throne ; 20 Georf.p_
streets and nine George-yards to the Ilousz of
Brunm.vick. There are 34 Charles-streets, 32 tiohn-
streets, 25 Church-streets, and 10 Church-rows ;
25 Queen-streets, 3 Queen-squares, 20 Princes 4
streets, 18 Duke-streets, 17 James, 16 Cross, and
11 Chapel-streets. All these numbers are exclusive,
of such variations on the theme as Upper, Lower, .
Old, West, Little. Six streets, most of them n2sty
ones, bear the name of Paradise. Crown, is a
famous appellation for courts. New, besides being
tacked on to qualify other names, has 21 streets, 6 is.
roads, and 8 courts, all to itself. The points of the--
compass, common Christian names, Grove, Market,
York, and Wellington are what appear most fre-
quently besides those already mentioned.
The newer parts of the town, and those inhabited,
by the richer classes, show greater confusion thatu
poorer districts. The streets there are for the most
part christened by perpetually ringing the changes
on a few names of counties, and the overworked
" Park," " Kensington," and " Westbourne." There
are nine Glocester-terraces, 11 Glocester-streets, five.
roads, and eight places. There is a Kensington..
gate, ditto Gore, ditto crescent, ditto garden-ter-
race, ditto gardens-square, ditto square (plain),
ditto palace-gardens, ditto palace-green, dittopark-
gardens, ditto park-terrace, and so on. There are
14 Park-places, 10 Park-streets, eight roads, and
six terraces, besides Uppers and Lowers. But
" Westbourne" is still of more frequent recurrence. -
Among the streets built on the Westbourne Park ,
estate and in its neighbourhood this name is
prefixed to crescent, to green, to gardens—to- ,
grove, Grove-terrace ; park, Park-place, Park--
crescent, Park-road, Park-terrace, Park-villas ; fa
terrace, to Terrace-road, to Terrace-villas ; to road
East and North—to all possible combinations of
topographical technicalities. For the collar* 11.
Cambridge and 11 Devonshire terraces lead the list. - v
Wiltshire, Worcester, Lincoln, and Kent are not

t

favourites. About 32 terraces; streets,--&e ; - are
namesakes of her Majesty.
It would seem at first sight that there was but a
small supply of names ready to hand ; and yet we
see often one street changing its name two or three
times in the course of a very moderate length. To
make sweeping changes would cause much trouble,
and would inconvenience the holders of title-de'eas
of London property; but the evil of unmeaning
names might be corrected in the new quarters where
houses are being built every day. An immense in-
terest attaches to many of the old street names,
especially those in the city and on the shores of the
river, up to Westminster-bridge. The others usually
commemorate or express something. There are
traces of Sir Hugh Myddelton and his great conduit
in the neighbourhood Of the New River Head. The
regions of Cavendish, Russell, Fitzroy, and (the more
recent) Belgrave squares are well enough named
after the titles and seats of the landowners. Liquor-
pond-street is rightly so-called. There were Knight's
Hospitallers at St. John's-gate ; there are still shady
groves in St. John's-wood. But what has a terrace
facing the west of Paddington-station to do with
Eastbourne? What has Oxford to do with at least
six terraces of that name ? I daresay the late Mr.
Thackeray could have suggested a reason. The
feeling which prompts the tenant of a little bit of
roadside residence to call it Gothic-lodge or Mont-
morency-villa, and the dwellers in the Hammer-
smith, Holloway, and other long roads to disown
the regular numeration of houses, and group
themselves into short terraces with fine titles—this
same feeling makes people prefer that the street they

live in be called terrace or place and enjoy the smart
name prefixed to it. This is all very well at Brighton,
but in London it is very inconvenient.

I would suggest the better example of Paris which
shows that there is no great difficulty in finding ap-
pellations. In the neighbourhood of the Place de
l' Europe the streets are christened after the chief
cities of the Continent, which afford a good remedy
against repetition ; anything is better than our 3G
King-streets. The Parisians used to draw upon the
Saints' Calendar, and now they have adopted the
chief names of the great men of their own and other
countries ; and we—we have one little out-of-the-
way terrace called Shakespeare, a shabby and un-
known Nelson-square, a Newton-street in the vile
districts of Drury-lane. There are numerous other
such instances. Take away the poorer quarters of
the metropolis, and the leading names of history
will be found poorly represented.

TIIE CIVIL SERVICE.--The report of the Com-
missioners of Audit on the several accounts of the Depart-
ment of Works in the year 1864-65 shows that the savings
on several votes amount to £77,500 3s. 4d. ; and that it will
be necessary to grant the undermentionedamounts to make
good expenses on certain of the votes :—British embassy
houses at home and abroad, £3,209 13s. 41 ; Industrial
Museum, Edinburgh, £1,612 15s. 9d. ; Probate) Court and
Registries, £39 Bs. 3d. ; and Office of Works, salaries, &C.,
£B9 17s. 101 ; making a total of £4,951 15s.
2d.nd Pills.—
cADY::RTISENIENT.i —Holloway's Ointment anda the W
len the weather is wet, the winds
tem-
perature changeable, those excellent _
chilremedieschilling,
should
always be at hand ;by this means tec ti vnaenacbtieoncan
be at once rectified, any irregular
• well nabbed in, on
cor-
rected without delay. The ointmentremovehoarseness, sore throat,
enlarged tonsils, and
dtliiiethtthhreoraia,t orreicahxeasdt,
uvula,
vivuili
tli,
..d
11 check incipient i fl with-
out n amma-
and prevent the accumuhti
, on of
tion in the air distressingpassages,
to the patient and bystander,
any
functiond
oe
af this purifying
riot:::
phlegm, alike
fatal to the aged when it •
The influenza, so ravages tho
pain or inconvenience wi
the country, is safely and
town and devastates
lievedpug and ---, cooling
ointment.
6 ~fxoy
Of all ages 057 be
VSETISEMENTJ—That the fearful annual mortality of
[AD
arres •
ted if, instead of flying blindly to pills and medicines.
obritgli°chsialdluretanrYanedffedcetli
which, though apparently relieving the patient, ha ve in
reality no other tendency than that of thereof"' debihli
how
and with it the clangor of lite, we were straPlY to study o
tO increase the vital fore,: by imparting d pure blood,
inf„vir an
whole frame
upon which the harmonious development the I 'lva-
depends, has been SUCCeStilully proved by
ip Durables', and its
lids' and Infar:ts' Food, the RevantshrAce times as mu'ala
thousands of cures annually. It 7ic 1: best meat, snd for
easily assimilated nourishment A
fort human milk. Dr.
children it ii the best substituterrosp
Hospital for Women and
Routh, physician to the Ssunarltan matters —in his
Children—the best authority ouchfnamongt the vegetable admir-
ablesub-
publication on Food, °
sales—est to milk in its composition
stances, th A which comesryc,
~,,. 0 Revalenta Arabica Food, uni-
ts, without doubt,
Du Bic acid in abundance and chloride of
taming both p
IfifosPnlicntrude s casein, the same principle which
potassium ;it a-: its constituent parts. No wonder, there-
is found in mtik snits
influence many children affected with
fore, that "(tier
g away of the body), and marked debt lip,
atrophy (vr"t n recovered. I have given it with the greatest
come
have t a in such cases ; and 93 far as I may judge from my
advantage
experience, practice fully carries out what theory,
°-- t its composition,led us to anticipate.—
from a knowledge o
11b 9d • 21b, 4i; GI ; 51b. lls ; 121 b, 228; 241 b,
In tins, ,2s ,
408.
B Irry Du Barry and Co., No. 77, Regent-street, London ;
also Phillips, tea dialers, 8, King William-street; likewise
at 61, Gracechurch-stre.t ; 4, Cheapside ; 49, Bishopsgate-
street Within ; 63, 150, and 298, Oxford-street ; 330, Strand ;
54, Upper Baker-street; 103, Tottenham-court-road; ix,
Upper-street, Islington, N.; Harvey, Notting-hill; Close
Brothers, 65, High-street ; and Stubbs, Queen's-terrace, St.
John's-wood, London; and all respectable grocereand ale-
mists.—Beware of spurious imitations.

QP RTING.—J HN ROBERTS supplies the
1.7.7 LATEST EDITION of "TRW SUN" as soon as pub-
lished.-4, Bath-street, City-road, E.C.