Evening star., 1901-10-31
LONDON STREET NAMES
CURIOUS NOMENCLATURE IN THE
METROPOLIS OF GREAT-BEITAIN.
Result of the Absorption of villages
and Fields by the
City.
From the London Express.


Comparatively few people, when they
walk down Piccadilly, or up Regent street,
or along Pail Mall, the Strand, and Fleet
street, up Ludgate Hill, and through the
curious old streets which congregate around
the bank give a thought to the origin of
the names by which those thoroughfares
are called. If the subject. enters their mind
at all, they are probably satisfied with
surmising that oxford street is probably a
way out of London toward oxford, and
that the Edgware road leads eventually to
Edgware. But they do not look for any sig
nifcance which happens to lie deeper be-
low the surface.
Not so our good London county council,
one of whose duties is succinctly defined
by the following clause in an act of parlia-
ment: THE council may by order alter the
name of any street to any other name
which to the council may seem fit"
1t has seemed fit to the council to alter
many thousands of ot1r street names and
they have done the work with excellent
delicacy and discrimination. The results
are published in a bulky volume, to which
Mr. G. l.. CONNIE, clerk of the council,
prefixes scholarly Introduction. He points
out that the council have carefully recog-
nized the Importance of street names from
the historical and antiquarian point or
view.
London Landmarks.
They remember that Lendon's ancient
walls are marked by Aldgate, Bishopsgate,
Newgate, Ludgate, etc; that Charing, Ken
sington, Paddington, Islington, and so on,
were villages outside, London; that the va
rious Fields" and green's, such as Spital-
fields, st. Martin Sin -the-Fields, Smithfield
and Clerkenwell and Paddington Greens,
represent the rural districts lying between
the villages and the city; that Holborn,
Walbrook, Westbourne and Kilburn repre-
sent the burns or brooks" which used
to purl and ripple their way from the north
ern heights to therriMer; and that the other
names mark the existence of Islands In
the Thames, of monastie establishments, of
markets, of the great town palaces OF the
nobility, or commemorate the principal per-
sonages in the various reigns which make
up the history OF England.
Bearing this fact in mind, the council has
swept away innufnerable King streets, Vic
toria streets, Albert streets and others
where q particular name was ridden TO
death. but mostly it has laid violent hands
upon strictly modern places terraces,
gardens and other products of nine
teenth century snobbishnesS, in order to
convert the houses they represent into hon
est, sober numbers In well-dehned ana
welI-known thoroughfare.-
Most of the sweepings have been done In
the great mafn'roads, such as the Uxbridge
road, the Edgware road, the Euston road
the Kingsland road, the Mile End road
1t is sad to think of the aristocratic names
which have thus been cleared out of the
directory, and it only needs now to apply
the same process to the abSurdly named
houses in what Lord Rosebery calls villa
DOM to complete a work of real reform
Names on the Great Estates.
But there is one aspect of this question
which, of course, will not be overlooked. 1t
was natural that when what are known as
1p{6 ont
they should carry with them the impress of
the men to whom they belonged. This is
notably the case with the Grosvenor, Sails
bury, Portland, Pertman Bedford, Howard
and Northampton properties.
Take Belgravia as an example. The name
of the district-which, of course, is the sole
property of the Duke of WeStminSter-is
taken from a small farm on the edge of
Eaton Park-the farm of Belgrave. The
word "Grosvenor' is, of course, found
Observation-Disclosures road, gardens,
crescent" mansions" square and so
on. Many of these are now abolished, but
quite enough remain. Eaton, the famlly
mansion. is abundantly recognized In
square" place" row" terrace" and so
on The Christian names usually adopted
by the Grosvenors find their representa-
tives in such street names as Hugh, Lupus,
Elizabeth and Richard, while parishes and
farms on the Cheshire and Flintshire es-
tates are represented by Eccleston, Afford,
The Original "strand."
The land from the Strand to the river
was formerly occupied by the great man
sions of the Howards, the Cecils, the VIII
liers and the Percys, although many of the
names they bore have been obliterated by
the enormous building changes which have
taken place during the last twenty years
Norfolk street, Arundel street and Surrey
he fa
street, Salisbury street and others whereon
the Hotel Cecil now stands marked the for
ner estate of the Salisburys; Villiers and
Buckingham streets remind us of the prof
ligate duke; while Northumberland avenue
perpetuates the glorieS of the famous town
house of the PercyS, over which stood
lion which now adorns the entrance to the
Duke of Northumberland mansion at Isle
worth
The Bedford estate has name associated
with the Russells at almost every street
corner; while the Portland property, north
of Oxford Circus, is sprinkled with titles
and place names of the Cavendish-Ben-
tincks.
ty council will abolish any of this nomen-
clature, which has historical value, but
there is some doubt as to what will become
of the names of streets, courts and alleys
which will themselves disappear in the
great schemes of street improvement now
going forward The HOlborn and Strand
scheme, for instance, will swallow up many
interesting names HOLES street and Clare
Market will perhaps take away with them
the memory of"that john Holes, earl Of
Clare, who gave James / 10000 for his
earldom, and there must be many other
names involved in the like risk of being
sent into obscurity. However, we are en-
couraged by Mr.. .Gomme's appreciative re-
marks to believe that all such matters are
safe in the hands of the London county
council, which has proved themselves to be
II, h,,t hn1x Of too, ool,
dals.
Baby Should Sleep.
From the Scotsman. '" -" %"