Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-01-05
NUMBERS FOR ENGLISH HOUSES
London Streets Lined With Villas
Bearing Fancy Names. <
London Correspondence Kansas City Star.


Quite strong movement is on foot in
this country. and none TOO soon either.
to put an end TO the rather silly but al
most universal custom OF giving names to
private houses. and to adopt the more
sensible II less poetic. one of numbering
them instead. as is done in the United
States and most other parts of the world.
Not, Of course. that houses aren't num-
bered at all over here. You have only to
remember your mo John street. to he
assured OF that. But the average British
householder is SO inordinately fond OF
christening his habitation something or
other and then putting the name on his
stationery that perhaps half the houses
IN street will be simply Glensides or
Bellevues or whatnot with a result that
stranger who is looking for a particular
house and knows only the name of II or
even its number. IL it has one. may have
70 roam the street from end to end before
ne fnds 1t. which. of course, is a nui-
sance. One can imagine. for instance. the
delight OF sitting In a taxicab in a long
and lonely suburban road on a dark
night. with the meter industriously tick
ing of tuppences. while the driver scru-
tinizes each Of the badly lighted houses
to discover II 1t is Lyndhurst or Ivanhoe
or the Nook. according to the taste Of
your friend.
Letters by the thousand miscarry for
hoSh VA d OcUDltc 10 uelteT tnell
to. and. besides. II Is manifestly ridicu-
ious to have rows upon rows of cheap.
Jerry-built villas" swanking as Blen-
helms. Cartons and Oranges. and So. at
last. q large section OF the public here is
In favor of having every dwelling num-
bered and known by its number. or
course. In this most conservative OF coun-
tries such step In the direction OF con-
venience and common sense is meeting
with logged opposition.
Some M rho hn m
housekeeping in the suburbs ut is there
that the Nooks and Ivanhoes most
abound) take the naming Of their two-byr
four rookeries terribly seriously. The
writer heard one OF them demand OF
everybody In a drawing room recently
whether they thought him overambitious
In giving the name OF one OF Stevenson's
island homes to the seni-detached cot
tage I'm a garden suburb which he had
taken on the installment plan. or whether
IL would he better to name IL one Of seven
or eight other things?
Such folk are fair game for cartoonists
and other FUNNY men. who are having
lot OF sport with the suburba mite and his
villa. One of the comic artists, for in
stance. draws attention TO the general
lack OF anything like Appropriateness in
house-naming. lie shows that house
named Bellevue f. certain to command a
view only OF a railroad track or q SUM,
while the Pines or the Films is certain
to be in a treeless locality. Rosebank
close to a soap factory and Mon Repos
next door to a boiler works. Edelweiss
is q favorite name. too. in the suburbs of
London. though the Alps. where this
flower grows, are hundreds of miles
away.
One OF the London papers has sent
man out to catalogue the house names.
and some amusing discoveries result. One
man has named his residence Pro TEN
because he has ii only on a short lease.
but the name that seemed Ia be prime
favorite among the suburbanites was
Coy Cot. The reporter found II spelled
variously as Cosy Cot. <osi Kot. Cosy
HOT and Kosy Cot while other names on
which there was heavy run were the
Hutch, Clovelly and the I.aurels, with no
laurel trees within miles, of course.
SCOTS novels have given their names TO
hundreds of suburban villas. while there
are East Lynnes in abundance and Lalla
Rookhs ad lib