Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Council Decides to Rename Black Boy Lane
Following my consideration on the origins of West Green's Black Boy name back in the summer, Haringey Council has decided to rename Black Boy Lane in West Green.
The Council have called the exercise a 'renaming consultation', but the online questionnaire offers only the ability to choose from a shortlist of two new names. So it appears that the decision to rename has already been taken with only the choice of name left to be decided.
They have issued the following press release.
The council has launched a renaming consultation with residents and businesses located on Black Boy Lane, as part of the wider Review on Monuments, Buildings, Place and Street Names in Haringey – which was launched on 12 June 2020, in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
The council believes that the names of our monuments, buildings, places and streets must reflect the values and diversity that we are so proud of in the borough. One of the street names that has been identified as not being reflective of this is Black Boy Lane.
Meanings change over time, and the term “Black Boy” is now most commonly used as a derogatory name for African heritage men.
As part of the consultation, the council is asking residents to consider new alternative names that celebrate some of the borough’s most notable influencers, and truly reflect the borough’s rich heritage.
The two names that have been shortlisted for residents to consider are, ‘Jocelyn Barrow Lane’ and ‘La Rose Lane’. The consultation will launch today, Monday 28 September and will run for a period of 4 weeks to Monday 26 October 2020.
Letters will be arriving on Black Boy Lane residents' doorsteps this week, who can respond to the consultation using one of the following methods:
- Online: www.haringey.gov.uk/renaming-black-boy-lane.
- Email:
- bblconsultation@haringey.gov.uk
- Telephone: 020 8489 3797
- By post: Consultation Co-ordinator, The Communications Team, River Park House, 225 High Road, Wood Green, London, N22 8HQ
If Haringey residents have concerns or queries about place, street or building names in the borough, please get in touch. Send your views to Leader@haringey.gov.uk.
Bios:Dame Jocelyn Anita Barrow (15 April 1929 – 9 April 2020) was a Barbadian/Trinidadian British educator, community activist and politician, who was the Director for UK Development at Focus Consultancy Ltd. She was the first Black woman to be a governor of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and was founder and Deputy Chair of the Broadcasting Standards Council.
John La Rose was a publisher, poet and essayist. He founded the Caribbean Artists’ Movement and publishing company New Beacon Books which has a bookshop in Stroud Green. In 1975, he co-founded the Black Parents Movement from the core of the parents involved in the George Padmore Supplementary School incident in which a young Black schoolboy was beaten up by the police outside his school in Haringey.
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Tags for Forum Posts: blackboy lane name change, review on monuments, building place and street names
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Adrian Hackney on
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I'd suggest beefing up the content of 'don't change' petition a bit, and then having a proper social media campaign to get support.
How about
Haringey Council have proposed has unilaterally decided , without consultation, to rename Black Boy Lane, N15. All that remains in the Haringey plan is for the residents of the street to determine which of Haringey's nominees should be accorded the honour of having the street named after them.
We, the undersigned, call upon Haringey council to reverse this decision and leave the name untouched. Our demand is based on, amongst others, the following grounds
- Haringey argue that “Black Boy” is now most commonly used as a derogatory name for African heritage men. We have struggled to find examples of this. "Black" alone, sneered at a black person is derogatory. "Boy" alone, directed at a black man implies all the trappings of servitude we so detest in the context of slavery. But we have never heard Alf Garnett, or any other racist, searching for an insult, come up with "you... you .... you black boy" as a solution.
- There will be too great a financial cost involved in making this change. An earlier plan to change Tottenham's Twon Hall Approach to New Windrush Gardens was rejected on the grounds of cost https://www.enfieldindependent.co.uk/news/17275217.council-says-ren... . The estimate at that time (2018) was put at well over £20,000. Black Boy Lane is a much longer street. The cost of this change will be much greater, possibly more than 10 times as much. Add to the financial cost the confusion that will arise and the proposal seems completely impractical.
- There is the question of who is to bear this cost. Will it simply be the residents of Black Boy Lane, or will it be borne by all Haringey Council taxpayers? If the former are those voting for a new name aware of this. If the latter then those same taxpayers should be fully involved in the consultation.
- The name Black Boy Lane has been asserted to be racist and associated with the slave trade. Search as we will we can find no first hand evidence of either of these assertions. The far more likely explanation seems to lie in veneration of King Charles who was of a dark complexion .
- If it should be that there are racist or slavery undertones in the name, then deleting the reference is a flawed step to take. History is not like maths homework. We should not just rub out our mistakes. Rather we should take the name and hold it up as an example of heritage and diversity. It is true that once this country thrived as a result of its collaboration with African warlords in selling others into slavery. But brave and principled reformers fought for reform and abolition. Perhaps that is the lesson we should learn from the name.
due to the belief that the words are now racist. Although the name may sound offensive to some, being offended is subjective and not a reason to alter history.
The name change will mean cost and inconvenience to both Black Boy Lane and Haringey residents. Our Council Tax would be better spent on already stretched council services. You will recall Haringey Council wasting £86,000 on its new logo a few years ago.
Please sign the petition to stop the change in name and show your support for common sense and local history.
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Permalink Reply by maidikins on
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Hello. Thank you for the input. However, I believe that petitions, like most things, should be short and sweet. Please feel free to start your own . . .
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Permalink Reply by Colinloves on
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"t is true that once this country thrived as a result of its collaboration with African warlords in selling others into slavery. "
That comes over as a typical Gammon statement and shouldnt be included
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You obviously don't like anything that pushes the debate from the left to the centre-ground, even though it is entirely true. Not forgetting your obligatory insult 'typical gammon' which is a racial slur and a generalisation.
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Permalink Reply by DavidJ on
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Xavier - I am afraid you have given away your true motives here - and in doing so you make a strong case for changing the name of this street. The slave trade was 300 years long, it involved the enslavement of as many as 12 million people - who remained enslaved and poverty stricken for generations, whose legacy still corrupts and damages us - -
Your claim that the lesson we should learn from this is that it was 'a collaboration with African warlords' which was fought by brave and principled people - is a very good reminder that we are all far too complacent about this issue. If there is the slightest chance that a name of a road like this somehow normalises what happens - the name should change.
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DavidJ, you could try re-reading the posts and notice that it wasn't my 'claim', but I make no apologies for wanting the name to remain, how far do the woke want to grovel for what was actually a vile trade that started and finished outside of our own involvement, that we helped to stop?.
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Apologies Xavier - you were only supporting the claim made by Adrian Hackney. Your comment - 'how far do the woke want to grovel' does further clarify your interest in this issue.
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"If there is the slightest chance that a name of a road like this somehow normalises what happens - the name should change."
I do not agree with this...where does it start and where does it stop? The "slightest", really?
Are we going to rename everything that is perceived to be slightly offensive when in fact it may not be?
When I was a boy in Trinidad, I was branded 'honky' by some of my (child) neighbours and then when I came to Europe later on, branded 'black' by people around me.
Are we going to get rid of everything that says white and black and all be grey?
Black Boy Lane was not named after a 'boy' (slave/servant in a denigratory sense) but to describe the darkness of the prince, as we use the word to describe afro people today. Should we then change the name of BLACK Lives Matter to AfroPeoples LM? So we need the name to remain and some active explaining to be done to BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER and stop the animosity.
This does not diminish the struggle of the BLM movement which is highly legitimate and of the utmost importance.
The real offense is that his 'blackness' was 'hidden' in official portraits to erase the reality from people.
So as far my counter argument goes, BLM should actually embrace the name an point out that the Royals have 'BLACK' blood flowing through their veins. As if it really matters in one way or another since they are only human beings just like the rest of us.
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Thank JJB - you say that "Black Boy Lane was not named after a 'boy' (slave/servant in a denigratory sense) but to describe the darkness of the prince, as we use the word to describe afro people today."
Genuine question - is there evidence for this? I know it is a theory about Charles II, but it would be interesting if you had evidence.
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Quite frankly, I don't. And I agree with what Hugh has said elsewhere on the post even if I am somewhat guilty of what he is saying.
But I can't imagine that pubs all around the country would have been named in a denigatory way even if there was less 'race discrimination sensitivity' in those days of yore. This is not about a statue to honour a racist enslaver. And we will not see W Churchill's name removed from the majority of streets names nor will most his statues be removed. So there is room to adjust one's postion depending on context.
But I feel that such knee jerk reactions, to spend loads of scarce money on something that is not proved one way or the other, WITHOUT MORE DEMOCRATRIC debate and consultation smacks of ideological decison taking. There are so many other ways that could advance the cause. But as is usual it is easier to spend money to change the name and then claim a victory against racists.
I was actively involved in community stuff a few years ago until Brexit broke my spirit. As a member of several minority groups I am extremely sensitive about being boxed in to these and how people use the boxes to advance their own causes or to limit theoir horizons. We ALL use a specific lense to view things and the lense colours how we dothings. Every one is biased. The importance is to be aware of that.
Because of my participation in thing Council during my community work I am also aware that members of the current set of coucnil influencers who claim to be activist for good are also so prejudiced that they decisons they make end up doing exactly the opposite of what they say (maybe even what they think) they are achieving.
I sat in a consultation on proposals to improve the area around Town Hall approach/Totenham Town Hall here in east N15. when it was suggested that teh area could be paved and 'regenrated' so that it could host a market. A certain person immediately blurted out "No, that would attract the wrong kind of people". They are very influential in Labour campaigning and has held very visible roles. It is a small example but very indicative of bad decisions end up doing so much damage.
On another campaign a memebr of the activist group has told me recntly several times. The MP was supporting our campaign in the background. Whenever that MP was called upon to support the campaign in public there was always wall sitting to the extent that it was coounterproductive eto the campaign. A tragedy for those brown people whose livelhoods will now be completely decimated and also a travesty given that the conservation area will lose a lovel albeit modest piece of architecture and be replaced by an insipid chain-multiple-corporate- focussed building. Brown and balck people need more opportunities to set up their small businesses not less. We need places where we can get leases that can provide stability durng the crearly years of business creation and not to be in competion with Adult Gaming Centres, Costas, Sainsbury's Local and KFC's, etc.
But I will stop here because my post is not directly germane to the name change and turning into its own counterproductive rant/lecture.
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