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 JJ B on
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"Guilty"
My use not yours. I don't have a problem with that. Yes, words have their meaning innit?
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Permalink Reply by DavidJ on
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Thanks JJ B
I think I share many of your concerns about how Haringey council is being run at the moment (and for some time).
That said - there are so many things that can be challenged about what the council is doing (or not doing) - this issue seems a strange hill to die on. Whatever might be said about its origins - this is a very 'odd' name for a road in the 21st century.
What strikes me is that although there have historically been other 'Black Boy' Alleys and Lanes etc in London - this is the only one left. The others have all disappeared.
It is now so incongruous, surely it is probably time for this one to go too? Just because Haringey are wrong about lots of things, it does not follow that they are necessarily wrong about this.
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Permalink Reply by Colinloves on
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Its not a racial slur. It can apply to any person, of any race.
Its a political description, of a rightwing reactionary
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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36 signatures so far, one from someone who lives in Ushaw Moor near Durham
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I was born and grew up a few miles from Ushaw - I can guarantee that the naming of Black Boy Lane has no impact on the inhabitants
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Hi Maidikins. This may be helpful.
The new logo you refer to wasted in excess of £86,000. But that nonsense was under the previous Council administration led by Claire Kober - not Joe Ejiofor's current crew. The logo was a foolish project dreamed-up by Claire's ally, former councillor Joe Goldberg. I called it the JoeGo Logo and posted stuff about it here.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanstanton/27398543598/in/album-7215...
As a former Labour councillor who opposed Claire, JoeGo and their pals, I'm ashamed to say that as beacons of local Council brilliance they are utterly out-dimmed by the present "leadership". The Kober regime did at least calculate the costs of their various schemes. Which is how I and other people discovered how much was budgeted for JoeGo's vanity project.
Now I think it's entirely sensible for:
(1) Residents and traders directly affected to be informed of all the tasks they will need to carry out as a consequence of a change of streetname in Black Boy Lane and the likely costs.
(2) Told unequivocally whether or not they will be expected to do those tasks and met the costs personally, or whether Haringey Council will pay.
(3) For Haringey residents to be told the total costs to the Council for this project - including costs of consultation and then total costs should the renaming go ahead.
I'd also suggest that such questions are made as Freedom of Information Act requests through the What Do They Know website. The answers will then be publicly available.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/
___________________________________
Please note that replies from Haringey have - at least recently - included the false claim that:
"This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential, may be
subject to legal privilege and are intended only for the person(s) or
organisation(s) to whom this email is addressed. Any unauthorised use,
retention, distribution, copying or disclosure is strictly prohibited."
In fact such replies become public domain information. Haringey's claim appears to be bureaucratic "boilerplate" appended as standard practice. I and others have raised the objection that in respect of F.O.I requests it may "chill" public discussion. This challenge has been ignored.
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Yep. that's me. No rewriting needed. We all make mistakes.
Joe Goldberg was elected in a by-election in Seven Sisters ward after the death of Fred Knight.
Both I & Zena Brabazon went out to help Labour win that election. Actually it was probably difficult for Labour to lose that vote. Residents remarked on their affection for Fred and his late wife Bella.
I didn't know Joe Goldberg before the by-election. Though I tend to start by expecting and hoping for the best from party members I meet. Over several years I slowly realised my hopes were not realised.
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Neil, sorry if I'm feeling a bit dim this morning, but why bring up former councillor Natan Doron & Joe Goldberg's views on antisemitism?
Right now the sun is shining, the sky is blue. I turned on the radio to one of Benjamin Britten's wonderful "Sea Interludes". Why pull out the miserable grey cloud of the JC?
Okay I get that renaming streets and parks is about trying to come to terms with colonialism and racism. But it's also in the context of the pandemic and the personal and economic consequences of the pandemic. Including the perhaps £10 to £20 million cuts which Haringey may need to balance the Council budget. (Depending of course on how much the Government chooses to give Councils across the country.)
It's also in the context of pressing for Council decisions to be made openly, transparently and with properly informed consultation with residents. And not simply having a sort of Executive Order from autocratic "Dear Leaders".
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Looking at the petition now reaching only 40 makes me think that people like to complain but when it's to do something about it they can't be bothered. Reading comments on here there appears a lot more people object yet haven't signed the petition. It's because of this that people like this Council leader and Haringey get away with what they want. Secondly to the comment regarding freedom of information and council statement prohibiting sharing this information, ignore the council statement. Under Data laws if sharing is in the public interest you can make it public. I got this from Haringey in a dispute and was even threatened but I went ahead and the ICO who are protectors of Data protection laws backed me and Haringey shut up and in the end had to pay me compensation. Don't go by fear as this is Haringey tactics....
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Nick, did you actually get the Information Commissioner (ICO) to rule that the statement prohibiting sharing FoI information was false? If so I'd appreciate seeing their ruling.
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Permalink Reply by Anna on
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Hello all, I found the original letter from the Council shoved through our mailbox a few months ago. Not addressed by name. Not received by everyone in the street. At the time it was all ‘potential’, and no proper consultation or help offered. I should have reacted earlier but I genuinely thought it was too outlandish to go forward. But time is not for regrets!
please sign the petition and forward it to other concerned Haringay residents.
https://www.change.org/p/haringey-council-keep-the-street-name-blac...
I am talking and getting signatures from my neighbours of Black Boy Lane to present to the council but everyone’s support is very much appreciated.
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