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 Alan Stanton on
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Emailing David Lammy MP and Catherine West MP?
I agree. And suggest a brief clear email raising the main issue or issues each person is concerned with most. Which as a reminder might be any of the points raised in this thread and in Anna's summing-up.
Or of course something else an individual wants to add.
But do please bear in mind Haringey's two MPs' "postbag" is enormous.
___________________________________________Dear David and Catherine,
I don't know if you or your office staff drop-in and read Harringay Online website from time to time. If not, then please take a look and perhaps start here with Anna's summing-up posts here:
https://harringayonline.com/xn/detail/844301:Comment:1412661
And here:
https://harringayonline.com/xn/detail/844301:Comment:1412431
Whatever your own views about this particular issue, I hope you will agree with me that trying to drive this change through in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic shows total insensitivity to the feelings, fears and current pressures on residents.Doing so without providing residents with the full information they have requested is disgraceful.
Using the Labour Party membership database apparently in an attempt to "stack" the vote can only serve to bring the Labour Party into disrepute.
Yours sincerely,
Alan
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Permalink Reply by James on
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The lesson is do not join the Labour Party or any other party, Be independent.
Too many people just vote for someone because they are a member of their party, and in some cases that person has their own agenda and does not even care about the party, they just joined for the power it will give them. As independent it would be clearer to see how useless they are.
That is what is wrong with government today, Too many top councillors & government ministers are just good orators, and have very little common seance and do not care about the facts. They will say any old crap to get their way. Also too many ordinary members of their party will not stand up and oppose them as it may put their party in a bad light!!!!! are so stupid they will never tell the press how stupid And wrong a member of their party it, no matter what the cost to residents. So vote for the person not the party, and do not vote for anyone you know nothing about.
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David Lammy has lots of "common seance". It's just a shame he doesn't listen to the living as well.
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I've known David for many years. He is clever, principled and thoughtful. He has also been around a while and wants people to vote for him. Any clever MP keeps their eyes and ears open to the currents and tides of public opinion. And letters and emails from residents.
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I've just seen an invitation for this Wednesday 24 February from Dr Rosena Allin-Khan MP, The Labour Shadow Minister for Mental Health, "to discuss the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our mental health and wellbeing."
Perhaps there are HoL members who have also been invited who might like to ask Dr Allin-Khan's views about adding to the stress of residents when a Council leader and cabinet choose this as a suitable time to conduct a consultation on a non-urgent matter such as changing a streetname. With all the added worries about the costs, and handling the bureaucracy.
Dr Allin-Khan is a medical doctor and at one time she worked in a hospital accident and emergency department . Her invitation says that:"This pandemic has had a huge impact on mental health, and its effects will be felt for years to come. We'll be discussing how lockdown has impacted mental health, the state of mental health provision and where it has fallen short, and what needs to be done to address this."
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Alan you are a man oddly obsessed. You negate it’s importance but then rant and rant!
The name is offensive to me - and I would sooner it was changed than not - but crikey getting so worked up either for or against! Can’t help but feel it’s the personal spilling over.
anyway - just an observation - don’t use your time responding with an articulate counter point as I probably won’t end up reading it.
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About DTW:
The reply by DTW says much more about DTW than anything else. If he is unwilling to read arguments then why bother posting.
Lots of things can be offensive to individuals, but not offensive to the majority. Look at comedy for example. Councillor Eldridge Culverwell is a black person, born in South Africa and grew up in Zimbabwe. His view is that the term should be celebrated and not considered offensive. If anyone has a right to make such a judgement he does. He is very much against the change.
If the name was Mosley Lane, then we could think seriously of accepting the change.
Post Script: Is anyone offended by the name Saville Row considering the recent history of someone with that name?
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John D,
This actually supports my point, we all know that Saville Row has nothing to do with Jimmy Savile. Just as Black Boy Lane is not specifically racist as a road name or directly associated with the Slave Trade.
However, the name Saville Row is phonetically the same and could generate such associations.
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Much of the riches of the British Empire were built up during and due to the Triangular (slave) Trade System and the advantages gained during those exploitative centuries. Many of the competitive advantages gained during those years are very much still in existence now satcking the system against mainly African countries.
Changing names is the least important part of restitution.
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"The name is offensive to me..."
Hello DTW. That may be so but it just does not mean that the name is offensive per se.
Can you explain why it is offensive, again?
I was a black boy when I was young. Is that statement offensive? It is just too easy.
I repeat again that in Trinidad we black people were constantly using the term "boy" as a familiar way of referring to friends and acquaintances. "Hey boy how yuh going?" "Yuh know boy…"
I have only just read a post on Our Tottenham where the poster has written....
"I had been given a tour of Haringey some years back and was told by the Historian conducting the tour that the name of the Road reflects the Solidarity of the people that used to live there in the area against Slavery.
The story I was told is that of a runaway enslaved young African boy, who was hidden in their houses by the residents of the Road, he was then passed from house to house in an attempt to hide him when his enslaver and his henchmen came looking for him. This story conveys the defiance of the people of the Road and to me this should be celebrated and publicised."Of course, I don't have any evidence to back up this version of things but it just adds to this very contentious debate.
The council can't just assert, and neither can you for that matter, that the name of this street is derogatory.
Why would people take a denigratory title and give it to a street they would see and use all the time? Were these local residents so "twisted" and cynical that they wanted to inflict humiliation on Blacks or remind themselves of their “superiority" by naming a street with an “ugly” title? I would argue not.
This is different from situations where place names, statues, etc. nominatively honour owners and exploiters of Black people.
https://www.africanamerica.org/topic/did-black-people-own-slaves
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